Friday morning, I went for a walk before breakfast and came across this sign on my way to the National Park Visitor Center, showing the elevations at 214 feet below sea level.
After breakfast and checkout, we drove back to Dante's View. We climbed from below sea level to more than 5000 feet elevation. Amazing scenery and views. When we looked west, we looked down on Bad Water Road where there is a spot 287 feet below sea level, the lowest spot on land. The white is from the salt and other chemicals left after water evaporated.
Looking east, we had more views of the desolate desert.
As we drove back down from Dante's view, I tried to capture some of the beautiful wildflowers growing on the sides of the road and in the fields. But alas, my cell phone camera photos do not do them justice.
We then drove back past Furnace Creek and on to Stovepipe Wells, where we stopped for lunch. After lunch, we walked around and read some of the history of how they developed the area for tourists.
As we continued west after lunch, we could continue on Route 190 or try to take Emigrant Canyon Road over the mountains and see the Charcoal Kilns. The road got narrower and twistier as we went up and up, and the mountain road to Ridgecrest was closed. So we turned around and went back down hill to Route 190. Again, my camera does not do justice to the beautiful scenery and wildflowers.
We continued on to Ridgecrest, CA. On the way, we went through Searles Valley where they appear to mine some chemicals from the lake bed and surrounding hills. And we drove for a long time by a huge fenced in area - we later found out this was China Lake Naval Aviation Weapons Site. Our hotel for the night was less than a mile from the main gate to the base.
After breakfast and checkout, we drove back to Dante's View. We climbed from below sea level to more than 5000 feet elevation. Amazing scenery and views. When we looked west, we looked down on Bad Water Road where there is a spot 287 feet below sea level, the lowest spot on land. The white is from the salt and other chemicals left after water evaporated.
Looking east, we had more views of the desolate desert.
As we drove back down from Dante's view, I tried to capture some of the beautiful wildflowers growing on the sides of the road and in the fields. But alas, my cell phone camera photos do not do them justice.
We then drove back past Furnace Creek and on to Stovepipe Wells, where we stopped for lunch. After lunch, we walked around and read some of the history of how they developed the area for tourists.
As we continued west after lunch, we could continue on Route 190 or try to take Emigrant Canyon Road over the mountains and see the Charcoal Kilns. The road got narrower and twistier as we went up and up, and the mountain road to Ridgecrest was closed. So we turned around and went back down hill to Route 190. Again, my camera does not do justice to the beautiful scenery and wildflowers.
We continued on to Ridgecrest, CA. On the way, we went through Searles Valley where they appear to mine some chemicals from the lake bed and surrounding hills. And we drove for a long time by a huge fenced in area - we later found out this was China Lake Naval Aviation Weapons Site. Our hotel for the night was less than a mile from the main gate to the base.
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