Preferred RV Resort

Day 52-54, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, March 15-17, Preferred RV Resort, Pahrump, Nevada

Preferred is another RIP resort, in the middle of Pahrump.  Also recommended by the Weigants.  We did some hardware and RV errands after we arrived.  Jim bought the 2005 Bounder last May, and he continues to do repairs and updates on it.  Replaced the kitchen and bathroom faucets on this trip, replaced a toilet water connection that was leaking.  He is always making something better on the motor home.  We probably know where nearly all the hardware stores are in these small towns we stay in!  There was a great hardware store in Pahrump, with home decorator items, art supplies, lots of fun stuff!  I bought a hand made cutting board for the motor home, which I will sand and oil.  We bought little rubber feet to screw on it.  Wednesday night we went to a dinner at the resort, Greek salad and gyros.  Tasted great!

Thursday we went to Death Valley for the day.  We came up through Shoshone, to the Badwater area, then to Furnace Creek Visitor Center, where we ate our picnic lunch.  We got lucky, and they had just re-opened a side road that went to Artist’s Point, a short hike to a view of colored hills.  On the way back we drove up to Dante’s View, which overlooks Death Valley from 5,475 feet.  The salt flats are all that is left of an ancient lake now called Lake Manly, that was an average of over 1000 feet deep and surface area of 620 square miles.

Blooming desert on the road up from Shoshone

Ashford Mill ruins, 1914 mine processing

Ancient lake that filled this valley up to 1,000 feet deep

Bad guy by the Badwater sign

Always to the west we could see the Sierra Nevada mountains with snow on top, Mt. Whitney at 14, 496 feet, being the highest point in the continental United States.  Badwater, in Death Valley, is 85 horizontal miles away, and at -282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point in the continental United States.  Badwater is almost 3 vertical miles below Mt. Whitney!

Trail our over the fragile salt flats

Even some water here in this wet year!  Pretty salty!

On the road to Artist's Point

Looking back down at the parking lot from the trail at Artist's Point

Chromatic hills at Artist's Point from top of trail

Nobody likes drones!  Jim has not been flying this trip!

Salt flats from 5,000 feet up at Dante's View

Wild animals in the desert

Linda at top of Dante's View

Zoomed in to show me better!

Looking down at Badwater from Dante's View

Friday we went to Ash Meadows Wildlife Refuge, an area of springs with water that comes from underground.  This area was planned for development at one time, with a resort, golf course, and community of 30,000 homes.  Much more population than the water could ever have supported.  With lots of people working very hard, including the Nature Conservancy, this was avoided and the area protected.  It is a very unique desert environment. 

We went to see Devil’s Hole, a place where the water comes up out of the ground.  When there are earthquakes in Mexico, the water in this hole sloshes around!  We saw a film in the Visitor Center that showed this!  Kind of makes you feel like you are living on a thin crust!  There is a unique species of pupfish that lives in Devil’s Hole, and the projected extinction of this species gave some impetus to the process to protect the area.  We did get a picture of a different species of pupfish, in one of the springs at the main Refuge visitor area.   As the waters of Manly Lake dried up, pupfish got separated into various springs and evolved into different species.  Jim bought an Ash Meadows T shirt to support the refuge.  The visitor center is all staffed by volunteers.

Pond at the Visitor Center area.  We could see pupfish in this pool.  They were named pupfish because they dart around like puppies playing.

A model and a photographer on the boardwalk at the Refuge.

Devil's Hole, goes way, way, down!

The weather in the last couple of weeks has been warm for us, getting into the middle 80’s during the day!  But we just look in Accuweather and see what the weather is at home.  Then we feel better!  If has been a cold, rainy winter in the Pacific Northwest!