Furnace Creek Campground | Death Valley National Park

Sunday - 8 February 2004 - Death Valley National Park, California: We left Palm Springs today and drove on 62 to Yucca Valley, where we turned north on 247 through Lucerne Valley, up to Barstow. At Barstow we drove on I-15 to Baker, then 127 north to Shoshone and entered Death Valley on 178 and followed it to our campsite at the Furnace Creek Campground. We stopped at 1 o'clock for lunch (lovely leftovers) at a "park" for ATV'ers. The best thing about this park is that it had a huge sand parking lot where we could pull-in and turn-around and have lunch.

After we entered Death Valley National Park we had a little excitement! There is virtually ZERO traffic on these roads. Only one million people come to this National Park every year, and only about 250 of them are here right now. Along a barren stretch of bumpy road we came across a car in the ditch. A lone man was standing there, hopelessly buried up to his axle in sand. We stopped. If nothing else, we had 2 blips of service on the cell phone and could have called for help. We didn't even attempt to get off the road - why beach ourselves too - we just stopped in our lane. No traffic to worry about anyway.

Seems the driver, a very cute and much sunburned English tourist, had missed a turn and was making a U-turn to go back when he had become stuck in the sand. When he tried to go forward or backward he just sunk deeper. He was not moving. As luck would have it (maybe this was being filmed for one of those reality TV shows?) a guy drives up in a 4-wheel drive WITH A WINCH ON THE FRONT. What are the chances of this happening??? The old-timer hopped out of his truck and assessed the situation. He lit a cigarette. He had the Englishman open the "boot" and check for any possible places to attach the rope. Finally it was decided the best place was on some sort of stabilizer bar on the bottom rear of the chassis. The Englishman told us that it was a borrowed car, belonging to his friend in LA. He was visiting his friend and was generously offered the car for a few days of touring in the desert. Oops. (I told The Englishman to tell his friend he had swerved to avoid a herd of antelope!) The cord was attached. The winch was tightened. The Camero was started. Pressure was applied and the car came out of the ditch! The Englishman shook our hands and drove off - sand, rock and dust flying. Such is life in the middle of nowhere. With a winch.

The towing begins and the Camero is Free!

And so we continued driving towards Furnace Creek - our favorite campsite in Death Valley.

Our only (other) stop in the park today was at Badwater - the lowest point in the United States - 282 feet below sea level!  Very interesting place - since we were here two years ago they have completely re-engineered the parking lot and added cement paths to the Lowest Point. It is very nice now and wheel-chair friendly.

The Lowest Couple

Fifteen minutes after checking into our campsite at Furnace Creek, we had our new neighbors in our RV for a tour! Our Intrigue is proving to be very popular. The internet satellite is fascinating! I love it! Of course, I can show off my washer-dryer and heated tile floors for hours, but I CAN'T USE THEM while dry-camping. Furnace Creek offers NO hook-ups! That is why we are here. We want to see how Our Intrigue does On Her Own. So far, so good.

When we set-up camp, our batteries were charged to 98%. This is normal. So we put out the slide rooms and put up the satellite dish and it went down to 95%. (When I set up the dish, it "noticed" we were below sea level and it took a few minutes, but then all was well.) Then we turned everything off and it read 99% charged. While chatting outside with our new neighbors, we ran our generator for an hour. Everything is humming along quite well and I am most pleased! I made a delicious dinner - lasagna, tossed salad and garlic bread. You know - your usual camping meal - and we are going to watch my favorite Sunday Night TV show and call it a night.

RV Park: Furnace Creek Campground