Escaping Death in Death Valley by Jeremiah A. Gilbert
January 2012
Last winter saw me trying to escape to Egypt after my mom lost her six-year battle with cancer. This winter, nearly a year to the day of her passing, I lost my father to a heart attack. He had had a stroke the year before but seemed to be recovering. When I called to check in on him, and he didn’t answer, I knew something was wrong.
My father was a character. He loved life, loved to eat, and loved to drive. He saw nothing wrong with driving hours to try out a restaurant he’d heard about, for instance. Our last drive together was to Las Vegas—we drove 228 miles (337 km) there, had lunch with a friend of his, and then drove 228 miles back, and he did all the driving. This was because he didn’t like it when others drove—my mom was the one who taught me how to drive.
He was also an artist, initially creating drawings and paintings. My youth was filled with creativity—artists, models, collectors, and gallery owners. Later in life, he focused on cartooning. He hosted the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television series The Cartoon Factory, where he taught viewers how to draw cartoons, starting with basic shapes. During the last few years the show was on, he made many school and library appearances, teaching anyone interested how to draw cartoons.
Fathers and sons rarely speak of emotions, which is regrettable. My father’s stroke initially took from him three of the things that defined him: drawing, talking, and driving. Then chance took from him the woman he had loved for over forty years. As he loved road trips, and I didn’t feel up to international travel after losing them both, I decided to rent a 4x4 and go on a road trip in his memory.
* * *
Situated within California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley National Park features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. It was called “Death Valley” by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields during California’s Gold Rush in 1849. During the 1850s, gold and silver were extracted in the valley. In the 1880s, borax was discovered and extracted by mule-drawn wagons.
It’s a lengthy drive to Death Valley from any approach. We’re coming from the south, which means taking Interstate 15 northeast to Baker and then north on State Route (SR) 127. Baker is where you stop to take a break on your way to or from Las Vegas. It is home to the world’s tallest thermometer, standing at 134 feet (40 meters) high, along with numerous restaurants and gas stations.
SR 127 is a long stretch of road that passes through only one town between Interstate 15 and SR 190. It’s no wonder that it was used as the “Lost Highway” featured in David Lynch’s film Lost Highway. The town (population 31) seems to serve as a speed trap and source for overpriced gas. It’s also here that one can either continue along SR 127 to Death Valley or take SR 178 into Nevada.
After around ninety uneventful miles (145 km), there is Death Valley Junction, where we head west on SR 190. This will lead us to Furnace Creek, where we will be staying during our visit. There are only two hotel options here: the expensive Inn and the more reasonably priced Ranch, where we will be staying. Originally built for the Pacific Coast Borax Company, the Ranch features the world’s lowest elevation 18-hole golf course.
Furnace Creek also provides access to many of the area’s attractions. Our first stop is Zabriskie Point, which is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago—long before Death Valley came into existence. The area features a maze of eroded, multicolored badlands shaped by millennia of volcanic activity and erosion. The formations showcase a stunning palette of golds, browns, and muted reds, which shift and deepen as the sunlight changes throughout the day. In more film news, some of the scenes in Zabriskie Point were filmed here.
A little further up is Mustard Canyon. A meandering, one-way dirt road takes you through the canyon—a yellowish, twisted wash devoid of plant life. It’s a surreal landscape, providing close-up views of the unusual terrain. It’s a quieter spot than more famous Death Valley destinations, offering a more tranquil and immersive experience. Mustard Canyon’s raw beauty and distinct coloration make it a hidden gem in the park’s diverse geological tapestry.
As we are the only ones here, we’re able to stop and take a few photos while parked in the middle of the road before heading back to our hotel to explore their borax museum, then to dinner (buffalo steak for me).
* * *
Once the sun sets in Death Valley, it’s pitch black, so many people turn in early and head out early. I start to hear people leaving their rooms around 5:30am, though most seem to depart around 7:00am. We’re off early ourselves, as there is much to see and some of the access roads can only be traversed slowly.
