Death Valley National Park (3)

I haven't posted on this blog for over a year and half.  It is rather ironic that my last post was of Death Valley, since I went through a kind of death valley of my own during that long hiatus.  Soon after returning from our trip to Death Valley I was diagnosed with a mucus-producing tumor of the appendix and was scheduled for surgery.  In the end, it all turned out well and I am feeling well again, but was in the hospital four times for a total of nearly four weeks and that was followed by a very long recovery period.  Only now am I getting back to this blog and intend to pick up where I left off.

We ended a long first day in Death Valley National Park at Dante's View on the east side of the park.  After a quick meal we watched the sunset and then slept in the car for the night, getting up early to watch the sunrise the next morning.

Sunset at Dante's View

(overlooking Badwater, the lowest point in North America)

Sunrise at Dante's View

After breakfast in the car we drove north from Dante's View and followed a side road through 20 Mule Team Canyon, a pleasant drive through some of the colorful rock formations on the east side of Death Valley.

 A little further north we stopped at Zabriskie Point, a spectacular and not-to-be missed lookout on the east side of Death Valley above Furnace Creek.  We walked to the viewpoint and spent some time there before moving on.

From Zabriskie Point we drove north past Furnace Creek, stopping to photograph the salt flats along the way and then heading east out of the park into Nevada to the ghost town of Rhyolite, an old mining town that is now a tourist attraction.

In Rhyolite we wandered around through the old buildings including the old train station, taking photos, too, of the odd sculptures that have been placed there and then going on to the cemetery just outside the town.

From Rhyolite we drove back west into the park and spent the afternoon and evening in the area of Stovepipe Wells, hiking Mosaic Canyon, watching the sunset at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and spending the night at the charcoal kilns.