Mojave Desert and Death Valley

When we first crossed in to the state of California, we were looking for an Information Center. The only one we found in Needles was a Desert Information Center, so we stopped to see what type of info they had. The woman was very friendly and had lots of information, but only about the deserts parks in the area: Joshua Tree, Mojave and Death Valley.  Thinking we were going to do the Mojave the next day, I focused primarily on details about there and trying to choose a good route for driving.  The woman advised that certain roads in the park were good while others were unpaved and not bad.  

Now in my mind, when I hear the words “Mojave Desert” I think of dry, sandy, barren flat parcels of land.  This was not so.  The Mojave was quite hilly and even had several mountain ranges. There were several steep climbs and downgrades as we passed through vast areas of Joshua Tree cacti.  There was a sand dune section in the park, but nothing like my expectations of the Mojave Desert.

Our favorite joke about the Mojave was not the landscape but the roads in the park.  We found them to be awful, full of holes, cracks, bumps and falling apart. Speed limits were posted for 50mph but we stayed closer to 35 to avoid ruining the truck or tires. This was one of the alleged  “good roads” from the information center the previous day. We wonder what her idea of a “bad road” would be.

The Mojave Desert was not as big or time consuming as we intended and we decided to head to Death Valley National Park with the hope we could find a campsite for the night. And with my preconceived concept of what the Mojave was going to be like, all ideas about Death Valley were gone as well.

We arrived at Death Valley around 3pm and started our descent in to the valley - elevation changs went from 4900 feet above sea level to Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level.

Entering and leaving Death Valley there were many mountain climbs and steep downgrades with numerous twists and turns as the roadway followed old riverbeds or gaps in the mountain passes.

The landscape down in Death Valley was more in turn with my idea of a desert area; dry and barren of vegetation.  What I was not prepared for was the height and number of mountains we drove over to get to the lowest portion.  In my mind, we were going to be starting close to sea level on our descent in to the valley.

The National Park campground was nice and as we were visiting in mid May, fairly empty. During our evening walk with Rugby, he was the first to notice a coyote and gave a loud bark to alert all.  That coyote trotted away. Around the next brush I noticed another coyote, as did Rugby.  This coyote did not turn away, rather it watched us continue on our stroll. Shortly after we returned to the camper, we heard one of the coyote calling to another with a yipping call - Chuck commented on his surprise at the sound as he always thought coyotes howled.

An interesting fact is the highest and lowest point in California are 100 miles apart and in the same county: Death Valley at -282 and Mount Whitney at 14,505, both in Inyo County.