One of these sights is Artist’s Drive, a narrow, paved one-way loop on which travel is possible from south to north. Often, the road bends sharply and crosses steep gullies, resulting in a rather topsy-turvy journey. Along the drive is Artist’s Palette, a stretch of hillside composed of curved bands of clayish rock in vivid hues of green, white, pink, and black. While many prefer to hike up and around these formations, we find it more rewarding to hike a bit into the hills, where the colors are more striking.
The Devil’s Speedway is located a few miles down the Westside Road. It’s unpaved and somewhat bumpy, but the views offered here are simply amazing. Here you have both the salt plains of Badwater Basin and the salt crystal formations of the Devil’s Golf Course, which we will be exploring in a bit.
Badwater Basin holds the distinction of being the lowest point in North America at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level. This vast expanse of salt flats is a stunning, otherworldly landscape that exemplifies Death Valley's extreme beauty. The basin is covered with a crust of sodium chloride (table salt) and other evaporated minerals left behind by the ancient Lake Manly, which dried up thousands of years ago. The surface is marked by hexagonal salt polygons formed by the repeated cycles of evaporation and freezing.
The Devil’s Golf Course was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guidebook to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that “Only the devil could play golf” on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large halite salt crystal formations. Today, it is a popular location for people to see how far out they can go, hopping from one formation to another.
A little further south is Natural Bridge Canyon. A steady incline leads to the bridge, and a much longer hike leads to more bridges, but we decide to leave this to others and head instead to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of “bad water” and an enormous salt plain. The accumulated salts in the surrounding basin make the pool water undrinkable, giving it its name.
Next up: Golden Canyon, a short gorge that cuts into brightly colored sandstone rocks in many glowing shades of orange, gold, and red. According to the trail guide, “The rocks of Golden Canyon provide evidence of an older basin.” It’s an easy hike through the canyon, though much longer than advertised.
* * *
My wife gets excited about seeing sand dunes. We had been promised them in Tunisia but were really only taken to the edge of the desert on lovelorn camels. So, this morning we are heading out to Stovepipe Wells and their nearby Mesquite Dunes.
Before reaching the dunes, we pass through Devil’s Cornfield, which features clusters of arrowweed plants that grow on mounds of soil sculpted by wind erosion. The name “Devil’s Cornfield” comes from the appearance of these plants, which resemble bundles of corn stalks tied and left in a field.
Soon after, we catch our first glimpse of the dunes, which stretch out in gentle, rippling waves, with the tallest dunes rising about 100 feet (30 meters). They are surrounded by rugged mountain ranges, creating a dramatic backdrop. The area features three types of dunes: crescent, linear, and star-shaped, formed by varying wind patterns. The dunes are named for the mesquite trees that grow there, providing a touch of green in the otherwise sandy landscape.
After a fair amount of dune hiking, it’s a quick breakfast in Stovepipe Wells. The area was historically a water stop for travelers crossing the harsh desert. Its name comes from the legend of a stovepipe marking a well used by early settlers.
Then we’re off to Mosaic Canyon, known for its narrow, winding passages and smooth, polished walls. The smooth walls of the canyon are made of marbleized limestone, formed under intense pressure and heat. These walls glisten in the sunlight and feel cool to the touch, giving the canyon its unique aesthetic.
The canyon gets its name from the mosaic breccia found here, a rock made of fragments of older rocks cemented together by natural processes. These formations look like a natural collage of various colors and textures, adding to the canyon’s visual appeal. The canyon was carved over millennia by flash floods and erosion, revealing layers of rock that showcase the region's ancient history. It narrows into a slot canyon at certain points, creating a challenging experience for hikers (and photographers).
* * *
We’re heading just out of Death Valley for our next destination, the Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite. The town is tucked away in the mountains of the Nevada desert, just off Highway 374. It was established in 1905 as a mining town and by 1908 was the third-largest city in Nevada. The mine closed just a couple of years later, and by 1920, Rhyolite had been abandoned. While we’re visiting and exploring Death Valley, it’s also an easy day trip from Las Vegas.
