In celebration of 15 married years and 19 years of togetherness, we went to the desert seeking wildflowers. With this year’s rains, they were calling it a hundred year show (as in hundred year flood). So, along with a zillion others who saw the story on the national news, we headed to Death Valley. Let me tell you … it’s a looong drive. About 12 hours, all told. But in the end, worth it. The flowers were beautiful, the landscape strange and diverse.
Camping in Death Valley is … well … not really my idea of camping. My heart sank with dismay as we crested the last hill before Furnace Creek and looked down at the 1800 RVs parked in the “campground” that we would call home for a couple of days. By morning I had adjusted my head to this new reality and begun to enjoy it. Call it an RV rally instead of camping, and the scene starts to shift. We “camped” on the edge of the parking lot so that our back door overlooked the desert valley floor. And of course, the dump station. Kicking back on our proverbial porch, sipping coffee and watching the parade of RVers dump their rigs, proved to be quite entertaining. People were friendly, looking for any reason to strike up a conversation … the dog, our 4 Wheel camper, the stickers on the back door. Whatever. It was a chatty bunch. And helpful. Full-timers helping first-timers … it served to remind me that “community” means many things and can be found almost anywhere.
The weather was fickle. 75 degrees and sunny to a sand-blasting wind storm to drizzly mist that coated the desert wildflowers with water droplets. Our timing was lucky. We explored the Devil’s Golf Course and Golden Canyon while it was nice, got back to “camp” as the storm started, and then joined the masses in the Visitor Center while the wind raged. Other 4 Wheel Pop-Up owners reassured us that our top wouldn’t blow off in the high winds (again, the value of community) so we spent the evening eating, drinking, reading and relaxing, snug in our camper. Cozy.
Morning brought gray skies and we headed to the dunes. Once again we broke the law and took Noche into the back country. Once again we got away with it. What a landscape! Seemingly barren and vast but on closer inspection, teeming with life. Even a mushroom growing out of the sand … I bet they don’t show up every year! Then on out through the western part of the park where the wildflowers were less concentrated and more diverse. The scenery changed with every mile and the rains found us. We headed out of the desert to camp along the Kern River for a night before heading home. But that’s another story. Stay tuned …
Okay, I am not sure but are things moving in the “skin” desert style? I say they are and Shaun says they are not. Is that what you mean by “sunsets knitted into”? Sounds like a great trip and even with all the “socializing” it sounds good. Sometimes solitary life isn’t the only good thing!
What is Devil’s golf course? I can’t tell by the pictures. Salt deposits? Ok, now I see the captions for the pictures, I didn’t see them b/c I went through the pictures by number in large format. WOW! What causes the salt crystals?
Your camper/truck looks great. I had never seen it all popped up. So cool!
The dunes are sooooo cool. Amazing to see that and have the mountains and the rock so close. For me, b/c I don’t think the, what I call the Arizonia look, is beautiful but it is awesome and amazing!
Is “some little white flower” the technical answer? tee hee.
The flowers look absolutely beautiful. I like the picture showing how they are growing out of rock. That just represents determination!!!!
Great diary entry!
Hmmm… I don’t think anything has “moved” in the desert style. The sunrise photo is larger than the headers on other pages so things are slightly farther down on the page than in the other styles.
By knitted together I mean that three separate photos are merged (using Photoshop) together. I took the photos with the intention of using them this way, trying to keep the camera at the same alignment as I rotated (I forgot piece for my tripod), and overlapping sections of each photo so I could line them up in a new file when I got home. People do it all the time but it’s the first time I had tried it. It’s a little tricky to get the colors and alignment just right as each picture has a slightly different angle and exposure. Not bad for a first attempt, I say!
Devil’s Golf Course is a specific section of the Death Valley salt pan. The crystals are trippy! It really looks like dirty snow, and the puddle really looked like ice … even when you were standing right next to it. Bizarre …
I rushed to see if anyone had posted when I got home. Thanks for being the first 🙂
Although “some little white flower” had a nice ring to it, “Desert Star” is even better. It now has an official name. We just looked and photographed when we were in the desert. ID had to come later.