Death Valley - Dante's View

For awhile, it seemed like we weren't going to be able to make this trip to Death Valley. A hurricane passed over the park in August, dropping about two inches of rain. Which doesn't sound like much, but to Death Valley it was a deluge of Biblical proportions. The park usually only gets two inches of rain per year, and the rain that fell from the hurricane set the record as the most ever recorded in a single day. It caused significant flash flooding, which resulted in extensive damage throughout the park. Many of the roads were washed out and destroyed, or covered under debris. The park was closed for months while undergoing repairs, which must not have been fun to do in the summer heat.

Thankfully, the main road was fixed enough for the park to partially reopen in October. But the backcountry roads are still damaged and remained closed. Which isn't surprising, since Death Valley is a huge place and there are lots of roads to fix. It is actually the largest National Park in the lower 48 states, and is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. All this meant that we wouldn't be able to visit some of the most famous places in the park, like the Racetrack Playa or the Ubehebe Crater.

But there were lots of places to see that were open. So while on the way to Dante's View, we detoured and visited the Twenty Mule Team Canyon.



A few scenes from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi were filmed here. Which isn't surprising, since it again looks like a desolate alien world.





The canyon gets its name from the days when there was borax mining in Death Valley. The borax was transported out of Death Valley on wagons that were pulled by 20 mules. Although we didn't see them, apparently you can still see some of the mines along the drive.



The drive is along a dirt road that twists and curves around some mudstone hills, which were made from lakebed sediments that were deposited about 7-9 million years ago. It was late afternoon and the light was a bit harsh, but we made lots of stops for pictures.



The rental car got covered in dust, but otherwise it held up well on the drive.



From there we took the road to Dante's View, which ran way up to the top of a ridge along the Black Mountains. The viewpoint is far above the valley that we were in earlier, and sits at an elevation of 5,575 feet.



The view is incredible. And oddly enough, from here you can easily see the highest point in the park (Telescope Peak at 11,043 feet) and the lowest point in the park (Badwater Basin at -282 feet).



And of course, this is another spot where they filmed a Star Wars. When Obi Wan Kenobi is showing Luke Skywalker the Mos Eisley Space Port in the first film ("you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy"), they were standing at this overlook.





Some clouds rolled through, and ended up producing an amazing sunset. The sunset was even reflected in the lake at Badwater Basin.... 

Which isn't a sentence you can usually say. 

The lake is a byproduct of the heavy rains from the hurricane. It is massive, and stretches for miles across the basin (although it's only just a few inches deep). It's slowly shrinking as the water evaporates, so it won't be around for too long. I'm very thankful that the park was able to reopen and were able to see it.