The Porter General Store had large plate-glass windows so that one could see everything the store offered for sale. Construction of the stone building began in July 1906 and was finished a few months later. One of the signs that hung from the Porter Brothers Store was “All Things Good But Whiskey.” With all the saloons already established in Rhyolite, the Porter Brothers maintained a reputation for never selling liquor.
The Train Depot was built in 1908 of wood and stone construction for a branch line of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad Company. The railway line was removed in 1917. Since then, the building has been a home, a boarding house and mess hall, business offices, a casino and bar, a museum and gift shop. It even doubled as a church for the 7 people that lived in Rhyolite during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Today, it has been kept in a state of arrested decay while talks to rehabilitate it continue.
One of the most prominent buildings in town was the three-story John S. Cook and Co. Bank on Golden Street. It was completed in 1908 and featured Italian marble stairs, imported stained-glass windows, mahogany woodwork, and indoor plumbing. The building housed brokerage offices, a post office, and the bank. The post office, situated in the basement, was the last business to close in Rhyolite, lasting until 1919.
Rhyolite Mercantile was a general store during its prime and was one of the few remaining wood buildings in town. Note that the building was up on blocks. This is because it was moved in June 2010, as it was about to collapse in its original location due to a failed foundation. (On September 20, 2014, it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.)
Tourism flourished in and near Death Valley in the 1920s, and souvenir sellers set up tables in Rhyolite to sell rocks and bottles on weekends. In the 1930s, Revert Mercantile of Beatty acquired a Union Oil distributorship, built a gas station in nearby Beatty, and supplied pumps in other locations, including Rhyolite. The Rhyolite service station consisted of an old caboose, a storage tank, and a pump, managed by a local owner.
Three bottle houses were built in Rhyolite, the largest being Tom Kelly’s. Most of the bottles used were Adolphus Busch (now known as Budweiser), though a few patent medicine bottles were also used. The house was constructed over six months, starting in 1905, by Mr. Kelly, who retrieved most of the bottles from the 53 saloons in the town at the time. Upon completion, the three-bedroom house was raffled off. The Bennet family won the drawing and lived in the Bottle House until 1914.
A lonely signpost marking the crossing of Golden and Gold Center is a reminder of the town's founding: gold was discovered nearby by Frank “Shorty” Harris and Ernest L. Cross in early August 1904. It also serves as a reminder of how capricious these mining towns were, with Rhyolite going from Nevada’s third-largest city in 1908 to having only 20 inhabitants by 1915. Today, it receives the occasional tourist with good directions.
Just south of Rhyolite is the Goldwell Open Air Museum, an outdoor sculpture park. Opened in 1984, it was founded by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski, who created a life-size version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The park features several other striking sculptures by Szukalski and fellow Belgian artists, including the monumental Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada, a 30-foot (9 meter) cinder-block statue, and Tribute to Shorty Harris, a 24-foot (7 meter) rusted-metal sculpture.
The museum spans nearly 15 acres and is open to the public free of charge, 24 hours a day, year-round. While the visitor center, with exhibits and a small gift shop, is usually open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. most days, the sculptures are available to explore at any time. It’s a fascinating blend of contemporary art set against the stark, expansive desert backdrop. The museum also runs an artist residency program that encourages artists to engage with the dramatic landscape.
We head to the nearby desert town of Beatty for lunch and cheap gas (nearly $2 a gallon less than Furnace Creek). After we head back into Death Valley to visit Salt Creek, which flows intermittently from the Devil’s Cornfield area into Badwater Basin, mostly across mud flats and sandy plains. The pools supposedly have large numbers of the endangered Death Valley pupfish, though we don’t encounter any.
