We were up bright and early this morning...particularly with the time change. The clocks fell back an hour giving us an extra hour. We were on the road by 7:15...that's a first! Taking highway 95, we were going south to Death Valley. There is a dusting of snow on the sides of the highway as we leave Fernley...About a half hour south of Fernley, we passed through Fallon...
Very different scenery in Nevada...
Dust devil in the distance...pretty breezy out...
Walker Lake is very low...
There are 3 BLM (Bureau of Land Management) camping areas on this side of the lake...
The Town of Walker Lake (elevation 4080)...
United States Army, Hawthorne Army Depot...
Bunkers cover the valley on both sides of the highway...
We stopped at Miller's Rest Area just before Tonopah, NV. It was so windy out that we had to stand at the front of the rig using it as a wind block...
Tonopah was an interesting looking place...
Next we passed through Goldfield...these areas are rich in history...
And finally Beatty, the last town before we head into Death Valley National Park.
After fueling the truck up with diesel and getting gas for the generator, we continued on into the national park.Down, down, down...we went from over 4200 feet above sea level to over 190 feet below sea level...
Furnace Creek in the distance. There are three campgrounds in this area and I had called the Visitors Center earlier to see how busy they were. Well, apparently we picked the week of the "Death Valley 49ers Celebrations" so the Furnace Creek Campground (that takes reservations) would likely be full but there would be plenty of room at Sunset Campground.
We stopped at the visitors center to pick up a park permit and ask about Sunset Campground. We will explore the center tomorrow. After filling up with fresh water at the sani-dump, we continued to the campground just across the highway from the visitors center. In addition to the main camping area, there is also a huge overflow area. There is just dry camping (no hookups) for $12/night but there are washrooms and sani-dump. We picked a large pull-through site at the end of "L" row. It was a good site, close walking distance across the highway to the visitors center and Furnace Creek Ranch...although, next time we would likely choose a spot in the overflow section where you can back in and have have a better view of the beautiful mountainsWe got all set up, including the satellite but for some reason we weren't able to get a signal. Wide open sky but we just couldn't latch onto a signal...sheesh! It was dark by 5:15...wow, that surprised us...so Steve gave up...perhaps we'll try again in the morning. Another disappointment...I couldn't get a signal on our Verizon MiFi...that means no internet during our stay here in Death Valley. I guess I'm going to get way behind on our travel blog again!
A vacation from technology can be a good thing! Can't wait to hear about Death Valley NP. One of those places on the list!
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