Death Valley, CA (Sep, 2008)
This place had been attracting adventures for decades whose traces can be found all over the valley: Borax Harmony Works, mining ghost town Skiddo, Eureca mine, Charcoal Kilns, Twenty Mule Team Canyon… Numbers of weird natural attractions such as Sand Dune, towers of salt at Devils Golf Course, the Arrow weed, an odd looking plant, at Devils Cornfield, Ubehebe crater…
This time we drove the following route:
Death Valley Junction to Twenty Mule Canyon – 25mi
Twenty Mule Canyon to Zabriskie Point - 3 mi
Zabriskie Point to Devils Golf Course - 15 mi
Devils Golf Course to Badwater - 5 mi
Badwater to Artist Drive - 8 mi
Artist Drive to Harmony Borax Works - 10 mi
Harmony Borax Works to Devils Cornfield - 12 mi
Devils Cornfield to Skidoo - 35 mi
Skidoo to Charcoal Kilns - 25 mi
We decided to find overnight dwelling somewhere in one of the small towns of Lone Pine or Independence or Big Pine. It was already dark when we eventually stopped at Big Pine Motel, where the clerk was laughing at me for about 10minutes when he heard my question “Where is downtown?” When he finally was able to talk again, he asked us if we saw the gas station right next to the motel. This is Big Pines downtown.
I had to say couple words about the Big Pine Motel as it was very, very neat and cozy with cable channels line-up several times more than at luxury Embassy Suits in Las Vegas. This motel rehabilitated our negative experience left after Sacramento’s hotel (Thanksgiving Fever trip).
