Death Valley National Park

Death Valley Days 2018 brought to you by 20 mule team Borax.

It is still very warm in Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park at the end of October, next time we visit the bottomland will be in January. I am surprised that anyone ever came to the valley in the summer, especially to work.

We were surprised by the history. I expected desert views, but I didn’t expect the outdoor museum items that are scattered around the main tourist area.

We got busted Monday by the generator Nazi for running the generator after 7 pm.   He said he was going to tell on us. Worse things have happened.  We were able to snag an electric site on Tuesday morning. Problem solved.

Furnace Creek

Camping locations in Death Valley are very limited, especially if you want electric sites, which would enable you to operate an air conditioner.  Almost all electric sites are located at Furnace Creek. There are three campgrounds inside the park, from south to north they are Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, and Mesquite Springs. The cell phone coverage was also limited but aided by the booster which amplifies the signal.

Temperature swings are huge in Death Valley and our front window is a huge solar collector. One of the things we do when it is hot and the front window facing the sun, especially west, is that we have a huge sheet of Mylar faced bubble wrap, that reflects the sun back and prevents the interior of the RV from heating up.

Broken Windshield

Because we didn’t have the air conditioning on the first night, the first thing we did was put the bubble wrap in the front window. The next morning, based on the temperature swing, we found that our six-year-old, repaired chip, in the front windshield had turned into a two-foot-long crack. The location is right in front of the driver’s seat.  A new window is on order to be installed in Vegas.

On Friday we are going to camp at the north end, off the valley floor for the weekend and depending on where we can get a spot when we return to Furnace Creek, we may leave and go back to Pahrump earlier than expected. Then on to Vegas to get our freshly cracked windshield replaced.

Here is a link to the google map for the area.

Link to our 2018 Route.

Link to our route Boise to Las Vegas.

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