Continued from the previous page:

NATURAL BRIDGE TRAIL

We turned around a couple miles south of the Badwater Basin boardwalk, marked #3 on the map below, and drove back north on Badwater Road:

About three miles north of the Badwater Basin observation area we turned on a dirt road that goes up to the trailhead parking area for Natural Bridge, marked #4 on the map above.

I hiked 4/10ths of a mile in so I could see the bridge, then turned around. The trail continues farther than I went.

 

The rocks in the part of the trail I saw were more metallic colors -- black, gray, silver, brown, copper, dark red -- than the pink, green, and lavender pastels I saw in some of the rocks in Golden Canyon.

You can really see what I mean in the picture above.

 

 

 

I'm glad I walked back to the bridge but I've seen better natural bridges in Utah and Virginia . . .

I was more impressed with the view down to Badwater Basin and the bright white salt pan as I was emerging from the canyon with the natural bridge. Since I was 150-200 feet above the basin the views were more extensive than they are when you're driving down on Badwater Road:

 

 

Driving back down to Badwater Rd.

I saw at least one type of wildflower near the entrance to the canyon that was new to me, Desert Five Spot:

Although you can't see all of them in that picture, each of the five petals has a dark red blotch at its base. It's a very pretty flower.

DEVIL'S GOLF COURSE

This is a unique area off Badwater Road that has odd, jagged salt rocks that stretch for miles between the road and the Panamint Mountains.

I marked the location with a blue dot on the map above. Visitors follow a fairly smooth but dusty unpaved road about half a mile to the parking area. The unusual formations are right there:

 

Nice view of Telescope Peak across the Devil's Golf Course

Interpretive signs describe how the crystalline salt pinnacles were deposited by ancient salt lakes and continue even now to be shaped by the wind and rain:

I took the close-up shot below of some of the jagged formations near the parking area but most were more smoothed down than the pinnacles shown in the park's picture above. I'm guessing the rocks closest to the parking area have been worn down from people stepping on them for decades.

The parking area is built into the side of the "golf course" so Jim could easily see them up close, too, without leaving the dogs unattended for long.

There are no paths through the jagged salt rocks and walking through them is difficult, similar to walking on rough lava rocks. We didn't go back more than 10 or 15 feet into the rocks.

We had very nice views of the colorful hills below the Black Mountains to the east, too. The next picture is looking over the Devil's Golf Course and across Badwater Road toward the unpaved road going up to the Natural Bridge trail:

ARTIST'S PALETTE

This was one of my favorite things to see in the park today.

A little farther north on Badwater Road we drove nine-mile long Artist's Drive, a narrow, paved, one-way loop appropriately called the "Artist's Palette" through the most colorful foothills and mountains in the park -- pink, red, burgundy, magenta, lavender, yellow, tan, gold, brown, black, white, gray, green, turquoise, lavender.

Very pretty! I marked it with a red dot on the map above. The pictures in this section are just a few of the dozens I took along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because the most colorful rocks, hillsides, and ravines face west, the park brochure says the colors are even more intense in the late afternoon sun. We were there earlier in the afternoon and the colors were amazing even then, perhaps because the sun is lower in the sky than it is later in the spring and summer.

They'd be even more spectacular after it rained, but that doesn't happen very often here. Death Valley averages only a little more than two inches of rain in an entire year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took dozens of photos on this nine-mile loop because each foothill, mountain, and ravine looked different. I got out of the car several times to take pictures from overlooks. All the other pictures I took while Jim was driving slowly on the narrow, winding road so he could see as much of the spectacle as possible.

RVers, be aware that this road is not suitable for units over 25 feet long; they'd drag on some of the dips through washes.

Continued on the next page:  expansive views from almost 5,500 feet elevation at Dante's Overlook, pretty white sand dunes at Mesquite Flat, unusual rocks in the Mosaic slot canyon, and scenes from the western part of the park

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Cody the ultra Lab, and Casey-pup

Previous       Next

© 2016 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil