Death Valley: Stove Pipe Wells

Day 113

The day had come to hit the open road. A couple of hours to the east was an RV park that would be our last stop in the valley. Temps were already on the climb, and there was one more big hill to crest in order to get out. We hatched  plan to get to the base of the summit today, and tackle the hill with cold temps the next morning. It's supposed to be 100 degrees out today and we could use some AC. It's either run the generator or go plug in. We drive two hours to our new destination and don't see much that's new. Then I spot the camouflage.

Something I never expected to see on this trip was manufacturer testing. The car above is a new model not yet released to the public. It's wearing heavy camouflage to hide body lines, styling, and any other trait that gives away some details to the competitors. With the excitement aside, we park across the street and hook up for some sweet AC. With the RV set to cool we've got time to do some exploring. Across the road and up 2.4 miles of washboard gravel road lays the mosaic canyon. Pack your Camelbacks, we're going for a walk.

The canyon has been carved out by thousands of years of floods and exposes some really cool looking stuff. Some of the walls are solid white marble. 

Nature at it's best. A big middle finger to the climate of death valley

Another half mile further and we can see why the canyon got it's name. A few thousand years ago a land slide piled hundreds of feet of rock on top of the marble. With enough time all the gaps between those rocks turned to rock itself. 

So there you have it. A picture of more rock. Just what you were looking for. Here, look at me.

You see that? I'm surrounded by rock. Let's take a look at Katie.

I'll be damned. She's surrounded by rock too. 
Death Valley. Rock. Dirt. Repeat.