* * *
We have two more stops before our drive home. First up, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, a striking 2.7-mile (4.3 km) one-way unpaved loop drive offering views of colorful badlands and an opportunity to explore the area’s fascinating geology and history. Situated just off California Highway 190 near Zabriskie Point, the road meanders through unique terrain featuring vibrant hills and ravines with little to no vegetation due to the region’s arid conditions.
The canyon is named after the famous “Twenty Mule Team” wagons that transported borax from nearby mines in the late 19th century. However, the wagons did not actually traverse this canyon. Today, visitors can drive the dirt road (usually accessible to standard vehicles in dry conditions) or explore on foot, discovering hidden tributaries, old mine shafts, and panoramic vistas of the surrounding landscape.
The steep and twisting last half mile (0.8 km) of the thirteen-and-a-half mile (21.7 km) drive to Dante’s View is worthy of an amusement park, especially when another vehicle is descending. Dante’s View, on the north side of Coffin Peak, offers a panoramic view of the southern Death Valley basin, with Badwater Basin just below. It’s a wonderful way to cap the trip, perched above where we had been.
On our way back, we make a quick stop in Death Valley Junction (formerly Amargosa), a tiny Mojave Desert community whose city limits sign reports a population of 4. The town has a unique history tied to the borax mining industry and the railroad that serviced it. Established in the early 1900s, it served as a hub for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The town features Spanish Colonial Revival-style buildings, constructed in the 1920s, including what is now the famous Amargosa Opera House and Hotel.
The Amargosa Opera House gained renown through Marta Becket, a Broadway dancer who discovered the then-abandoned theater in 1967. She transformed it into an arts haven, painting its interior with murals and performing there for decades, even to empty audiences at times. Today, it stands as a testament to her legacy, hosting tours and occasional performances. The hotel and surrounding area, though sparsely populated, remain an attraction for visitors seeking art, history, and proximity to the stark beauty of Death Valley.
We stop here because I’d seen some abandoned homes I wanted to explore on the way out, though barbed wire and No Trespassing signs mean admiring from afar. I also get in a few last photos of the opera house. Then it’s back to Baker for lunch and gas, followed by an interstate drive home. I think my father would approve.
My father was a character. He loved life, loved to eat, and loved to drive. He saw nothing wrong with driving hours to try out a restaurant he’d heard about, for instance. Our last drive together was to Las Vegas—we drove 228 miles (337 km) there, had lunch with a friend of his, and then drove 228 miles back, and he did all the driving. This was because he didn’t like it when others drove—my mom was the one who taught me how to drive.
He was also an artist, initially creating drawings and paintings. My youth was filled with creativity—artists, models, collectors, and gallery owners. Later in life, he focused on cartooning. He hosted the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television series The Cartoon Factory, where he taught viewers how to draw cartoons, starting with basic shapes. During the last few years the show was on, he made many school and library appearances, teaching anyone interested how to draw cartoons.
Fathers and sons rarely speak of emotions, which is regrettable. My father’s stroke initially took from him three of the things that defined him: drawing, talking, and driving. Then chance took from him the woman he had loved for over forty years. As he loved road trips, and I didn’t feel up to international travel after losing them both, I decided to rent a 4x4 and go on a road trip in his memory.
* * *
Situated within California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley National Park features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. It was called “Death Valley” by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields during California’s Gold Rush in 1849. During the 1850s, gold and silver were extracted in the valley. In the 1880s, borax was discovered and extracted by mule-drawn wagons.
It’s a lengthy drive to Death Valley from any approach. We’re coming from the south, which means taking Interstate 15 northeast to Baker and then north on State Route (SR) 127. Baker is where you stop to take a break on your way to or from Las Vegas. It is home to the world’s tallest thermometer, standing at 134 feet (40 meters) high, along with numerous restaurants and gas stations.
SR 127 is a long stretch of road that passes through only one town between Interstate 15 and SR 190. It’s no wonder that it was used as the “Lost Highway” featured in David Lynch’s film Lost Highway. The town (population 31) seems to serve as a speed trap and source for overpriced gas. It’s also here that one can either continue along SR 127 to Death Valley or take SR 178 into Nevada.
