Five months into the planning, 28 magnificent Trailblazers from the Arizona Trailblazers Hiking Club, ventured out on a 5 days whirlwind trip to Death Valley National Park in southern California. The adventure was timed with the weatherman promising ideal temperatures with the lows in the 80s for the day time highs and in the 40s or 50s for night time lows. Most of the 28 participants had never been to Death Valley before, hence their expectations were quite high. From everybody’s feedback post trip emails communication, all were awe struck and mystified by the beauty, the colors, and the vastness of the desert expanse, the eerie quietness in the air, the parched landscape and uniqueness of the Park. The experiences were unparalleled and the memories, reinforced by hundreds of pictures taken by the participants, will forever etch the scenes and immortalize them in our memory.

This narrated report is not just a recounting and sharing our wonderful events at Death Valley, but is also about educating and informing the readers, whether Trailblazers hikers or the general public, of the history and natural beauty of this unique and wonderful National Park. And maybe even to entice others to want to see it with their own eyes rather than through the camera lenses of 28 adventurers. Hence is what follows.

Death Valley was first inhabited by the Timbisha tribe with villages located in different areas of the Valley. One Timbisha village called the Valley maahunu, hunu meaning canyon. Another called it tumpisa or rock paint, so named for the red ochre paint that was made from a particular local clay.

One group of miners during the 1849 California Gold Rush dubbed the searing, waterless landscape “Death Valley” upon finally finding a pass through the Panamint Mountains and reaching western California. Looking back on the valley, they recalled the members of their party who had died, the bony oxen they had been forced to kill and eat when all other provisions were gone, and the wagons and goods they had been forced to abandon. On the heels of the Gold Rush, silver and gold were discovered in the Valley in the 1850s and borax discovered in the 1880s. Mule-drawn wagons and fortune seekers flooded the Valley to extract these precious resources. In 1933, President Hoover declared Death Valley under federal protection as Death Valley National Monument. In 1994, it was designated Death Valley National Park and expanded to its current size of three million acres. Today, Death Valley draws a new type of explorer, those who view Death Valley’s scenic vistas, canyons, mountains and dunes as the most precious of resources and a gift of natural wonder to the world.

Few people realize that an American Indian tribe currently lives and thrives in the heart of Death Valley National Park. For thousands of years, the Timbisha Shoshone people have resided in Southeastern California and Southwestern Nevada. Since 1936, the tribe has governed their affairs on approximately 40 acres of land near Furnace Creek. The tribe achieved federal recognition in 1983, but did not have a land base until the passage of the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act on November 1, 2000. This act granted the tribe the rights to nearly 7,000 acres of land both in the park and adjacent to its acreage.

Seven of the participants camped out at the Stovepipe Wells campgrounds and were led by Chuck Parsons.

In order to secure their campsites, they departed Phoenix on Friday, one day earlier than the remaining 22 Trailblazers, who would travel on Saturday and had made reservations at the various motels in Beatty, NV, a small town of some 1,300 inhabitants, located just 7 miles outside the Park’s perimeter.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, various pre-arranged carpools would arrive at Beatty and settle down in their motel rooms. Some even had a “happy hour”. Cheers to you all! With so many carpools on the road, wouldn’t you think that some of us might just run into each other somewhere along the 450 miles drive to Beatty, like maybe in a fast food restaurant or a gas station or just stopped at a scenic overlook to snap a picture or two?

Well, coincidentally, two such carpools happened to meet on the Mike O’Callaghan—Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge by the Hoover Dam. Mike, Kim and Christina happened to be site seeing the dam and Lake Mead from the pedestrian walkway on the bridge when Dottie, Jules R. and John R. ran into them.

Of course we paused for pictures! The walkway takes you high above the Colorado River.

Here is where our Trailblazers campers were staying, at the Stovepipe Wells campsite:

Sunday morning was our first day of exploration. The plan for those of us in Beatty was to meet at 7:30 AM at Cottonwood Park.

After a few pictures taking session, greeting each other and introducing ourselves, we caravanned together to meet our fellow trailblazers campers by 8:30 AM at the “Hub” a quick 30 minutes’ drive to the center of the Park where Routes 190 & 374 meet. It was an exciting site to see so many Trailblazers, bright eyed and bushy tailed, meet and exchange greetings and make acquaintances with new participants who joined us on this trip, namely Amanda Scruggs (Los Angeles, California) and Jules Richa (Baltimore, Maryland).

