DEATH VALLEY continued:

Death Valley can be very crowded on the weekends with visitors who only come for the day and rush around to all the sights to see as much as possible in one day. For that reason, we decided to stay around camp today and relax. While breakfast was being prepared, Richard set up his telescope to view the sun. What an experience! I don't believe many of us had ever seen the sun through a telescope. Richard had the scope set up to track the sun as it was moving across the sky so that anyone could look whenever they had the opportunity. Some of our members went to the visitors center to see a demonstration of arrow making. Some of the ladies went to the Furnace Creek Inn and Debbie, Nita and Rich went to Gold Canyon to attend a desert picture taking talk by a ranger.
Dinner was a fabulous potluck with everyone contributing great food for all to enjoy.

After dinner the guys told lies around the fire pit and the women, minus Linda C, played Pokeno. Our guest Linda Lee lost the most money I have ever seen anyone loose while playing. It just wasn't her night. Of course, we only play for pennies (sorry Lucille).

On Sunday after breakfast of eggs and sausage everyone went off on their own for the morning. In the afternoon everyone except Gerry went to Death Valley Junction for a performance by Marta Beckett at the Amargosa Opera House. Ms. Beckett is now 86 years old and confined to a wheelchair so she does a "sit down" performance wherein she talks about her career and the various productions she staged at the opera house over the years. The interior of the opera house has been painted by Ms. Beckett over the years to look like an audience when she performed to an empty house.

The ceiling of the theater is painted to look like sky with angels and this huge medallion.

Ms. Beckett performing her "sit down" show.

All around her are props from her various shows and she puts on hats or a feather boa to represent another character. In previous shows Ms. Beckett played all the parts.

After the performance, Ms. Beckett goes to the office/lobby of the motel to sign autographs and answer questions.

After leaving the opera house we drove to the Longstreet Casino and had an early dinner/late lunch. Pat and Russ did a little gambling while we were there and I believe they came out ahead.

We then returned to the campground for the evening where some of the women played Pokeno and others sat around the fire telling lies.

On Monday after breakfast we all went back to our coaches to get ready for the move to Stove Pipe Wells campground. After dumping tanks and getting fresh water everyone was on their way. Once we got to the new campground and got set up we mostly hung around the campground for the rest of the day. During the afternoon it became very windy. It lasted about 2-3 hours and then let up again. Otherwise we had picture perfect weather for our entire stay in Death Valley.

DEATH VALLEY continued:

On our second full day in the national park we set off for Badwater the lowest point in the United States.

On the road there we stopped at Artist's View to see the different colored rock formations.

From Artist's Pallet we continued our way to Devil's Golf Course to walk around on the weird salt formations. Then it was onto Badwater to walk out onto the salt flats. Once everyone was back at the cars we drove further south to see some wildflowers along the roadway. First picture is a Desert Five Spot.

I don't know what kind of flower the yellow one is but it looked to be in the daisy family.
After leaving the wildflower area we were going to return to the campground via the West Side Road which is unpaved but everyone was tired so we decided to return via the paved road instead. Greg and Debbie were leading the way back with Debbie driving when she was pulled over by the park police for speeding. Luckily, she got off with a warning. While on the way back to the campground some of us stopped again at Artist's Pallet to see if the colors had changed because of the sun's position. It was still too bright to make a difference. We all got together again for happy hour and after dinner we gathered at the fire pit for dessert of s'mores.

More incredible pictures from the Inyo Mine in Echo Canyon and Dante's View.

ROCKWOOD WEST GOES TO DEATH VALLEY

We had seven member coaches including Gerry and Linda Chetelat, Russ and Pat Himmer, Dennis and Paulette Kotan, Mac and Nita McAfee, Greg and Debbie Murrell, Steven and MaryLee Smith and Rich and Linda Strobel plus a guest coach with Bob and Linda Karr.

We were parked at Sunset Campground from Wednesday, March 2nd through Monday, March 7th. The weather was perfect, nice warm days and pleasant evenings, cool enough for a fire.
On our first full day within the national park we drove to Echo Canyon. As we were heading towards the dirt road we all noticed a California Highway Patrol car traveling in the opposite direction. No one was concerned until the car turned around and the officer put the lights on. The officer pulled up behind Dennis and turned onto the dirt road. The officer said he pulled him over because Steve, sitting in the passenger front seat, did not have his seatbelt fastened. Steve was wearing his seatbelt and the officer stood at the front of the car and said he couldn't see the seatbelt because it looked like the same color as his shirt. Anyway, no one got a ticket and we were able to continue on the road through Echo Canyon to the Inyo Mine. There are several abandoned buildings and everyone walked around exploring the area.
This is one of the buildings remaining at the Inyo Mine.

After exploring the area we got back into the cars and continued on our way to Dante's View for an incredible view of the area. There was snow on the mountains in the distance but we were all nice and warm.

A nice group picture at Dante's View.

There was so much to see and do in Death Valley I am splitting the blog into several sections to add as many pictures as possible. Thanks to Dennis, Rich and Greg for providing pictures of our adventures.