Lows and Highs

When we got up this morning, we were in Pahrump, Nevada, near the eastern gateway to Death Valley National Park. We drove from there to Furnace Creek, near the lowest point in the continental United States. The elevation here was about 190 feet below sea level. The actual low spot is about minus 282 feet at Badwater Basin. We stopped at the village and took this picture of the wagons that were hitched to the famous 20 Mule Teams that hauled borax from here to Mojave, a considerable distance to the southwest. We then went from Furnace Creek to Scotty’s Castle, another interesting historical landmark in the park.

After we finished touring Death Valley today, we headed westward along California State Route 190, which took us over two mountain passes with winding and narrow roads. We went over the first pass and descended to Panamint Valley. Then over the White Mountains to descend into the Owens Valley, just east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where the highest point in the continental United States, Mount Whitney, looms at 14,491 feet above sea level. Mount Whitney in the picture to the left is not the one that looks tallest, since the linear perspective makes the peak to the left look taller. Mount Whitney is the peak among the very jagged peaks near the center and just to the right – it’s the one that looks tallest among those jagged peaks.

Click on either image to enlarge. Photo credits – Damsel.