May 23

May 23
We were headed out of Willow Beach by7 am and on the road to Furnace Creek in Death Valley CA. This was the only stop we didn’t have reservations for. Driving through the Humboldt-Toiydhe National Forest was really amazing. It’s 6.2 million acres and largest national forest in the lower 48 states. We drove Rt 160 through Nevada. It’s 8:45 and we have another 1 1/2 hours.

We arrived at Furnace Creek Campground and checked in to get a site. I was so happy there were some available. And now I know why. We are at -206 feet below sea level and it’s 101° going down to only 86° tonight. The bathrooms aren’t very nice and we couldn’t find any showers. We set up our camper and took a ride to Zabriskie Point, about 5 miles from the campground.  A short walk up a hill to a beautiful lookout viewing the Badlands. The scenery was like being on Mars.

After went over to Oasis at Death Valley for lunch. It’s about a 10 minute drive from campground. Very cute resort with a pretty decent restaurant. We walked through a cool rock tunnel to take the elevator up to the restaurant where we had a delicious veggie wrap and cold drink.

In the afternoon we drove over to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to get a cold drink and watch some videos on Death Valley Park and it’s history. Nice place to be to get out of the heat.

We made sandwiches for supper and sat out. I listened to the Celtics game (they won) and then sat out to star gaze. Beautiful day but seeing it once is enough for me!