The route from Joshua Tree National Park to Death Valley is not exactly direct. We spent the better part of the day driving through the Mojave Desert. As we approached the park, we passed Owens Lake – or more accurately, the dry playa that used to be Owens Lake before the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverted water away from it in the 1920’s. The dry lakebed is now a major source of dust pollution in the Owens Valley. Although much of the playa has been re-planted with salt grass or flooded with a shallow layer of water to mitigate the problem, it has not been entirely eliminated. On this very windy afternoon an enormous dust plume had formed, blotting out much of the view to the north.

I first experienced Death Valley as a child on a family vacation. It wasn’t so much a trip to Death Valley as it was a trip through Death Valley. This was during the summer, when all our vacations took place, so it wasn’t an ideal time to stop and look around. We drove through the valley early in the morning before it got too hot. I remember being a little nervous about the whole idea – given the name and all. I don’t remember being particularly impressed. I do remember being happy to get out alive.

I returned again in 1990 on my way to Oregon. This time it was late spring and I was by myself. I got up at 6:00 in the morning to look around while it was still somewhat cool. I was impressed by the stark beauty of the strange landscape. By 10:00, it was beastly hot so I headed for the hills – literally – leaving further exploration for a cooler time of year.

That cooler time of year turned out to be the winter of 1995. Unfortunately, I was experiencing a 102 degree fever at the time of Darla’s and my arrival so the visit again consisted of nothing more than a drive through the valley with a couple token stops along the way. What was most memorable for me about this pass through the park – besides feeling deathly ill – was how very pleasant the weather was at this time of year. It was sunny and in the low 70’s. Perfect. Winter was definitely the time to visit Death Valley.

It had taken me another nine years to get back to this place but everything looked like it would come together this time: everyone felt great; the weather was pleasant; and we had plenty of time to look around.

This is one of my favorite images of The Boy, captured as he careens around the sign while running away from The Mom. He was definitely starting to enjoy the whole traveling lifestyle.

Getting in and out of Death Valley can be brutal on a car. The climb in and out is steep and relentless. Tanks of water are strategically positioned along the road to refill the radiators of overheated vehicles. Fortunately, at this time of day and this time of year, the route is less demanding than during the potentially fatal heat of summer.

I pulled over halfway to the top of Towne Pass to capture this image of the road running through Panamint Valley. Death Valley is behind me and on the other side of the pass. We still had some climbing to do.

We weren’t far from Stovepipe Wells, where we would be staying for the next two nights, when we pulled over for this shot. Realizing that it would be dark in a matter of minutes, I grabbed my tripod and headed out into the desert to set up a shot among the Mesquite bushes. I was marginally satisfied with the image I captured but what made this quick stop memorable is the fact that my new 10D almost met its end right here. It was dark enough that I tripped coming out of a wash and came crashing down among the rocks. The 10D, which I tried to hold up as I was going down to the ground, was the only thing that came out unscathed.

After checking into our room, we put our name on the waiting list at the one restaurant in Stovepipe Wells. We decided to wait outside. There was something very relaxing about the sound of the wind blowing through the large trees in front of the restaurant on this comfortably warm evening.

The Boy hadn’t fully mastered stairs at this point in his young life so we used the time to get in a little practice.

We began our first morning in the park with a drive up to Dantes View. At well over a mile above the valley floor, Dantes View provided a panoramic view of the southern end of Death Valley and the multiple mountain ranges to its west. On a clear day one can see the lowest point in the U.S., Badwater, and the highest point in the lower 48, Mt. Whitney, separated by a vertical distance of nearly three miles. Our view was somewhat obscured by all the dust in the air, kicked up by yesterday night’s windstorm.

I ended up descending a moderately steep slope to get a better view down the valley. Darla decided to load Lewis in the stroller and check out the view for herself. I was happy, if not a little surprised, to see them coming. Of course, I already knew who was going to be pushing the stroller back up the hill.

