Zabriskie Point

Our first stop in the park was Zabriskie Point. This is a popular tourist stop and has a big wow factor. It was a good introduction to what the park had in store for us.

Texas Springs Campground

The next order of business was to find a place to camp for the night so we could stay in the park. We were able to find a site in the Texas Springs campground near Furnace Creek on the east side of the park. High winds were forecasted for the next few days, so we decided to only register for one night and try to get some good hikes in during our short stay. This campground is for smaller campers only because of the site sizes. It was one of the few times when campervans made up the majority of RVs.

Golden Canyon Trail

Our first hike was the first stop on Badwater Road. Golden Canyon is part of the badlands we saw earlier at Zebriskie Point. The colors of the canyon rock walls are so varied and beautiful. We did see some wild flowers in bloom and many white-lined sphinx moth caterpillars getting fat on the flowering plants. These caterpillars have a “horn” on their rear end, giving them an interesting shadow. The “hawk moth” adults are pretty big and fly like hummingbirds. One visited me briefly while I was cooking supper at Lake Pleasant back in Phoenix.

We hiked up into the Red Cathedral formation at the end of the canyon. There were several spots where we had to squeeze through and scramble up rocks to see the beautiful views. The sunlight on the rocks really explains the canyon’s name.

Natural Bridge Trail

Knowing we wouldn’t have time (this trip) to see everything on this east side of Death Valley, we had to pick and choose. The Natural Bridge was formed by flash floods finding the easiest route down a canyon, and it is still eroding today. Hard to imagine in this dry environment.

Harmony Borax Works

Harmony Borax Works is the original site in Death Valley of refining borax from the salt deposits left after the Badwater Basin dries up each year. The iconic 20-mule teams shipped out the finished product to be packaged and sold in boxes with pictures of the mules responsible for getting it to market. Each trip was 165 miles through the forbidding Mohave desert. Borax is now mined in Boron, California, in one of the world’s largest open pit mines that shows up clearly on Google Maps. We use it to help clean Usain’s waste water tanks.

Spring Wildflowers

It is spring in the desert which means a little rainfall, and the plants take full advantage of that. These hardy plants are all Mojave Desert specialists. I loved seeing the wildflowers and talked with a neighbor at the campground about them. She had been taking pictures today, too.