After around ninety uneventful miles (145 km), there is Death Valley Junction, where we head west on SR 190. This will lead us to Furnace Creek, where we will be staying during our visit. There are only two hotel options here: the expensive Inn and the more reasonably priced Ranch, where we will be staying. Originally built for the Pacific Coast Borax Company, the Ranch features the world’s lowest elevation 18-hole golf course.
Furnace Creek also provides access to many of the area’s attractions. Our first stop is Zabriskie Point, which is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago—long before Death Valley came into existence. The area features a maze of eroded, multicolored badlands shaped by millennia of volcanic activity and erosion. The formations showcase a stunning palette of golds, browns, and muted reds, which shift and deepen as the sunlight changes throughout the day. In more film news, some of the scenes in Zabriskie Point were filmed here.
A little further up is Mustard Canyon. A meandering, one-way dirt road takes you through the canyon—a yellowish, twisted wash devoid of plant life. It’s a surreal landscape, providing close-up views of the unusual terrain. It’s a quieter spot than more famous Death Valley destinations, offering a more tranquil and immersive experience. Mustard Canyon’s raw beauty and distinct coloration make it a hidden gem in the park’s diverse geological tapestry.
As we are the only ones here, we’re able to stop and take a few photos while parked in the middle of the road before heading back to our hotel to explore their borax museum, then to dinner (buffalo steak for me).
* * *
Once the sun sets in Death Valley, it’s pitch black, so many people turn in early and head out early. I start to hear people leaving their rooms around 5:30am, though most seem to depart around 7:00am. We’re off early ourselves, as there is much to see and some of the access roads can only be traversed slowly.
One of these sights is Artist’s Drive, a narrow, paved one-way loop on which travel is possible from south to north. Often, the road bends sharply and crosses steep gullies, resulting in a rather topsy-turvy journey. Along the drive is Artist’s Palette, a stretch of hillside composed of curved bands of clayish rock in vivid hues of green, white, pink, and black. While many prefer to hike up and around these formations, we find it more rewarding to hike a bit into the hills, where the colors are more striking.
The Devil’s Speedway is located a few miles down the Westside Road. It’s unpaved and somewhat bumpy, but the views offered here are simply amazing. Here you have both the salt plains of Badwater Basin and the salt crystal formations of the Devil’s Golf Course, which we will be exploring in a bit.
Badwater Basin holds the distinction of being the lowest point in North America at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level. This vast expanse of salt flats is a stunning, otherworldly landscape that exemplifies Death Valley's extreme beauty. The basin is covered with a crust of sodium chloride (table salt) and other evaporated minerals left behind by the ancient Lake Manly, which dried up thousands of years ago. The surface is marked by hexagonal salt polygons formed by the repeated cycles of evaporation and freezing.
The Devil’s Golf Course was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guidebook to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that “Only the devil could play golf” on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large halite salt crystal formations. Today, it is a popular location for people to see how far out they can go, hopping from one formation to another.
A little further south is Natural Bridge Canyon. A steady incline leads to the bridge, and a much longer hike leads to more bridges, but we decide to leave this to others and head instead to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of “bad water” and an enormous salt plain. The accumulated salts in the surrounding basin make the pool water undrinkable, giving it its name.
Next up: Golden Canyon, a short gorge that cuts into brightly colored sandstone rocks in many glowing shades of orange, gold, and red. According to the trail guide, “The rocks of Golden Canyon provide evidence of an older basin.” It’s an easy hike through the canyon, though much longer than advertised.
* * *
My wife gets excited about seeing sand dunes. We had been promised them in Tunisia but were really only taken to the edge of the desert on lovelorn camels. So, this morning we are heading out to Stovepipe Wells and their nearby Mesquite Dunes.
