Hot off of the heels of Las Vegas and a trip back to our hometowns, we were looking forward to getting back out and seeing the sights. Our next destination was Death Valley. For it, we were staying in Pahrump, NV. I would have liked to stay
in Death Valley, but the
only park that had full hookups was booked solid for a couple of the days that we wanted to go (the week fell over Veterans Day) and we just aren't set for multiple days of boondocking (which is the majority of campgrounds in Death Valley).
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| Us at Badwater Basin |
We flew back into Las Vegas and were reunited with the camper in the storage lot. I had fears of someone messing with things, but when we got there- everything was just as we left it. Pahrump is only about 60-90 minutes outside of Las Vegas. We drove there and stayed in the Walmart parking lot for the night. We were one of a handful of RVers and truckers. Not a bad stay.
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| Parked at Walmart for the night |
To show our appreciation, we did our grocery shopping in the morning before we headed to the campground.
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| Mandie's face cracks me up |
The
Nevada Treasure RV Resort is one of the few places that really is worthy of the "resort" moniker in its name. The place was beautiful.
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| Fountain |
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| Putting green and bench overlooking a fish pond |
The site were nice. They were fully paved/blacktop and ours had a gazebo and full-sized grill.
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| Our site |
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| Our gazebo |
Their on-site restaurant had Taco Tuesdays and we quite happily joined them for $1 tacos. They were good; not great, but only a buck.
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| Yummy! |
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| At the back of the restaurant is a small bowling alley |
We checked on the pool and it was open and heated. The kids enjoyed that one morning.
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| The pools |
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| Swimming |
On
RoadTrippers.com, we found that there was a place where people had built homes in the sides of hills called Dublin Gulch. They were likely initially built in the 1870s and occupied off and on until the 1970s. There was the crazy amount of garbage left behind (and new garbage in the form of broken bottles). They even have burial plots/headstones in one area.
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| Us at Dublin Gulch |
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| Remnants left behind |
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| Tombstones |
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| The area |
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| Trash piles |
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| Fortunately, we filled up on the way in! |
We were able to make 2 day trips into Death Valley. The first one, we toured the Welcome Center and then went to
Badwater Basin where we were at the lowest point in North America.
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| Furnace Creek Visitor Center |
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| Click this, zoom in, and see if you can find the "Sea Level" sign |
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| Us at Badwater Basin |
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| The walk out |
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| Salt up close |
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| Love. |
On our way out from that, we stopped at the
Ash Meadows Wildlife Refuge center where they had an astronomer with a pretty big telescope. Since it was late in the season and chilly out, we were the only visitors for a while. The detail he showed us on the moon was amazing- you could see craters and ridges and so much texture. He showed Paige a bunch of constellations which she still remembers many of them. The one thing that stands out the most for me is that he actually showed us the Andromeda Galaxy- not just "it's in this area", you could actually make out the fuzzy spot where it was. Talk about blowing your mind. It was amazing!
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| Logan looking at the moon |
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| The setup |
Our second day of touring started with us
driving Artist Drive. It was beautiful, but so very windy. In fact, I had my head out of the window to take a photo and my ballcap was yanked off of my head and instantly disappeared. I never did find it. (sad face)
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| Artist Drive |
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| More of Artist Drive |
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| Overlooking Badwater Basin |
Leaving Artist Drive, we headed to
the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. These were wildly different than Badwater Basin and Artist Drive, but beautiful in their own right. Even with the raging wind, the kids went and played on the dunes (up until they were getting beaten up by sand).
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| Typical Setzers- lunch at the truck (at Mesquite Dunes) |
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| Us at Mesquite Sand Dunes |
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| Flat Paige and Flat Logan |
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| Rolling down the hill |
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| Buddies |
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| Sand Angels |
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| Sand storm |
We drove out to an area called
Stove Pipe Wells before making our way back to the visitor center. On the way, we saw some amazing sand storms. At the visitor center, the kids were badged as Junior Rangers.
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| Asking questions & getting quizzed |
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| Logan asking questions |
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| Being Badged as Junior Rangers |
Before we knew it, we added Death Valley as a place we want to go back to- knowing that a week and 2 sight-seeing days wasn't nearly enough.
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