Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014 – Day Trip to Death Valley

Having determined that the horses are in a safe place, we decided to stay here longer than we originally thought, 1) to visit Death Valley, just over the border in California, and 2) to make some repairs to the RV. When the tire blew the other day, the tread did a lot of damage to the skirting all along the kitchen slide, as well as the wheel well area. So we decided today to take a day trip out to Death Valley. I had prepared an itinerary that included Dante's View, lunch in Furnace Creek, a drive around Artist's Drive to the Artist's Paletter, then down to Badwater, the lowest point in North American at 282 feet below sea level. While my original plan had been to then return the same route (minus the stops), Hubby noticed on the map that we could take a complete loop around the south end of the park. It made the trip about 20 miles longer, but we got to see more and didn't have to repeat anything, which is always a plus in our book! Wo we headed up to Dante's View, which was absolutely spectacular! I have no idea how many miles it was to the horizon, but it just seemed to go on forever! Lunch at the cafe was disappointing (see my review on TripAdvisor), but then the trip around Artist Drive to the Palette was gorgeous. Oddly, one doesn't think of Death Valley as a beautiful place, but it truly is! Badwater was full of people walkint out on the sand flats, where we took more pictures before heading south and ultimately looping back to the campground. It was a longer day than what we had started out planning, but we managed to slip back into camp just before it got dark, got the horses fed and settled down for the evening. Another National Park visit, this may have to be out next goal!