The distance from Bryce Canyon to Death Valley is 389 miles. Over half of this travel was via Interstate which we pick up on the other side of Zion National Park. We heard the road through Zion was torn up and under construction with significant delays so Libbie found us an alternate route on a narrow mountain road over a volcano. It was an amazing journey and made me very glad I had a peppy and nimble car as we navigated the curves on this interesting road. We switched the GPS over to altitude mode so we could see our height as we climbed to 11,000 feet and then descend on the other side down to Interstate 15.
Once we hit the Interstate it was smooth travel across the Nevada desert and around Las Vegas. We're not Las Vegas fans so it was great we could take the Northern loop around this 21st century cesspool although you could see the gaudiness from the highway. I would rather look at desert!
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| Tiny town of Death Valley junction outside the National Park |
The little town of Death Valley junction is in the Amargosa Desert. Death Valley junction received it's name in 1907 and was the junction of two railroads servicing the Death Valley Borax mines. Rail Service in Death Valley Junction ended in 1940. There's only 3 buildings standing in this town. The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, the Amargosa Cafe and the Death Valley Junction Garage which is now an empty building with fading paint. The faded sign on the side of the Death Valley Garage building says "Last Gas Before Death Valley". Good luck. The Wikipedia entry classifies Death Valley Junction as a ghost town.
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| Last Gas Before Death Valley |
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| Death Valley Junction vegetation |
Back in the heydays of Death Valley Mining, the Pacific Coast Borax Company in 1923 built a company town with buildings made of adobe to house the company offices, store, dormitory, a twenty three room hotel, dining room, lobby, and employees' headquarters. At the northeast corner of the U shaped complex, Pacific Borax built a recreation Hall. This community building was used for dances, town meetings and church service. The town population peaked in 1940 with 300 people according to the plaque in front of the building.
Mining in Death Valley declined and soon the building was practically abandoned when Marta Beckett, a performer and dancer from New York, discovered the town in 1967 while on vacation. She at first rented then purchased the Community Center, refurbished and renamed it. On Feb 10, 1968 Marta opened the doors of The Amargosa Opera House for a performance at 8:15 pm. It still is open for weekly performances to this day, although Marta ceased performing in 2009. (She is 86 years old in 2010).
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| Marta Beckett's Opera House |
The Amargosa Cafe is still a functioning restaurant.It's a little bizarre to see Christmas icicle lights hanging on this building especially since the temperature today is 119. We had lunch here and enjoyed speaking with the waitress who is a Death Valley Junction resident. We wondered why anyone would choose to live out here but we had our brain recalibrated by her.
After the small chit chat of "where are you from" we told her we drove here from North Carolina and were on our way to Los Angeles. She told us we would be better off if we turned around right now, why would anyone ever want to go to Los Angeles? She said she went there once and visited the La Brea tarpits behind the Los Angles County Museum of Art where they wanted to charge her for parking!
I have to agree with her, out here in Death Valley it's hard to imagine charging for parking. In retrospective maybe she is on to something. Forbes released a list of the 10 worst cities to live in and besides the usual suspects of Detroit and Cleveland, Los Angeles is on the list at #4.
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| Amargosa Cafe with icicle lights |
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| Welcome to the Amargosa Cafe |
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| View inside the Amargosa Cafe from our table |
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| Amargosa Cafe colorful business card |
We walked around the "ghost town" taking pictures in the 119 degree sun then got back into our air conditioned car for the 30 mile drive to Furnace Creek in the Death Valley National Park.
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| Entrance to the largest National Park in the US |