After the hugging and greetings, it was time now to make the official names introduction and take several group pictures.

Introductions made and group pictures taken, the day’s itinerary was highlighted and it was time to get on the road north bound to Scotty’s Castle, 30 miles away. The drive up was in a barren, desolate and treeless desert. Finally, we reached our destination set amidst palm and cottonwood trees and tall grass. Scotty’s Castle earned its existence due to a source of water, a water spring that feeds the oasis all year round. This was truly an oasis.

First, a few words about Scotty’s Castle for the benefit of those who did not participate in this trip and who may have never read about it. The official name is Death Valley Ranch but it is more affectionately called “Scotty’s Castle”, after the person who built it, a Walter Scott, a paunchy huckster, a con man and a liar. This legendary story epitomized in this Death Valley Ranch, a Spanish hacienda, located in the extreme north end of the Park, is comprised of a 25 rooms mansion that includes turrets, arched doorways, indoor fountain, a pipe organ, a Howard clock tower that chimes every half hour, all of this and more, situated on a 32,000 square foot of real estate that seems like a mirage in the desert. Walter Scott never owned the castle. He conned investors to give him money in order to develop gold mines, the locations of which were always a secret to his investors.

Actually, the gold mines never existed. Remember, Scotty was a con man who used his investors’ money to build the castle. Construction on the mansion began in 1922 and was completed in 1931 at a then cost of $2.2 million. During the Great Depression, the castle became a popular hotel and tourist attraction as people began to explore the newly added Death Valley National Park to the National Register of Historic Places. Walter Scott died in 1954 at a ripen age of 82 and is buried on a hill at Scotty’s Castle overlooking his castle. He is still keeping a watchful eye on his beloved castle, even in his death!

When we arrived at the castle’s visitors’ center around 10:00 AM we had a slight “hiccup” in our attempt to take the guided tour of the castle. New tour sections were added and we were able to get into two different guided tours. The first group had this beautiful and young tour guide, a Laura Lynn, dressed in the era’s costume and speaking with the local twang. She was really great and entertaining in her presentation and knowledge of her historical facts, anecdotes about Walter Scott and humor in telling her story. The tour was 1.5 hours long and after the tour most of us hiked the half mile to the top of the hill overlooking the castle to visit and photograph the historic Walter Scotty’s grave site.

After the tour, we found some picnic tables under a shady spot by some large palm trees irrigated by the spring waters and had our picnic lunch.

After lunch we headed to our next stop, a nearby Ubehebe Crater or “boo-boo-hoo-boo” as one trailblazer (Bruce) affectionately called it. Our hike consisted of a circumference trek around the crater while Amanda Scruggs, our youngest hiker from Los Angeles hiked down to the crater center and filmed her endeavor on a video camera. The Ubehebe crater is the largest in the area and measures 600 feet deep and half a mile across. The age of the crater and its surrounding siblings ranges from a few thousand years to as little as 800 years. Near the Ubehebe crater there was another smaller crater called “Little Ubehebe” and a few of us managed to get to its rim.

Known as “Maar” volcanoes, the craters were created when magma, rising from the depths, collided with groundwater. The intense heat flashed the water into steam which expanded until pressure was so high that the volcano top exploded and the ensuing volcanic cinder.

The blast showered rock over 6 square miles area, burying some places to a depth of 150 feet. The circumference trail is 1.5 miles long. At the southern tip, a spur trail branches off to the Little Ubehebe.

Strong winds, as predicted, did not prevail during our hike and there was plenty of sunshine.

From the Ubehebe crater we proceeded to Mesquite Spring campgrounds, dubbed as the “prettiest campground in Death Valley”. Chuck and his campers went to visit the site since his campers had already partially hiked the Titus Canyon on Saturday, before the Beatty group’s arrival. As for the rest of us, we proceeded to the Titus Canyon trail head and entered it from the west end. This is a 27 miles long, one lane trail, that begins near Beatty, NV, and goes in the direction of East to West. Due to the time constraint and the length of the drive, Titus Canyon was not an option to hike or drive its entire length but we all wanted to partially hike the canyon. We all hiked 3 miles round trip. Along the hike we encountered several vehicles that have started in Beatty and meandered their way to the west end of the trail. It is indeed a narrow one lane trail and hence its one way directional drive from east to west.