Before reaching the dunes, we pass through Devil’s Cornfield, which features clusters of arrowweed plants that grow on mounds of soil sculpted by wind erosion. The name “Devil’s Cornfield” comes from the appearance of these plants, which resemble bundles of corn stalks tied and left in a field.
Soon after, we catch our first glimpse of the dunes, which stretch out in gentle, rippling waves, with the tallest dunes rising about 100 feet (30 meters). They are surrounded by rugged mountain ranges, creating a dramatic backdrop. The area features three types of dunes: crescent, linear, and star-shaped, formed by varying wind patterns. The dunes are named for the mesquite trees that grow there, providing a touch of green in the otherwise sandy landscape.
After a fair amount of dune hiking, it’s a quick breakfast in Stovepipe Wells. The area was historically a water stop for travelers crossing the harsh desert. Its name comes from the legend of a stovepipe marking a well used by early settlers.
Then we’re off to Mosaic Canyon, known for its narrow, winding passages and smooth, polished walls. The smooth walls of the canyon are made of marbleized limestone, formed under intense pressure and heat. These walls glisten in the sunlight and feel cool to the touch, giving the canyon its unique aesthetic.
The canyon gets its name from the mosaic breccia found here, a rock made of fragments of older rocks cemented together by natural processes. These formations look like a natural collage of various colors and textures, adding to the canyon’s visual appeal. The canyon was carved over millennia by flash floods and erosion, revealing layers of rock that showcase the region's ancient history. It narrows into a slot canyon at certain points, creating a challenging experience for hikers (and photographers).
* * *
We’re heading just out of Death Valley for our next destination, the Nevada ghost town of Rhyolite. The town is tucked away in the mountains of the Nevada desert, just off Highway 374. It was established in 1905 as a mining town and by 1908 was the third-largest city in Nevada. The mine closed just a couple of years later, and by 1920, Rhyolite had been abandoned. While we’re visiting and exploring Death Valley, it’s also an easy day trip from Las Vegas.
The Porter General Store had large plate-glass windows so that one could see everything the store offered for sale. Construction of the stone building began in July 1906 and was finished a few months later. One of the signs that hung from the Porter Brothers Store was “All Things Good But Whiskey.” With all the saloons already established in Rhyolite, the Porter Brothers maintained a reputation for never selling liquor.
The Train Depot was built in 1908 of wood and stone construction for a branch line of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad Company. The railway line was removed in 1917. Since then, the building has been a home, a boarding house and mess hall, business offices, a casino and bar, a museum and gift shop. It even doubled as a church for the 7 people that lived in Rhyolite during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Today, it has been kept in a state of arrested decay while talks to rehabilitate it continue.
One of the most prominent buildings in town was the three-story John S. Cook and Co. Bank on Golden Street. It was completed in 1908 and featured Italian marble stairs, imported stained-glass windows, mahogany woodwork, and indoor plumbing. The building housed brokerage offices, a post office, and the bank. The post office, situated in the basement, was the last business to close in Rhyolite, lasting until 1919.
Rhyolite Mercantile was a general store during its prime and was one of the few remaining wood buildings in town. Note that the building was up on blocks. This is because it was moved in June 2010, as it was about to collapse in its original location due to a failed foundation. (On September 20, 2014, it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.)
Tourism flourished in and near Death Valley in the 1920s, and souvenir sellers set up tables in Rhyolite to sell rocks and bottles on weekends. In the 1930s, Revert Mercantile of Beatty acquired a Union Oil distributorship, built a gas station in nearby Beatty, and supplied pumps in other locations, including Rhyolite. The Rhyolite service station consisted of an old caboose, a storage tank, and a pump, managed by a local owner.
Three bottle houses were built in Rhyolite, the largest being Tom Kelly’s. Most of the bottles used were Adolphus Busch (now known as Budweiser), though a few patent medicine bottles were also used. The house was constructed over six months, starting in 1905, by Mr. Kelly, who retrieved most of the bottles from the 53 saloons in the town at the time. Upon completion, the three-bedroom house was raffled off. The Bennet family won the drawing and lived in the Bottle House until 1914.
