View from the parkinglot outside the museum for the area state parks and the reason why the area is so hard to get to. Those mountain peaks are at 11,000 feet and impassable.
I guess Nav-Air is a significant contributor to the museum and gets its own PR exhibit. These guys were going to be my employer straight out of college, they recruite a lot of NMT graduates along with the likes of competing weapon maker Raytheon. Did the interviews and filled out all the hiring papers and was set to move to CA and start working in a few months when they told me that after reviewing my transcripts I was 1 credit hr short on thier math requirement and I was disqualified. My recruiter and others at NavAir really wanted to hire me and tried to fudge the numbers by counting some CS and Physics courses as math related but that made other numbers short. They are really strict on the requirements and there was no way around them although everyone involved agreed I was much better qualified than other new hires and I probably would have been given a mid level position to start. Oh well.. How my life could have very easily ended up entirely different.
Down the road to Death Valley. Its actually a lot further away than I thought by looking at the maps. We left the state museum at the main highway at 8am and it was 9 by the time we got to the sign and entrance and further than that to get to anything else.
Glad we didnt have to worry about this problem. Hottest place on earth and oh by the way turn off your AC while going up hill so you dont break down.
Theres no phone service and the little station midway did not allow using their phones to call for tow trucks, because “the reason why your cell phone doesnt work here is the reason why our phone calls cost so much”. In short if you break down, and a lot do, you’re f*cked.
Dont see signs like this too often… They had elevation signs for every 1000 ft. At the rim was 3K and quickly went to 0 in a few miles.
110 degrees at 9:30 in the morning, not a good sign…
A bit hotter further in at the Museum..
People actually used to mine stuff in Death Valley? Talk about a bad job.
Some of the areas wildlife, present and past
Salt beds in this shot are -300 something feet, mountains in the background is 11000 feet
The rock walls of the valley were very pretty if you cared enough to look at them while dying of heat stroke..
It took us about 3 hours to get through and who knows how hot it got at the end, out side of the park is more barren wasteland and 100’s of miles of 115+ temps. We were soaking down our textile gear and shirts with water and that kept us comfortable and relitively cool till you dried out 15 miles later. I had taken 3 pairs of gloves for this trip for hot and cold weather, perferated leather and thick gauntlets with liners. With it being this hot the winter gloves actually worked the best, insulation to keep the hot air out. We also tried riding a bit illegaly without helmets and thats just unbearable, try to picture 3 hairdriers on high pointed straight at your face. With the full face on and visor closed you can control the vents to manage the airflow better so its more like one hairdrier on medium in your face, not pleasant but better than the alternative.
Dear lord!… My kingdom for some AC.
Yes, it sure was way hotter than I thought for me. I was sweating so much in my gear from riding around death valley park. It was fun seeing the mountains, pouring cold water all over me.