Stovepipe Wells. [photo by Wayne]

Historically this waterhole, the only one in the sand dune area of Death Valley, was at the junction of the two Indian trails. During the bonanza days of Rhyolite and Skidoo, it was the only known water source on the cross-valley road. When sand obscured the spot, a length of stovepipe was inserted as a marker.

The end of the first day of activities was to visit the Stovepipe Wells Village and have our group dinner there. This would be our formal group dinner for all 28 trailblazers, our must traditional meal together. The campers had their potluck dinner on Saturday night before our arrival to the Park.

We ate dinner at the Tall Road Restaurant. All 28 of us were comfortably seated in a separate dining room all to ourselves. We had a good time in socializing, drinking and eating our best meal of the day.

After dinner we parted ways. The campers headed back to their tents and the Beatty crowed drove away the 40 miles trek to Beatty, NV, but not before some of us stopped at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, a short two miles drive east of the campground, and admired the pitch black, a spectacle you could never see from the Phoenix skies. We did not have the proper equipment to photograph the night dark skies of Death Valley, but our illustrious member, Wayne, captured the bright stars for us along with the illuminated tents at his campground.

Urbanized trailblazers are not accustomed to drive on pitch dark roads at night but it was an eerie drive to Beatty. When you finally get to Beatty, that little town seems like “Little Vegas” with all its lights shining brightly.

On Monday, our second day of exploration and hiking, the Beatty group assembled in front of the El Portal Motel and at 7:30 AM. All heads counted, we started our 40 miles drive of 9 cars caravan to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes where we met our fellow campers at 8:00 AM. After a brief greetings session and instructions, we started our hike on the sand dunes: our destination is the highest peak sand dune, a good one mile away. What a fun hike this was, and what a sight. It was a still cool morning. Overnight, the desert gets pretty cold and this cool temperature will linger to about mid-morning, after which time the sun starts to sizzle the sand, which in turn will reflect the heat by radiation. For us this was an opportune time. The sand on these dunes was parched dry and very lose unlike ocean beach sand. We hiked up and down the dunes, on the ridges and in the valleys, following someone else’s foot prints or creating our own. In short, we seemed to be like kids in a candy store. One trailblazer who seemed to have the most fun in the sand is Christina, who charged these dunes as if racing to take the first prize. When we conquered the highest dune peak, we had our group picture taken. This was like our own “Mount Everest” achievement, although with a lot less muscle ache.

The view from the highest peak was just breath taking. Here is a sampling of the dune by several Trailblazers photographers:

A nocturnal reptile that lives in the sand dunes is the venomous Sidewinder, best known for its sideways form of locomotion which leaves parallels “J” shaped tracks in the sand. These sidewinders prefer sand dunes, sandy washes, or desert flats where rodents tend to borrow. For daylight hunting, the sidewinder camouflage color blends well with the sand dunes colors. It also has rough scales which aid it in its movement. Below is a picture of a sidewinder and the tracts it left in the sand from possible overnight hunting spree. Thanks to Sandy’s keen eyes for capturing the “J” shape tracks.

The animals that live in the sand dunes are: lizards, birds, kangaroo rats, foxes, coyotes and the sidewinder snake.

After the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes we headed westward towards the Panamint Springs Resort, some 30 miles away and almost at the extreme end of the Park’s western boundary. But first, we stop at the Mosaic Canyon, a short two miles driving distance west of Stovepipe Wells. The parking area is about two miles from Rt 190 west and the access is through a graded and dusty gravel road. When first approaching the canyon, you are awe struck by having come from the vastness expanse of the desert, to these cozy confines of a canyon and out of the blistering sun.

These and the others canyons we visited, geologically speaking, they developed millions of years ago due to faults in the earth crust. Water channelings through these faults created the canyons and none more beautiful than Mosaic Canyon whose minerals, breccia, i.e. small rock fragments bound together in natural cement, give it its present shape and multicolor. Mosaic Canyon is a slot canyon with smooth water-polished walls. To highlight the vividity of the marbled layers, you only needed to pour water over it and voila! The colors come through.

In other parts of the canyon wall, you could clearly see the fragments of rocks cemented together which formed the various layers of the canyon walls.

