Death Valley Part 2

Have I mentioned the issue of the price of fuel here in Death Valley?  We thought this was shocking at Stovepipe Wells until we went to Furnace Creek. 

(This actually wasn't the worst.  As we left Death Valley on Highway 190 west, we saw a station in Panamint Springs where every type of gas was over $6, some of it $6.50-ish.)

We made trek to Beatty NV as a neighbor in the park told Mike diesel was much cheaper.  And it was $3.79.  We laughed as we drove out of town, as we had seen four or five casinos in a half mile in this little run-down crossroads. 

There was a sign pointing to Rhyolite, a ghost town, so we headed that direction.  A few crumbling buildings left and one large and once-fancy structure.  And it had been….a casino.  The brochure said it was also the train station but the sign didn't mention that.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyolite,_Nevada

There is a sculptor who lives in a hovel in this town and has a sculpture garden of sorts.  The title of the piece below is "Prospector with Hopeful Companion".  Why a penguin?

The sign below was posted at Rhyolite for those who wanted to wander around and perhaps take a few souvenirs.

As we left Rhyolite, I checked the NPS map.  It showed the entrance to Titus Canyon and the road went all the way through to the main north-south road on the valley floor.  The sign at the entrance said “4-wheel drive, high clearance vehicles only”.  Okay, we have a Ram 3500 dually with 4 wheel drive, we should be good.  The first 10 miles or so were just a really bumpy gravel road.  And then the road started to climb…and climb…and climb, twisting and turning its way through Red Pass.  This is not a trip for the faint of heart.  The road gets very narrow and you have the mountain on one side and a sheer drop to the canyon floor on the other and no railing.   The two dogs were bouncing around like marbles in a tin can.  

There is a ghost town in the canyon and a lot of abandoned mines.  (The Park Service has warnings on everything to stay away from the mines.)  Slick marketers were at work...

"This was a mining boom town founded on wild and distorted advertising.  300 hopeful people swarmed here and a post office was established in August 1926.  In February 1927 the post office closed and the town died."

On our way out of the canyon... will the truck fit?

We went to Dante's View, approximately 5200 feet above the valley floor at the Furnace Creek Inn.  From here, you can see most of the valley. The last quarter mile up to the View is a 15% grade.

I guess I never thought about it but Death Valley was once a giant lake. You can see the alluvial fans everywhere which were the pathways for water out of the mountains into the valley.  At the end of the last ice age, Death Valley's climate was much wetter and the surrounding mountains had glaciers.