Today was to be the 'coolest day' for our stay in Pahrump, NV, so we got up early and went to Death Valley to finish the things we didn't get to do the last time we were there. We had stopped in 2013 but the road to the charcoal kilns (coke ovens) had been washed out, so we couldn't see them at that time. That was on our agenda for today, along with a hike into Mosaic Slot Canyon. It is a narrow, marble slot canyon, and the marble is like it is polished, and it's quite slippery. We have been to Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ, but that is a red sandstone slot canyon and it is much different from this one. We were glad we started out early, as the day warmed up quickly. The charcoal kilns took us to a higher elevation and along with more vegetation, was the bonus of roadside flowers! They were very plentiful all along the road to the ovens, and that surprised us. There are no flowers in the basin, as it's so hot and dry there, and everything seems so parched. The elevation at the ovens was 6500 feet and the basin in the valley is -285 (below sea level). It was a real treat to see many of the same flowers that we had seen in Joshua Tree NP. We even stopped to check out a huge sand dune that had formed in the park. Death Valley has so many different things to make it an interesting place to visit. We did like visiting it better in November than April, though. I will shed a little light on the charcoal ovens, as they were built in 1879 and they were used to produce charcoal for the Murdock Mine smelter. They filled the kiln with pinyon pine logs, that were plentiful in this area, and burned them, reducing them to charcoal. That process took 6 to 8 days. It took another 5 to 6 days to cool them down and then, they would be hauled to the Murdock Mines. They were used to extract silver and lead from the rich ore that was found in the mine. We plan to kick back a little tomorrow and possibly do some geo-caching in this little town. We always find something of interest when we cache.
Jim at the entrance to Death Valley National Park. There was a geo-cache in the area, also.
We had to ask the female ranger what this flower was. She said it was called Rock Lady and we found it tucked into a small alcove in the Mosaic Slot Canyon. The leaves are quite picky.
Jim is making his way through the marbled Mosaic Slot Canyon.
These 4 mule deer crossed the road in front of us. Jim thought they were just plain old mule deer and I thought they were WILDLIFE!
There were 10 charcoal kilns in this remote area. Each one could hold more than 4 cords of wood.
This was another strange flower for us, and the ranger thought it was Purple Mat. Very delicate.
This is the huge sand dune that we saw. The sand was so hot from the sun that we didn't walk in it for long.
The thermometer at the visitor center registered at 101 degrees. That's hot, but it's a dry heat!
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