We hiked past the serpentine shaped slot canyon. In some spots we even had to climb large rocks to move forward.

The canyon narrows then widens and reaches a point where a very large boulder blocked our forward progress. Lo and behold, guess who we ran into at this spot, making her way down the boulder very gingerly? It was none other than our pretty and funny Lauran Lynn, our park ranger who made a super presentation to us about Scotty’s Castle. We visited with her for a few minutes and had our pictures taken with her. She said her day’s mission was to scout the canyon and answer tourists’ questions about Mosaic Canyon. This was really a popular canyon with visitors.

Parched desert. [photo by Chuck]

It was getting to be almost noon time and lunch was on our mind. We were looking for a shaded area to eat our packed lunches. The Park is a massive stretch of parched desert and as such there is very little vegetation to provide any outdoor shade. Some of us went into the restaurant to have lunch but the majority of us packed our lunches.

Across the highway we spotted the Panamint RV Park which had restrooms and running water along with picnic tables and a few trees which provided some needed shade. The RV Park was almost deserted, so we decided to drive in and have our lunch at the picnic tables and refill our water bottles from the RV hookups. It was a comfortable spot, not lacking in photo ops.

Our next stop at this westward push was Father Crowley Vista Point. And yes, what a vista it was! A half mile trek on a dirt road brought us to the edge of a grand overlook of the Northern Panamint Valley, and to the east, the Cottonwood Mountains and Panamint Range with its tallest peak: snowcapped Telescope Peak visible practically from any angle in the Park. The Point is named after Father John J. Crowley, also known as the “Desert Padre” for ministering in the area during the 1920s and 1930s. We paused for a group picture.

From on top of cloud nine, figuratively speaking of course, and with the remembrance of Father Crowley in our memory, it was time now to descent to the valley and head towards our next stop over, at the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns. At the intersection of Rt 190 and Emigrant Canyon Road, our caravan of 11 vehicles turns right and proceeds to drive 30 miles south with the southern California sun glaring in our eyes. The two lanes road meandered like a sidewinder snake and followed the landscape contour: up and down. Finally we reach the end of the paved road and now the final stretch is the drive on a dirt and dusty road.

After this long drive, which seemed never ending, we reached the Wildrose Canyon. Such an arid desert, amazingly, the canyon was full of pinion pine trees. Right above the canyon, the mountain range was covered with a white blanket of snow, a source of water and hence the pinion pine trees forest. For the prospectors and mines owners, this was the ideal place to build 10 beehive-shaped stone kilns which we found to be in perfect condition. We spread out all over the area and inspected inside and outside the kilns and paused for pictures.

By now, the time was getting to be late in the afternoon, the sun was setting behind the mountain range and the air started to get cool.

These kilns were built in 1877 and supplied charcoal for two lead-silver smelters located in the Argus Range some 25 miles away. The pinion pine trees were chopped into log size and piled up in the kilns several feet high and set to burn in a slow fire. After a week of smoldering, about two thousand bushels of charcoal were ready to be hauled to the smelters. Theses kilns, about 25 feet high and 30 feet in diameter, all built in a tidy row, a sight that looked more futuristic and extraterrestrial than western, were only used for about two years when they ceased operation. When you walk into the kilns, you can still smell the smoke and see all the blackened interior walls with soot.

This concluded our second day of activities and now the best part lies ahead: a nice cold beer and a second night at the Tall Road Restaurant at Stovepipe Wells Ranch to enjoy our well-deserved dinner. The same dining venue was made available to us. After dinner we parted ways, the campers went back to their campground and the Beatty crowd proceeded to Beatty, but not before stopping at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes for the second night in a row and gazed at the illuminated skies with millions of tiny lights: there, was the Big Dipper, and there was the Little Dipper, Venus, Saturn etc., and the Milky Way, appropriately earning its nickname.

In Beatty some of us paid a quick visit to Stagecoach Hotel & Casino and Death Valley Nut & Candy Factory. By the way, the latter does not manufacture any candy but rather repackages candy from bulk shipments. Big hype about nothing!

It wiggles. What else? [photo by Jules]

Our caravan quickly grew to 11 cars and we started our drive to the first spot, that of the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail. It is an oasis in the midst of a desert badlands. No, you cannot drink this water because its salinity is even higher than ocean water. However, this trickle of salty water manages to sustain a population of pupfish found nowhere else in the world. Fed by a series of springs, the slowly meandering Salt Creek glows above ground for only two miles.

