Monday, January 21, 2008

Death Valley: Ubehebe Crater

We entered Death Valley NP from the north, arriving from Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. That was an excellent choice as thanks to it we did not meet any other tourists during our first afternoon there (in fact first other people that we met in Death Valley were two drunk crazy Germans that arrived at our camping ground at 3 in the night...).

This is how Death Valley looked when we arrived there:


Further along our way to the camping ground:


Day 2
One of the first places that we visited was Ubehebe Crater. Aware of high temperatures in the park, we woke up relatively early and set up for a short (around 1-1.5h) hike around volcanic Ubehebe Crater to Little Hebe Crater.

On the way to the craters:


Ubehebe Crater:


Moli hiking along the west rim of Ubehebe:


Little Hebe Crater:


These craters are located very close to Scotty’s Castle, an eclectic Spanish-style mansion build by a crazy guy in 1920's. As when we arrived at the castle it was already getting dark, we did not take a tour there, but just seeing it from outside gave as a pretty good idea how bizarre the interior of this place has to be. Apparently this place is pretty touristy. I can not understand why. If you can, avoid it (I found it so ugly, that I even did not take a single picture of it...)