Ron sadly said good-by to his camping wonderland in the Mojave as we began our trip to Death Valley. We purchased gas and propane in Baker and were on our way. The drive to Death Valley is another long and lonely road with no towns, villages or services for the 160 mile route.
We arrived at Furnace Creek around 2 pm fully expecting to get a site at one of the three full service CG’s. Well, it was quite a surprise to us that Death Valley has become a tourist destination and is incredibly crowded and busy.
We were here 10 years ago and the place was empty and not very well developed. Now there are three full service CG’s in addition to a huge dry camp ground and two hotels, three restaurants, grocery/gift store, golf course and gas station. Never expected to see that. Despite all of the research we did we were still surprised to see bus loads of people, motorhomes and cars.
Needless to say , we didn’t get into a full service CG and had no choice but dry camp again. Fortunately we have a full tank of propane, plenty of fuel and Ron filled our fresh water tank.
After picking our site we had to go back to the Visitor Center to pay. We received info on the park and some suggestions from the ranger on how to attack such a huge place. We watched the video that the park offers and once again it was perfectly done.
We walked over to the hotel and got some pictures of the 20 wagon old Mule Train.
Back at the “Sunset CG” we settled in and once again enjoyed another 360 degree view of the mountains.
Death Valley has been designated an International Dark Sky Park. There are two night sky presentations and we plan on going to get out “night sky” fix. Once again, we enjoyed sitting under the stars and breathing in clear, fresh air. We will be doing our first tour of one section of the park in the morning. It is suppose to be bright and sunny with temps in the mid 70’s Looking forward to a new day.
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