Beatty, Nevada:
When Sue booked us in or 2 nights into the Death Valley Inn in Beatty it was only because there were no rooms available in either Stovepipe Wells or Furnace Creek, the only 2 places you can stay inside Death Valley. She had no idea what the place would be like.
It turns out to be a side of America that we've seen flash past a few times while on the bus tour but have never stopped in before.
For such a small place, Beatty has a lot of history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatty,_Nevada
Have a look at 'some' pictures on Flicker:-
http://nevada.untraveledroad.com/Nye/Beatty.htm
We still found a few to take though!
We did not expect to find this in the desert
We drove over 100 miles from Vegas through desert with mountains ringing us and passed only one very small community on the way. We weren't just driving from Vegas, we were also driving from 2012 in many ways. There's high speed internet, trucks and plumbing here but very little else feels familiar. We could have driven back into the 1960s or earlier.
We also had no idea that we would be only 29 miles from the atomic test sites of the late 1940s and 1950s. We missed the 3-monthly tour, but I'm not sure we would have gone on it!
http://www.atomictourist.com/nts.htm
Rhyolite Townsite:
A chance conversation in the hot tub, as one does, with a German and Dutch couple made us decide to visit this abandoned Gold Rush town, a few miles out of Beatty.
This was a gem of a place!
The site tells the 14 year story of the town. In 1904 2 prospectors found gold and in the following year Rhyolite was established. But the San Francisco earthquake in 1905 and the resulting financial panic in the next 2 years severely limited funding for Nevada mines. By 1910 people began to leave the town in large numbers as the mine failed. Only 14 people remained by 1920, compared to 8,000 in 1908.
The bank built 1908 at cost of $90,000. Had electric light, steam heating and marble floors.
This house was erected in 1906 and was built with the intention of raffling it off!
DEATH VALLEY:
This is a misnamed valley, famed for its uncompromising climate yet teeming with life. Desert plants, like pickleweed and common creosote, and even desert-dwelling fish and snails live here in profusion.
The valley's formation began at least 26 billion years ago and the landscape is still evolving. Lakes have formed and dried up in areas to the south, and recent volcanic activity is evident in the NE corner.
Only we could get caught in a traffic jam caused by road works in such an isolated place.
We'd tried and failed to get a room in the Furnace Creek Ranch, one of only 2 places to stay actually in the Valley, but later in the day we did get a glimpse inside the resort.
Today's temperature: 98 degrees F
There's a spectacular view from here, surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly coloured badlands.
Today's temperature: 103 degrees F
We took the Artists drive, a 9 mile one-way, scenic loop drive through multi-coloured volcanic and sedimentary hills.
When you reach it, the Artists Palette almost looks like a man-made trick. The brilliant colours of the rocks can be seen individually throughout the valley but here they are splashed together in one spot.
Devil's Golf Course:
Today's temperature: 107 degrees F
This is one of the eeriest formations in Death Valley, an immense area of rock salt eroded by wind and rain into jagged spires. Once the bottom of a long-vanished lake , it got stirred up to result in acres of chewed-up ground covered with delicate crystalline salt formations. At first it seems hard to understand why tourists like us are allowed to walk on it and destroy countless beautiful crystals, but every time it rains the crystals melt down to a salty liquid, then, as the Golf Course dries out, the crystals start growing again.
Today's temperature: 107 degrees F
At 281 feet below sea level, this is the lowest point in the western hemisphere; a surreal landscape of vast salt flats. Early settlers named it 'Badwater' because their mules refused to drink the salty water.
You walk out on a boardwalk that protects the tiny salt pond. Even in the winter the temperature of the salt flats can be 80 degrees F hotter than the air around them.
We found a small pool of water....
Allegedly the most-visited part of Death Valley, we had planned to go on our second day in the valley. This unfinished grand Spanish-styled home is the only private mansion ever to be built in the Valley. We duly set off, only to meet a sign saying that the road was closed 25 miles ahead due to flash flooding. The electricity had gone off in Beatty at 8p.m. the previous night and was not back on when we left the next morning, and we wondered if there was any connection.
Scotty's Castle was 26 miles on, but, of course, we ignored the sign and drove on only to find that the road was indeed closed, as was the house! A 50 mile round-trip to no avail.
If you want to have a look at what we missed click on the site below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotty's_Castle
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