02-21-2024 Entry

Not the greatest of days. My ankle was a little sore from rolling it the previous evening, and I was worried about the source of the water I saw the previous afternoon after we pulled into the campground. And I was just feeling down and generally irritated with Ann. Oh, and our new air mattress didn't hold air so well the previous night. So I got up early and went for a short walk around the campground to clear my head. It didn't work as well as I had hoped. I made pancakes for breakfast, then we headed over to Golden Canyon for a short ranger program and hike. Ranger Ben was our guide, and he mentioned several interesting things including the fact that this canyon was paved until a flood washed the road out in the mid-70s. Some traces of asphalt can still be seen. I took a couple of pictures of an area in the canyon where Star Wars scene featuring R2D2 and C3PO was filmed. The area was supposed to represent Tattooine from Episode 4. He talked about some of the geology as well, of minor interest. Afterward, we headed down to Badwater, the lowest point in North America at -282'. There was water here, lots more than the last two times we came to Death Valley. Some people were wading in it, but that didn't sound fun. The sign on the cliffside showing where seallevel was was interesting. We drove a little further down the road and walked out to get a better shot of the lake, with mountains and clouds reflected in it. There were a couple of kayakers out in Lake Manly, its historical name. The we headed on the road back toward Furnace Creek, stopping at Devil's Golf Course, where we hiked almost a mile into the salt flats for a couple of pics of questionable value. It wasn't steep, just long and kinda boring. On the way back I got ahead of Ann and, for a time, had some worry that our car had been stolen. It would have been highly improbable, but I couldn't see it from the trail. It was there, of course. Ann was driving, so she continued on to the turnoff for Natural Bridge, which had a really rough 1.5 mile road to get to the parking lot. She drove it too slowly, so we felt every one of the washboard sections. That was a tough ride. The hike was fairly short to get to the bridge, and it was mundane compared to the arches we saw at Arches NP. We hiked back out, then I drove back to the highway, much quicker and smoother this time. Our final section was the Artist's Canyon drive, which was nice but not spectacular, very similar to when we saw it last time. We were both tired. I hiked a little at the first stop to a vista point, while Ann stayed back a ways. Then she drove further, stopping briefly at an overlook for Artist's Palette and both getting out to see it. Then it was back to the highway through some winding gulches, and returning to our campsite. Dinner was quiet, we were both tired and I was feeling down. Food was good, Indian curry and apple crisp in the Dutch oven. The latter was excellent, a trip highlight for food. Then I got ready for sleep and turned in early after refilling the mattress with the battery-powered pump. Thankfully, it worked because the mattress would not be easy to blow up with my mouth.