Pupfish, the size of minnows, are Ice Age relics when Lake Manly covered Death Valley. There are 5 different pupfish species in Death Valley and they acquired their name because of their frisky, puppy like behavior. Good to know!

At the western end of a large dirt parking lot, we are welcomed by an information sign about what lays ahead. A raised half mile wooden boardwalk loops through the pickleweed and salt grass that surround the creek. Our resident highway engineer, none other than Dave, first checks the sturdiness of this wooden boardwalk and ushers us over. It is safe! Good job, Dave.

Along our stroll, in several locations, we spotted the pupfish. They mate only in the spring. We were there at the right time.

From the Salt Creek, we drove a few miles south and came upon the Harmony Borax Works Interpretive Trail.

It is a quarter mile hike on a paved road. The Harmony Borax Works operated from 1833 to 1888. This was a visit to a remarkable piece of history. Rusting machinery, crumbling adobe walls, and the weakened hulks of big wagons sit on the shore of the salt flats. One might wonder what borax was used for. Borax, or the “White Gold” that helped make Death Valley famous, belongs to a group of boron minerals called “borates” and resemble crystals, fibrous cotton balls or earthy white powder. During our visit to this site we could only see the white powdery substance. These minerals originated in hot springs or vapors associated with the outpouring of volcanic rocks such as the colorful formation of Artist’s Drive. Seeping ground water formed this glossy borate veins in the extinct lakebed of Furnace Creek and has moved soluble borates to the modern salt flats such as the floor of Death Valley. There evaporation has left a mixed white crust of salt, borax and alkalis that we see today.

During the short life of the Harmony Borax Works operating years, Chinese laborers from the San Francisco Bay Area gathered the borax clusters and then brought it to the plant where they were boiled in large vats as part of the refining process. The finished product was loaded into the twenty-mule team wagons and transported 165 miles across the desolate and harsh desert, to waiting freight trains. The wagon and other borax equipment seen in these pictures are the actual ones. Please note that besides the 20 tons of borax, the mules had to carry their own supply of food and water for the duration of the trip and endure the summer’s heat and scorching sun. Note the water barrels on the sides of the wagon.

Borax has dozens of uses in industry, cosmetics, and household goods such as in ceramics, fiberglass, Pyrex, detergents and agricultural products. It is a natural antiseptic, preservative and even the early Egyptians used it to preserve their mummies.

Our next stop was a short distance further south: Furnace Creek Ranch, another oasis in the desert, with several restaurants, cabin rooms for rent, and a fancy inn just a couple of miles further south-east. Our first stop was at the visitors’ center where some of us purchased souvenirs items, T shirts etc. There was a pictorial museum about the area, its fauna and flora, and a high relief map of Death Valley.

An interesting Borax Museum highlighted the minerals extracted and various mining equipment used to extract and transport the minerals.

In the museum backyard you will find an array of such equipment and even a steam locomotive. One has to see this equipment in real life to appreciate its size. Oh by the way, this equipment bone yard is only 174 feet below sea level. The lowest point in Death Valley is yet to come.

The existence of Furnace Creek Ranch is due to the Travertine and the Texas Springs complex. The springs have been a source of water for the current modern day development of the Furnace Creek Ranch with its well-planned tourists’ attractions at the Inn, the cabins, restaurants, post office, a general store and gift shop, and a real golf course in the middle of the desert. Various Native American Indian tribes have used the springs throughout history, with the Timbisha Shoshone as the most recent. When there is a will there is a way; despite the arid desert and harsh dry and hot climate, during the Harmony Borax production period, with the help of an irrigation canal, water was diverted to cultivate vegetables and fruit for the borax workers and alfalfa for the mules. The date palm trees were later introduced. Without the springs water, the annual rainfall in Death Valley is a scant two inches.

Halite crystals. [photo by Jules]

This area was once an ancient saline lakebed which, when the water evaporated, it left behind layers of salt with serrated sharp points. Posted signs warned people not to walk on this field of salt crystal because of the danger of injuries the sharp points could inflict on a non-careful walker. Walk at your own risk! Christina and Rudy ventured gingerly on these salt spires and sustained no injuries. We all paused for another group picture.

