Death Valley is WINDY! Day 2: Big Pine, CA to Death Valley, CA

Waking up next to the Owens Valley hotsprings was much friendlier in the daylight.  Turns out the Owens valley is not a hotspring but actually a 90* “warm” spring with the source feeding into a large pond with crystal clear water.  The makings for a perfect swimming hole.  We spent the morning munching oatmeal while the pond’s guppies gave us a free pedicure.

There was also a ton of crawdads in the water with a rather feisty fellow.

On the other side of the road there was a corresponding pond with a nicely placed rope swing for early morning cannonballs into 85 degree clear water.

We packed up our camp and headed south on 395 towards Lone Pine, the last stop before entering Death Valley.  The route we had chosen was a long 4x4 trail into Death Valley towards a playa called the racetrack and Nate wanted to make sure we had a full tank.  Well 40 miles of offroading and some tricky passes landed us right smack in front of our destination.

The Racetrack is so called for the mysteriously moving stones that move from year to year on the flat sureface of playa.  They are VERY cool!  On the North end of the playa there is a outcrop of black rocks that contrast with the white playa dust.  Also a really neat feature.  

Of course we couldn’t pass up the perfect backdrop without messing around with some perspective photos!

 We also did some jumping around at the edge of this big crater:

 

After the playa we rallied and rattled our way through some washboard roads until we hit pavement 15 miles later.  Silence…  And a few broken eggs.  Oh Well.  

 

Pretty crazy, just yesterday we were at almost 8,000 feet in Mammoth!

In Death Valley we stopped at The Devils Golf Course, a vast salt flat. Wait, maybe a salt not-so-flat. The large salt rocks were rock hard. After that we drove through a place called the Artist's Pallet. Our pictures don't quite so it justice but the rocks were really colorful!

We decided to skip camping in the valley of Death as the wind was a little overwhelming.   We set up camping on a turnoff with a great view and will continue on to Pahrump for fuel. Then onto Hooverdam!