Death Valley Day 3

Today is a more lazy day in Death Valley National Park. We’ve been doing really well at seeing what’s open in the park, so there isn’t that much left to see.

We started at 7 am with birding both at the ranch, and then over at the inn. There are ponds here, and they attract water birds.

Then we drove the Artist’s Drive loop again in full sun. It was sunset the first time we drove it, so the colors towards the end were fading. Some of the minerals are on the west side, so morning sun makes them brighter.

We stopped and did a short walk in the little slot canyons at Artist’s Palette.

We came back to the room for lunch and a rest, then went swimming in the nice spring-fed pool at the ranch. There are photos of a spring-fed pool here from 100 years ago.

By 3:30pm it had clouded over and was raining in the mountains to the west. Outflow winds gusting to 21 kts. We had planned to go out and watch the sunset, but with the low clouds, there wasn’t much visible.

We went out birding instead, but the storm had the birds hunkering down.

It rained at 7pm, 0.01 inches recorded at the Furnace Creek visitor’s center a half a block away, enough to make the road and dusty cars wet. So Donna got to see it rain in Death Valley, a pretty rare event.