Death Valley NP, CA
2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 70-71
Death Valley: it’s the hottest place on earth (by record high temp). Most people don’t visit in the middle of summer, instead preferring the winter months when it’s a more bearable place. But we didn’t know when we’d be back here, and didn’t want to miss it! And plus, we once camped in Bryce Canyon in November when it was 15 ℉ there, so I’m sure we could deal with the other end of the spectrum?
We planned two nights here but only lasted for one. This is not something I would subject myself to ever again.
Day 70 (night): Furnace Creek Lives Up to its Name
The drive from Sequoia NP gradually became more and more desert-like as we approached Death Valley. It was funny to watch the car’s temperature reading go up by a degree every 20 minutes or so. By the time it passed 100 ℉, it was a little interesting to press your hand against the car windows and feel the heat outside. 🌞
There are signs on the road every so often that suggest turning off your car’s A/C to avoid overheating it. We tried doing that, but it was brutal, at least while the sun was still up. The car was like a little oven and opening the windows barely helped. We turned the A/C back on and just hoped that our car, being a 2021 model, would have whatever latest technology needed to avoid overheating. 🤞
A lot of the park was actually closed off because of recent major flooding which washed out the roads. It being a valley, even a small amount of rainfall can cause a flood as the runoff from the surrounding mountains collects. Because Death Valley so rarely gets rain, I guess this phenomenon is not as well planned-for (say, by building bridges over expected waterways).
Because of this, our options for where to stay and where we could hike were limited. We decided the best place given the constraints was to drive an extra 45 minutes to the eastern side of the park, and stay at the Furnace Creek campground.
I knew that this was going to be a hot place, but I underestimated how that would manifest. The sinks in the bathroom had only hot water to give. There was no such thing as a cool breeze; somehow, when the wind blew, it was warmer, like standing behind a refrigerator near its exhaust vent. The sun was down, but even standing still, I was sweating. We brought plenty of drinking water, so I wasn’t afraid for my health or anything, but damn was it uncomfortable.
We set up our tent without the rain fly. We prepared no sleeping bag, only the mattress with a cotton blanket on top. As I lay there, trying to fall asleep after a long day, I struggled to. Since it was a dry heat, I think my sweat was regulating my temperature, but just barely.
I didn’t really have quality sleep until around 2am. Once the outside air finally fell below normal body temperature (98.6 ℉), I think that’s when my brain felt okay with letting me get some rest.
Day 71: Walking After 10AM Not Recomended
We set our alarms early for today because we knew that if we wanted to see anything in the park, it would have to happen before it started heating up. It was about ~90 ℉ when we woke up a little before sunrise, and would be past 100 ℉ by 8 or 9 AM.
Now that it was morning, we could see that there really weren’t many people in the campground - big surprise. It was funny seeing how everyone was shamelessly wearing minimal clothing, several walking around in just underwear. Whatever social contracts might exist around that kind of thing just don’t matter that much when it’s this hot.
I remembered seeing a hiker a few weeks ago try to cool off mid-hike by drenching his shirt and hat in a nearby stream and putting them back on his body. How inconvenient to get so wet just to cool down! But it worked like a charm here in Death Valley, because it replaced my need to sweat, and I was fully dry anyway within 20 minutes.
We left around sunrise to drive to a few of the nearby sights around Death Valley. We started by visiting Badwater Basin because it gets the hottest compared to anywhere else in the park, being at such a low elevation, and this was the coolest time of day. It’s actually the lowest point in North America, at 282 ft below sea level.
And conveniently, because of some steep mountains nearby, the area was still shaded at this point in the morning. 😌
The salt here is mostly sodium chloride but there’s also a decent amount of borax in there too. These deserts are where the Pacific Coast Borax Company would harvest borax to sell it in cleaning products.
After this, I wanted to do some kind of hike, though of course nothing too strenuous or long given the oppressive environment. We decided to check out the Red Cathedral (2.9 mi, 600 ft elev gain). We started around 9AM, and it was already getting pretty hot. We slathered on copious amounts of sunscreen, grabbed just enough water for one hour, and went on our way.
Anywhere we could find shade, we entered it. When there were long stretches without it, it was a slog. It didn’t feel sustainable, with the sun warming our bodies to uncomfortable levels.
We reached the red cathedral, snapped some pics, and hurried back. By this point in the day the temperature was increasing quickly. It was probably nearing 105 ℉ now.
We got back and hopped in the car, feeling confident that we’d be doing no more hikes today. After all, the signs in the park strongly recommend against it anyway.
The rest of the day, it was too hot to do anything more than make a stop at the visitor center and at a few vistas where you could mostly drive right up to them.
After learning that the temperature drops approximately 5 ℉ for every 1000 ft of elevation increase, I was tempted to plan the Telescope Peak hike (12.7 mi, 3300 ft elev gain) for tomorrow. It’s the highest point in the park, at 11,000 ft, so the temperature at the peak should be around 50 ℉! What I wouldn’t give to feel that right now!
But the thought of surviving the rest of today, plus another night in that intense heat, was daunting. What if it didn’t drop below 98.6 ℉ until, say, 4AM this time? Also, how would we pass the time until the sun set, when it would be bearable to step foot outside for more than a few minutes? Sit in the visitor center for hours?
Joshua Tree NP was calling. An extra night there, or really at any of the remaining parks we were planning to visit, sounded better. There’s a famous line about Death Valley from an old advertisement about visiting it: all the advantages of hell, without any of the inconveniences. I’m not so sure about that second part.
post originally written 12/23, backdated to match reality