Shuttle to Death Valley National Park and the Vista at Zabriskie Point

March 27th:Today we met at the Hilton Garden Inn at 11:30 am for a get acquainted gathering and load all of our luggage onto the van and begin our shuttle to Death Valley National Park.  The drive took about 2-1/2 hrs and we had a good headwind as we climbed over the range west of Las Vegas.  The scenery along the drive was rugged:

 

At Pahrump, NV we turned left onto Rte 190, which took us directly to the national park and to our drop off point about 16 miles from Furnace Creek:

This was at the park boundary:

 

Death Valley is the largest national park (about 3.4 million acres) in the contiguous United States.  On the west it is bound by Telescope Peak (11,049’) and on the east by Dantes View (5,475’).  The Badwater Basin salt pan is the lowest point (282’ below sea level) in North America. 

First we had to unload all the bikes, fill water bottles, and gear up for the windy ride. 

Today the temperature was in the upper 90’s with a strong wind blowing out of the south; a cross wind as we biked towards the west.  The cross wind made biking somewhat difficult, because it was quite hard to keep a straight path and a lot of braking was required for the downhill trip.  The views were great:  

Downhill Ahead

After about 11 miles of riding, we reached Zabriskie Point, which was a fabulous lookout point for viewing the Death Valley badlands.  After parking the bike on the wind-protected side of the van, we had a short hike uphill for a panoramic view of the mudstone hills.

These golden-brown mudstone hills are full of rills and gullies created by times when water rushed down the slopes.  Down among the gullies are trails for traversing the badland area. There were information stations discussing the area and its history:

 

After 5 more miles of downhill riding, we entered the Ranch at Death Valley property, which is part of the Oasis at Death Valley and where we are staying for 3 nights.  We had about 30 minutes to shower and be ready for the short drive to the restaurant at the Oasis at Death Valley for dinner.  Both the Ranch at Death Valley and the Oasis are totally booked with visitors to the National Park.  

Tomorrow we have breakfast from 7-8:00 am at the 1849 Buffet on the Ranch property and then debrief for our 46 miles ride.