Zabriskie Point and Dante's View

Sunday, Jan. 22 - Day 5

Today we planned a short agenda and hoped to have a short day -- these don't necessarily always work out that way.  We had a beautiful sunrise, but then the sun disappeared for most of the day, and it stayed cold.

Salt Creek

Our first stop was at Salt Creek, a side road that we had driven by several times.  This stream of salty water is the only home to a rare pupfish, but we did not see any.  Dave and Mazie thought they might have seen one.  This creek flows intermittently from the Devil's Cornfield area into Badwater Basin, mostly across mud flats and sandy plains.

All of us walked the whole half-mile length of the boardwalk, but it was really cold and Dave hustled back to the car before I caught him on film.

Zabriskie Point

Our next stop was Zabriskie Point, another one of the major highlights of this trip.  Quoting from the park literature, and living up to every word, "surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands, this spectacular view is one of the park's most famous."  This was totally different from everything else we've seen here, but equally beautiful. 

A busload of foreign visitors, Chinese I think, arrived just as we were leaving, so we headed out of here.  But there was a side road that took us right through these badlands, which was really cool.

Back on the highway, we headed to our final destination for the day, Dante's View, an overlook above Badwater Basin.  This is at an elevation of 5000 ft. above the floor of Death Valley and is supposedly the most breathtaking viewpoint in the park, although I think there were other things we saw here at Death Valley that were more spectacular.  I think I read this is the most photographed spot in the park.  It was certainly a good view of the saltwater basin, and we could actually see people walking out on the salt at Badwater Basin almost directly beneath us.

This concluded today's tour, so happily we headed back to camp.  Joe and I went up to the saloon to watch the football games, and Dave and Mazie cleaned their RV.  So who had the most fun!  And both our teams won, so Day 5, as all the other days here, was a good day!