From here we got back on the main road south bound 17 miles to Badwater Salt Flat, our extreme southern end to our adventure. Without a stop at this site, one may as well not have seen Death Valley. This is the lowest point below sea level in North America at -282 feet.

As we looked back and above our head at the Black Mountain framing the Salt Flats, you will see a small sign fastened to the side of the mountain which says: “Sea Level”, indicating the sea level and the Salt Flat at -282 ft. in relation to each other.

A boardwalk extends onto this large white expanse of crystalized salt bed. The salt is 95% pure table salt!

After a rainfall, this salt expanse may be covered with water. This area also serves as a habitat to some unique tiny snails. On the boardwalk, a plaque with the inscription of “Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level” is probably one of the most photographed signs. Where else can you be so low below sea level in America. (FYI: the Dead Sea is the lowest place on land that is below sea level, at -1,378 ft).

After taking turns pausing for the immortalized spot, we proceeded on our return trip northbound. Our next stop is the Natural Bridge Canyon.

After a short 1.5 mile dirt road sprint from the main road we reach the Natural Bridge Canyon parking lot. It is now approaching high noon and the morning chill is long gone. The skies are clear and the sun shines brightly.

The canyon geological roots were formed by flash floods over millions of years where the water rushing down the mountains washed away any lose dirt. When the water encountered an obstacle, the sheer force of the running water sculpted the bridge. It is a 50 foot bridge located a half mile inside the canyon. Along its course, the canyon widths change. Careful study of its walls indicates it is made of a rather young deposit of sediments, quite soft and loose as compared to Mosaic Canyon. Beyond the bridge, the canyon narrows and at 0.8 of a mile you reach a dry or waterless falls.

This was our furthest foray into this canyon. After pausing for pictures we amble back to the trailhead. As we walk back and out of the canyon, you can see through the V shape framed picture created by the canyon walls, the vast expanse of the saltpan and the Panamint mountain range with its snowcapped Telescope Peak.

At this juncture, the seven campers decided to split off from the group and return to Furnace Creek Ranch to do some shopping. Our next stop would be Artist’s Drive, and the Golden Canyon but since the campers have already visited these two sites on Saturday they would skip them for now and rejoin us at Dante’s View at 3:30 PM.

Our next stop was Artist’s Drive, a 9 miles one way drive from south to north in line with our return trip along Rt 190.

It is lunch time now and well past noon. There is no shade in the middle of the desert.

We decided that since it was unlikely to find shade anywhere on our path, that at our next stop, wherever that happens to be, we will have a tailgate lunch break. As we drive on Artist’s Drive we noticed a parking area by the road side with several cars and a handful of people scouting a knoll to the east of the highway. We decide to stop, have lunch and check this place out.

Trailblazers to the rescue! Good Samaritan nurse practitioner Dottie springs to the rescue. She noticed an elderly woman who had fallen while climbing the knoll and could not get up. Her elderly husband was equally helpless. So John R and Dottie rush over to the rescue. We brought the lady down from the knoll and helped her to her car. She had a large scrape on her forearm and it was bleeding and had gotten dirty from the fall. Our first aid kit was put to use along with borrowed some rather very large band aids, courtesy of Gary Gleason. Nurse Dottie cleans the wound, applies antiseptic cream and applies the large band aids. The elderly couple was very thankful and proceeded on their site seeing trip, shaken a little bit but not down.

From this point we proceed on our Artist’s drive through beautiful barren and colorful desert landscape, a true “Palette of Colors”, red, brown, yellow, blue, green, rust etc. We stopped at a vintage point and clicked our cameras’ shutters away. Great photo opportunities.

Our next stop would have been the Golden Canyon. But the Beatty group was getting tired and hungry. So, we decided to skip this canyon altogether. But this was on our itinerary and somehow we would have to show something for it. Now our campers group comes to the rescue. They hiked this canyon on Saturday. At this juncture, we would have to just settle on hiking it vicariously through them. Wayne had taken a handful of pictures. The yellow coloring of the canyon and surrounding landscape was appropriately ascribed to this “Golden Canyon” as the pictures will illustrate.

The Beatty group is now en route to Dante’s View, which is some 23 miles away with a steep and slow climb from sea level to an elevation of 5,474 feet. It was a steep climb but coming from the hot abyss of Death Valley, the temperature on top of Dante’s View was at least 25 degrees cooler. Coupled with a light cool breeze, it was a welcome relief. It gave us a second wind to last us until dinner time.