Darla agreed to let me take this shot of The Boy, but not until locking the stroller’s wheels and securing the nylon safety strap around her wrist. Meanwhile, The Boy was working at cross purposes, doing his best to free himself from the harness that held him in the stroller.

The Mom eventually granted The Boy his freedom.

This is the view from Twenty Mule Team Canyon Road, a one way drive that winds through the colorful mudstone badlands of the Furnace Creek Formation, not far from Zabriskie Point. It turned out to be one of my favorite drives in the park. Twenty-six different borate minerals account for the different colors.

This view of the mudstone badlands is taken from Zabriskie Point. We had driven by Zabriskie Point on the way up to Dantes View. The parking lot was full of cars – something I made note of at the time because it was pretty early in the day; and because Death Valley is not usually a busy place at any time of day, at least not compared to the typical national park.

Once I climbed up to the top of the viewpoint I understood the full parking lot. The view from Zabriskie Point was magnificent. I could only imagine how beautiful it had been at sunrise. This immediately became my favorite view in the park.

I would find out later that Ansel Adams took a very famous photograph from Zabriskie Point featuring Manly Beacon, the tall, triangular peak at the far right of this image.

From Zabriskie Point we headed to Badwater. At 279 feet below sea level, it is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. This did not impress The Boy, who promptly fell asleep in the warm sun of late morning.

Badwater may also be the warmest place on the entire planet. It is consistently warmer than the Furnace Creek area of the park, which experienced the highest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, 134 degrees, back in 1913. It is thought that Badwater reached 140 degrees on that same day. The highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world was in Libya in 1922. It was 136 degrees.

This expansive group of wind-pruned arrowweed plants is known as Devils Cornfield. Many of the names in Death Valley, though not the name “Death Valley” itself, were chosen in the 1920’s by promoters who were trying to attract visitors to the area.

At 3.3 million acres, Death Valley is massive. It can’t be fully appreciated in a day or two. I had created a somewhat aggressive itinerary that had already taken us from below sea level to Dantes Peak, then back down to Badwater, and now up to Aguereberry Point, a viewpoint on the opposite side of Death Valley at an elevation of 6433 feet.

Getting to Aguereberry Point was a little more difficult than getting to Dante’s View, one mountain range over. It required driving several miles on a miserable, unimproved road. The extreme washboarding was irritating but what worried me more were the sharp rocks embedded in the surface of the “road”. A man with a wrecker down in Furnace Creek reportedly made a good living hauling passenger cars with punctured tires off of roads like this one.

Darla decided to wait in the car with a certain sleeping boy while I climbed up a rock formation overlooking the valley. We had the entire place to ourselves.

The road to Aguereberry Point takes visitors past the abandoned Eureka Mine. We made a brief stop on our way back to paved road.

If memory serves, visitors are allowed to venture a short way into the mine during some parts of the year. To Darla’s relief, now was not one of those times. I believe breeding bats were responsible for the prohibition at this time of year.

From the top of the hill, it was possible to see the old, abandoned mining trails that were slowly being reclaimed by the desert.

Our last stop of the day was the charcoal kilns in Wildrose Canyon. This group of 10 kilns was built in 1877 to provide charcoal for a mining company operating one mountain range over. Although they hadn’t been used in over a century, it still smelled like smoke inside of them.

Here The Boy is trying to catch some type of flying creature. The Mom is encouraging him, like any good mom would do. Of course, the flying creature had no cause for concern.

The charcoal kilns were modestly interesting but I have to admit that the memory of them conjures up nothing but bad feelings and associations. Like many of the attractions in Death Valley, getting here required climbing some deceptively steep hills. Today, I asked my Subaru to climb one hill too many. As we walked away from our vehicle, a passing hiker pointed out that there was steam coming out from our engine compartment.

We had a little bottled water with us. Most of our supplies were back in our motel room in Stovepipe Wells. After letting the engine cool down, we added all the water we had with us to the radiator – it was just enough to fill it – and returned to Stovepipe Wells without further incident.

Back at our room, The Boy practiced opening his books for a while before going to bed.

