Great movies and shows like Star Wars, Spartacus, The Twilight Zone, among other great productions have taken place at Death Valley National Park. Death Valley is currently open, despite an ongoing pandemic. Campgrounds and hotels or lodging are closed due to the stay at home order, so plan accordingly. There are also some road closures depending where you are coming from due to snow. The entrance fee is $30 per car, and you can use it for 7 days. Is it possible to see all of Death Valley in one day? No, absolutely not. So I wanted to share with you what is possible to see in one day.
For starters, we drove from Las Vegas and took the 95 HWY towards Rhyolite Ghost Town. Rhyolite was once a booming town that sprung to life because gold was found by Frank “Shorty” Harris and Ernest “Ed” Cross. It is crazy to imagine how huge this town was because few traces of it remain today. But at one point, there were 50 saloons, 35 gambling tables, 19 lodging houses, 16 restaurants, a public bath house, a newspaper publication house, a railroad station, school, and police and fire department. Just as quickly as this city rose though, it fell too; mines didn’t operate any longer and the 1906 earthquake slowed down rail service. Within one year the town was almost completely abandoned (Travel Nevada, 2020).
For a long time, this place was desolate. But a decade letter, a film crew came in and brought attention to this part of town. They restored the “Tom Kelly Bottle House” which still stands today. And by 1984, artist Albert Szukalski created his version of the “Last Supper” sculpture. Today, this area has an outdoor sculpture garden known as Goldwell Open Air Museum (Travel Nevada, 2020). Here are a few pictures:
Continuing up the road, you start seeing remnants of what once was a thriving town. A small sign that says “SCHOOL” stands in front of what once was an education center. You can still see the bottle house, the station for the rail system, as well as other buildings that are left over as seen below:
From Rhyolite, we drove to Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We stopped here to purchase our day entry. It also has the temperature outside. During the summer you can see 100+ degree weather.
From there, we headed to Zabriskie Point. It is one of the most popular visited areas in the park. There is a parking lot. From the lot there is a paved pathway to a lookout (which is what we did because we were short on time). But, there is a hiking trail you can also explore through. The views are stunning.
After this, we wanted to check out the Devil’s Golf Course. But, my car has a tire that wasn’t in the best condition; and the road was all dirt. So, we opted not to go. The last place we hit was Badwater Basin. This place has been on my bucket list forever! I was overjoyed when I finally had the opportunity to see it.
According to the National Park Service, Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America below sea level. It was once the site of Lake Manly. Since the lake had no outlet, it lead to the accumulation of sediment and salt over time. When the lake eventually evaporated, concentrated salt deposits were left behind. Today, you can see these cool geometric salt polygons form on the flats as groundwater rises up through these deposits and evaporates (National Park Service, 2020).
We headed back to Las Vegas through the 178 HWY, and stopped for gas at Shoshone, which also looks like a place with so much history. I wish the museum would have been open for us to quickly explore.
We stopped by the city of Pahrump to get a late lunch. We were not sure if we were going to see restaurants open since places tend to close on New Years. But, surprisingly found many available.
There are so many places we did not get to see like the sand dunes, the artist’s drive (which is close to Badwater Basin), Devil’s Gold Course, the crater, or natural bridge. One day is simply not enough. I hope to be able to return again one day to see the other areas I was unable to see. A fellow blogger shared that she had purchased an annual pass. If you are an avid adventurer; this might be worth the purchase in the long run.
I hope 2021 is a year filled with many adventures for you!
Sources:
“Badwater Basin.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/places/badwater-basin.htm. Last updated 12/22/20. Accessed 1/5/21.
“Rhyolite Ghost Town.” Travel Nevada. https://travelnevada.com/ghost-town/rhyolite-ghost-town/. Published 2020. Accessed 1/5/21.
Adorkable Adventures 