S: We arrange a wakeup call at 4:30 am, so we can go to the dunes and try to get some critter action.
The dunes are lovely when the sun is low at morning or evening; the patterns in the sand at their best. We see lots of tracks, but almost no animals. High point is seeing very recent sidewinder tracks - even the detail of the belly scales is captured in the sand.
T: Later I realize that, though early morning and evenings are usually best for most types of critter watching, the Desert Iguanas that are the attraction here are truly diurnal animals. With an internal body temperature of up to 117 degrees, they are out later in the day (Tony and Sheila later report seeing them here on their way out of the valley, around 11:30 am). I'm not sure why, but no guide book or lizard-spotting guide I've seen mentions that the Desert Iguanas are easily visible here; in the middle of the day, you can see many of them among the scrub near the dunes.
Sidewinders are nocturnal, and it's probably not a good idea to go trapsing around in the dark hoping to see one.
S: Having not yet had coffee, we meander over to Stovepipe to see if we can get a cup. I ask a passing worker where we can get coffee, and he says the hotel registration desk has some. I say we're not registered here, and he says something like "I won't tell if you won't tell." The coffee there, however, has been sitting on the burner since the late Pleistocene. One sip and out it goes. Further, I must dissuade the crows from going after it.
We've checked out the Stovepipe campground before - some people we know have said it's nice, but it's just a parking lot. The road to Cottonwood/Marble Canyon starts here, by the airport. There are washboards and pretty deep sand in the road - not too good. Another adventure we'll save for later. We get the Saturn turned around and then set up our stove and camp chairs and have real Peet's French Roast coffee out there in the desert. Very pleasant to just sit in the early morning sun and sip...
T: I love stuff like this. Sitting next to the gravel road, admiring the rocks, the morning sunlight hitting the mountains in the distance, and something as simple as a good cup of coffee. Nope, it's not a commercial. And it would lose a lot of it's charm if it were every day!
Since we're in the area anyhow, we decide to do the Mosaic Canyon hike, which we'd also done on an earlier visit. Though it's not completely new to us, it's a good choice. The sun is getting higher in the sky, lighting up the canyon walls. Lots of marble-like slick rock here to clamber over, and the rock-studded walls that must give the canyon its name. We already know that the narrower parts open out into a less interesting area, so we hang out at the end of the narrows for a while, watching a lizard (whiptail, I think), doing acrobatic scrambling up the face of the canyon. We also see a chuckwalla -- a first for me, and the largest lizard in Death Valley. Though we video tape and photograph from a distance, he lets us approach within a couple of feet before he scrambles into a crack in the rock. As their scientific name (Sauromalus obesus) implies, they are quite fat-looking lizards. Later, the field guide tells me that they avoid capture by inflating themselves in a rock crevice.
On the way out of the canyon, we admire more blooms. Someday maybe I'll do more to figure out exactly what we're seeing, but it really seems enough to just admire the purty flowers.
S: Yeah, I always want to know what things are called, but generally find that knowing the name doesn't really increase the enjoyment much, except when it's a name like "beavertail" or of course "sauromalus obesus!"
Back at Stovepipe, the restaurant has opened for breakfast. Green chili and onion omelets are decent, better than typical Furnace Creek fare, but nothing to write (more than this) home about.
The Devil's Cornfield, on the way back, is just an area of the desert with odd plants in a salt-crusted soil. We wander a bit out there. It's not particularly good for walking - like that snow you sometimes get with a crust of ice on top.
Salt Creek is a nice interlude; we've done it before, but with more lizard (and fewer horsefly) sightings.
At the Inn gift shop, I start buying coyote figurines made by Robert Shields, the '70s mime who was half of "Shields and Yarnell." In spite of the mime connection, these figures are pretty cool. I've been eyeing them for a couple of days. They have a certain je-ne-sais-you-know...
Here's where the cabin pays off. Our room key gets us into the swimming pool - a very nice mid-day break - and then we can get a "light" lunch, and then have a siesta in the room through the hottest hours of the day.
T: The shaded thermometer at the pool reads 110 degrees while we're there, and the deck is burning hot to my feet (I actually scrambled onto a deck chair at one point with burning feet). I've started to question the accuracy of some of the thermometers around Furnace Creek, but later find that the official recorded temperature for that day was 107 degrees. I think that's the hottest I've ever experienced Furnace Creek.
The water is just wonderful. And a nap in the AC is pretty good, too. Instead of being ragged and cranky, we're up for some more sight seeing in the evening.
S: The Devil's Golf Course. Salt-crystal formations, difficult to walk on, for a mile or so in all directions. If you go there, though, for maximum effect, walk out at least a little way to get to where they aren't so trampled by the other visitors.
Badwater sunset. This is one of the only places you'll get a sunset reflected in water in the valley. As the light disappears, you can feel the heat still coming off the ground.
Badwater was a good choice for our ceremony. Besides the much-repeated fact that "we can only go up from there." It's probably the single place in DV we've visited most besides the Furnace Creek campground, cafe, and general store/gift shop. It's somewhat featureless - you can look up at the cliffs to the east and see the sea level sign, or to the Panamints and Telescope Peak to the west, but the ground is just flat and brown-and-white, with those couple of shallow pools. But it always attracts me. I especially like going out there on a still, hot night.
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