It had been another windy night but it was calm and relatively clear as the sun rose over these sand dunes. I didn’t realize at the time what a blessing the wind had been. It erased all the tracks of the previous day’s visitors leaving nothing but patterns in the sand and the occasional footprints of the creatures that make these dunes their home.

There are few places I’d rather spend a sunrise than on a group of sand dunes after a cleansing wind storm. Despite the early hour, I had plenty of company from other photographers who apparently shared my sentiment. We all staked out our own sections of these pristine dunes.

These white clay polygons tend to form in the depressions between dunes. They will break apart if walked on so it takes some scouting to find a set of them in good condition. The ones near the road are almost always broken apart.

The mesquite bush in the distance is one of the few plants that can survive in these dunes. Their roots typically extend 50 to 60 feet below ground. Some have been known to extend nearly 100 feet. This is what allows them to survive the shifting sand.

This is my favorite image from the morning’s shoot. The photographer in the distance paused as I took the shot. I’ve always wondered if he was posing for me. Probably not.

Tracks were already beginning to crisscross the dunes an hour after sunrise. I was glad I had arrived early.

The most interesting tracks of the day belonged to a sidewinder. They appeared and disappeared abruptly in the space of a few yards leaving me to wonder if the snake wasn't somewhere underfoot.

This was The Boy’s first experience with sand dunes. He seemed to like them, although he was a little put off by the added difficulty when walking up hills.

After our adventure on the dunes, we returned to our room to check out. I was a little anxious about the road worthiness of the Subaru for our trip home. I had never had a car engine overheat on me before. It had been running fine this morning but I decided to pick up some anti-freeze at the small gas station across the highway just in case.

Our final stop in Death Valley was Mosaic Canyon, a little slot canyon down the road from Stovepipe Wells. The canyon gets its name from the many small rocks in its walls that have been polished smooth over the course of time.

Today was the warmest of our three days in the park so The Boy worked hard at staying hydrated.

My final capture as we left Death Valley was this image of a rather healthy looking Coyote that had meandered across the road in front of us. It stopped to watch us stop to watch it.

We’ve always wanted to stay at the Ramada Inn in Tonopah, Nevada, so that is where we decided to spend the last night of our trip. It turned out to be an interesting place filled with employees that seemed…well…embittered to the world and everyone in it. I wondered if it was just working at the hotel that was making them unhappy or if it was living in Tonopah that was bumming everyone out.

Although quite interested in the lion, Lewis was not about to put his hand in its mouth.

It is a relatively easy drive from Tonopah to Bend – with a working vehicle. Unfortunately, our vehicle quit working as we descended into Austin, Nevada. It was crossing these mountains that ultimately did it in. We’ve just pulled over to let the engine cool down after it had overheated for the second time in 11 miles. Something was obviously not right and, unfortunately, we were in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday.

To make a long story short, it would take us 16 hours to travel 360 miles. At first, we would overheat every 30 to 60 miles. By the time we stopped in Burns, Oregon, we were overheating every five minutes. We limped into town at 3:00am on a bitterly cold and windy night. I can’t recall many days more miserable than this one had been.

Burns had no Subaru dealership so we ended up at Ruel Teague Dodge. The folks at Ruel Teague were very kind to us although they were ultimately unsuccessful at fixing the problem. The car was eventually towed to my mechanic in Bend, who determined that it had a melted thermostat, a clogged radiator, and several blown valves. Together these problems resulted in a repair bill in excess of $2,000 -- not to mention two weeks without a vehicle. This was definitely not how I had pictured our trip ending.

Despite the break downs and the repair bill, I’ve never regretted taking this trip. We had a fantastic time. I was already thinking about next year’s spring break while my Subaru sat in my mechanic’s garage waiting for parts. This is not to say that something didn’t need to be done to insure that this problem didn’t recur on our next adventure…

Allow me to introduce our new vehicle: Future adventures will take place in a Chevrolet Silverado 3500 with a camper loaded in the back. Cue the gas crisis!