Almost blown to Oz

Yesterday, I left my gear in camp and after a lazy breakfast, rode down to Badwater, the official lowest point in North America. The views down the valley were quite extraordinary and the weather was finally warm and sunny.



There was a shallow lake at Badwater that, in the process of evaporating, leaves behind salt deposits.



Behind the lake, the mountain tops were covered in snow.



There is a permanent spring but it is too salty to drink, however there are tiny shrimp and snails in it that call it home.



On the way back to camp, I rode out to the Devil's Golf Course which is a huge, jagged salt deposit. It's an otherworldly place.



I got back to Furnace Creek as the sun was setting.



Sam decided that he wanted to haul something bigger than just my panniers. Here he is in front of a 20 mule wagon train that was used to haul borax out of the valley.



In town, I hung out next to one of the new gas fire pits and talked to a gentleman from Albuquerque who volunteers at the Petroglyph National Monument outside of town that I remember visiting when I was biking through there in '98.

All of a sudden the wind picked up like crazy so I went and had dinner in the bar. Heather and Marcia, my neighbors from the campground who were kind enough to share their fire with me the previous night came by and we hung out for a bit.

It was really windy all night so I didn't sleep well because the tent was flapping. Every time I would almost be asleep, a gust of wind would rattle the tent like crazy and wake me up. It's supposed to be windy all day though not as bad as last night.

I have to pack up camp today and climb about 3000 feet out of the valley. I'll camp in Nevada tonight. It'll be two more days after today to get to Vegas.
-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Death valley