This was the crowning event of our Death Valley car trip; just like an icing on the cake. The view from on top was breath taking as it capsulized the central and southern ends of the Park. Our eyes and cameras scanned panoramically the vast expanse of Death Valley below us. Dante's View is named from Dante Alighieri, who wrote the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), in which there were described the nine circles of Hell, the seven terrace of Purgatory and the nine spheres of Paradise. At the end of a long and hot day, Dante’s View for us was like paradise. This was probably the second most photographed point on our trip.

The Dante’s View sits right above the Badwater Salt Flat at 5,475 feet in elevation. Yet when we were earlier in the day visiting the Badwater Salt Flat from below sea level, one would have never thought that Dante’s View would be just above us.

Straight across the valley, you can clearly see Telescope Peak towering over the entire area, at 11,047 ft and 12 miles away. From either sides of the parking lot, you could follow a trail half a mile long that will lead you to even greater panoramic view of the valley floor. A southern trail follows a ridgeline passing various outcrops of boulders with great photo shoot opportunities. To the north and with a 300-foot climb, your eyes can see the great horizons.

Exuberant, rested and cooled off, we proceed with our return trip to Furnace Creek Ranch to have our last dinner together and bid our farewells before we all head back to our respective night accommodations. We had a great time at Furnace Creek, where we enjoyed our beer and dinner and a few more picture opportunities.

At this juncture, our official club events concluded. We, the Beatty crowd, headed back in the pitch dark desert night of Death Valley one more and final time to our motels. Our campers retired to their campsite.

The following morning each carpool departed the area at its leisure. No more roll calls at 7:30 AM.

Not being a destination traveler, with high curiosity level, my carpool was to return to Arizona by way of Death Valley southern exit. It was gratifying to drive by many of the sites we visited during the previous days. This reinforced the wonderful views and experiences and forever etched them in our memory.

One site that was not on the itinerary but was visited by several Beatty Trailblazers was the ghost town of Rhyolite, located just 7 miles west of Beatty on the way to the “Hub”.

We stopped to visit this deserted little town. But in 1904, with the discovery of quartz, the Bullfrog Mining Company was established and the rush was on for the silica-rich volcanic rock so prominent in the area. Dubbed as the Queen City of Death Valley, the town had as many as 8,000 residents, a bank, a general store, a casino, and a “red district”. The financial shockwave of 1907 set a panic in the town and a few years later the town virtually became deserted. Later on, an open air museum was established and is best known for its life size models wrapped in fabric that was soaked in plaster.

Little scary ghosts! The figures depict the biblical last supper.

In one of the pictures you will see a bank building and a bank cash vault. We found it to be cracked open. Somebody got to it before us!

This was an interesting and a quaint finale to an exciting three days of crisscrossing Death Valley.

We exited the Park at the southern tip and proceeded south on the California side of the state line all the way to I-10 by cutting across the Mohave National Preserve, a part of the Mohave Desert in Southern California.

To all my fabulous Trailblazers hikers and guests, thank you very much for your participation. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the “seed” idea of this out of town car trip, then researching the area, developing the plan, proposing the plan to the club back in October of 2014 and your phenomenal quick and positive response to the proposition and with such great enthusiasm. It shows in the number of participants. This is a record setting of participants for an out of town trip for the Trailblazers.

Yes, it was quite laborious putting this report together and to sort through hundreds of your beautiful pictures. But it was worth it. Just consider the rich experience we all gained, the camaraderie we developed, the exciting and wonderful places we visited, and trails we hiked. Now you can take Death Valley out of your bucket list, but make sure to replace it with something equally great. Thank you, Chuck, for keeping a keen eye on the campers.

Lest you forget your friends’ names on this memorable trip, here are some close-up faces and places for your perusal. Can you name them all? Click here and enjoy.

Lastly, but not least, comes the “piece de resistance”: to recap this whole wonderful adventure, I would like to invite you all to stop further reading this report, because you just finished reading it in its entirety, (LOL) and just sit back in your comfortable recliner and relax, turn up the volume on your speakers, sip on a glass of wine and listen to Wayne Shimata’s 18-minute video slide montage sequences accompanied by music. Kudos to you Wayne. Great job. Thank you. Please click here and enjoy.