Death Valley, Part III: Furnace Creek & Mesquite Dunes

Lunch time!!!  I stopped at the Furnace Creek “Resort.” (Quotation marks mine.)  It was basically a little campground with cabins, a borax museum, gift shop,  general store, post office and a few restaurants.  I got lunch (which was an ice cream, obviously) in the general store and explored the grounds for a little bit.

After that short stop I headed back out.  I was so happy to get behind this camper!  You can drive for miles and miles out here and never see another soul.  At this point in time (especially on these long solitary drives as I headed further and further into the park) I got paranoid and nervous again.  I didn’t have good cell phone service, it was over 100 degrees, and I was out here alone.  I was so afraid that I would have car trouble or a flat tire or run out of gas (only a few gas stations in the vicinity of this very large park).  It was truly scary imagining having to sit on the side of the road and wait for some stranger to come by and help me….out in the silent desert with no one around to hear me scream for help if the person who stopped to help just happened to be a killer.  In retrospect, it really wasn’t the best idea for me to come out here by myself.  But in my defense, I didn’t think it would be so desolate and I certainly didn’t count on losing cell phone service!

I stopped at Stovepipe Wells, another (smaller) little village/campground (people camp here?!?!?) and went ahead and got gas (I had over half a tank but was worried that I would run out before the next opportunity).  I almost died when I saw that gas here was $4.80 per gallon.  Nauseating.  But I sucked it up – it was worth it for the peace of mind.

Also in this area were the Mesquite Dunes. This is what I pictured the desert looking like.  You could get out and walk on the dunes, so of course I did, but was unable to stay long because I had on flip flops and the sand was burning my feet.  There were lots and lots of people at this particular stop.

The day afternoon was getting away from me and there were still two major things I wanted to do: Scotty’s Castle and Rhyolite (a ghost town).  So I began the 26 mile drive to the castle with a full tank of gas and peace of mind!