Death Valley vacation - Pt 2

Before actually visiting the park, I thought Death Valley National Park was really just the valley. It includes the mountains on both sides as well, so here's a little of what's to see beyond what most people think of when they think of Death Valley. There's plenty of road to drive, as well as trail, which give some really pretty views across the valley. This shot below was at Dante's Ridge, which is one of the higher points on the eastern side of the park and overlooks Badwater. It's a crazy drive up to the trailhead (just a tiny little trail to the overlook once you get up there, though). Something like a 15% incline! Very very steep! And of course, once we're up there, Zach does have to get as high as he can :)

In the northern part of the park, up in the mountains above the valley, is a large historic house, Scotty's Castle. Interestingly, not a castle, nor owned by Scotty. It was a vacation house built by a wealthy couple in the 1920s, and Scotty was their dear friend and caretaker of the place. Tons of stories about the place! It's actually not completed, either. In the late 1920s and 1930s, the couple lost a lot of their fortune (as did most people) and construction came to a halt. By the time they were ready to start work again, the country had started setting aside land for Death Valley NP and everyone realized that the house was actually about 1 mile from the land the couple owned!. There had been a mistake in the only survey of the area, and so the couple had built a $2 million house on land they didn't own! It was eventually worked out as the house was incorporated into the park as a historical building, but it was a long time before that was actually sorted out.

One of the best parts of Scotty's Castle was the detail in the place. The fixtures, the patterns on the tile, all sorts of little accents show such attention! You can just walk around and find all these interesting little points. Like the weather vane below, a miner (possibly Scotty himself, according to the stories!). And the door, which has such incredible metal work on it. You can't see from this angle, but the door handle is a seahorse, to fit with the sea imagery on the door. So neat!

Another of the little surprises we found in the park was in the mountains to the west of the valley. Darwin Falls is a year-round waterfall in the park (as opposed to the 'dry falls' scattered in the mountains around the park). It was beautiful!! As you hike up towards it, you start walking along the waterway flowing from the falls and the valley just gets greener and greener, until you come into a little wooded nook with the falls flowing down. Dragonflies darting about, sunshine coming through the leaves... so pretty! Zach took the opportunity to cool his feet from the hike, and we spent a good little rest just enjoying the greenery!

Overall impressions from our trip:

• Much more to the park than we thought, really. Spent several days there, and filled them all! Certainly worth a trip if you're in the area. Very interesting historical and natural features.
  
• We're actually planning on going back. We'd like to hike Telescope Peak (Zach and his love of standing on top of high places again!) so we might take a long weekend over the summer and hike it. Yes, go to Death Valley in the summer. Really though, Telescope Peak is at a high enough elevation that it gets snow in the winter (they say the paths are 'typically clear by June'), so it is recommended as a summer hike.
  
• On a personal note, there's just something depressing though, when Death Valley, bordered by the Funeral Mountains, is more scenic and has more life than the place one is currently living. (sigh...)