Death Valley Sunset

On our way back to Beatty after visiting Marble Canyon we stopped at the Stovepipe Sand Dunes.  It was one of those 30 minutes of magic that happen around sun set sometimes.



Just after the sun disappeared off the distant clouds this cold wind rose up from the valley below, blowing sand and moisture.  We didn't hang around out in the dunes to see how much sand could be moved in a short time.  By the time we had driven through the sand storm and up to the 3500' pass leading to Beatty we were hit by a hail storm with lightning. A change from 70 degrees to 37 degrees. Such extremes in Death Valley.

Driving down from Beatty to Stove Pipe Death Valley the highway travels down a massive alluvial fan.  Of course we had to go out and see what was over the next ridge.
From Stove Pipe we drove 15 miles on a rough sand and gravel road to Marble Canyon.  We walked through the massive cut in the rocks even though 4 wheelers could drive through.
The water had cut down to some spectacular layers of diorite.
This is looking back down toward the valley floor and beyond to the Funeral Mountains on the east side of Death Valley.

We stayed in Beatty NV for the first half of the week and explored places close. We found a less traveled entry into Death Valley on the Nevada Side.  The road dead ended at the Bullfrog mine about a half a mile in. 
Just out side of Beatty is the 1903 ghost town of Rhyolite.  This boom and bust gold mine town had a population of 10000 at is boom and the school was just finishing construction when the gold ran out and the population plummeted.  The town lasted only a few years. 
I keep getting attracted to the red barrel cactus.
Just above Rhyolite we adopted this little valley/canyon. Great place to hike and paint.  We climbed to the top of the valley and into the next on a well worn burro trail.  
Another beautiful sunset in Nevada just outside of Death Valley.

I'm about a week behind in my posting.  Hard to find fast WiFi out in the wide open spaces of the West.  These images are from our first taste of Death Valley driving from Lone Pine CA to Beatty NV.  This red volcanic canyon runs into the west side of Saline Valley, one of the two valleys in Death Valley.  The colors were spectacular.  It seemed as if the volcanic rock had been squirted out of a tube of cadmium red deep.