A lonely signpost marking the crossing of Golden and Gold Center is a reminder of the town's founding: gold was discovered nearby by Frank “Shorty” Harris and Ernest L. Cross in early August 1904. It also serves as a reminder of how capricious these mining towns were, with Rhyolite going from Nevada’s third-largest city in 1908 to having only 20 inhabitants by 1915. Today, it receives the occasional tourist with good directions.
Just south of Rhyolite is the Goldwell Open Air Museum, an outdoor sculpture park. Opened in 1984, it was founded by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski, who created a life-size version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The park features several other striking sculptures by Szukalski and fellow Belgian artists, including the monumental Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada, a 30-foot (9 meter) cinder-block statue, and Tribute to Shorty Harris, a 24-foot (7 meter) rusted-metal sculpture.
The museum spans nearly 15 acres and is open to the public free of charge, 24 hours a day, year-round. While the visitor center, with exhibits and a small gift shop, is usually open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. most days, the sculptures are available to explore at any time. It’s a fascinating blend of contemporary art set against the stark, expansive desert backdrop. The museum also runs an artist residency program that encourages artists to engage with the dramatic landscape.
We head to the nearby desert town of Beatty for lunch and cheap gas (nearly $2 a gallon less than Furnace Creek). After we head back into Death Valley to visit Salt Creek, which flows intermittently from the Devil’s Cornfield area into Badwater Basin, mostly across mud flats and sandy plains. The pools supposedly have large numbers of the endangered Death Valley pupfish, though we don’t encounter any.
* * *
We have two more stops before our drive home. First up, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, a striking 2.7-mile (4.3 km) one-way unpaved loop drive offering views of colorful badlands and an opportunity to explore the area’s fascinating geology and history. Situated just off California Highway 190 near Zabriskie Point, the road meanders through unique terrain featuring vibrant hills and ravines with little to no vegetation due to the region’s arid conditions.
The canyon is named after the famous “Twenty Mule Team” wagons that transported borax from nearby mines in the late 19th century. However, the wagons did not actually traverse this canyon. Today, visitors can drive the dirt road (usually accessible to standard vehicles in dry conditions) or explore on foot, discovering hidden tributaries, old mine shafts, and panoramic vistas of the surrounding landscape.
The steep and twisting last half mile (0.8 km) of the thirteen-and-a-half mile (21.7 km) drive to Dante’s View is worthy of an amusement park, especially when another vehicle is descending. Dante’s View, on the north side of Coffin Peak, offers a panoramic view of the southern Death Valley basin, with Badwater Basin just below. It’s a wonderful way to cap the trip, perched above where we had been.
On our way back, we make a quick stop in Death Valley Junction (formerly Amargosa), a tiny Mojave Desert community whose city limits sign reports a population of 4. The town has a unique history tied to the borax mining industry and the railroad that serviced it. Established in the early 1900s, it served as a hub for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The town features Spanish Colonial Revival-style buildings, constructed in the 1920s, including what is now the famous Amargosa Opera House and Hotel.
The Amargosa Opera House gained renown through Marta Becket, a Broadway dancer who discovered the then-abandoned theater in 1967. She transformed it into an arts haven, painting its interior with murals and performing there for decades, even to empty audiences at times. Today, it stands as a testament to her legacy, hosting tours and occasional performances. The hotel and surrounding area, though sparsely populated, remain an attraction for visitors seeking art, history, and proximity to the stark beauty of Death Valley.
We stop here because I’d seen some abandoned homes I wanted to explore on the way out, though barbed wire and No Trespassing signs mean admiring from afar. I also get in a few last photos of the opera house. Then it’s back to Baker for lunch and gas, followed by an interstate drive home. I think my father would approve.
Zabriskie Point, Death Valley
Devil’s Speedway, Death Valley
Rhyolite, Nevada
Death Valley Junction, California
