Crater and Lake

After several relaxing days, today was a day to overprogram “Greg-style”. Death Valley is the largest national park in the continental United States, and it is about an hour drive from Furnace Creek to Ubehebe Crater. The rim is made of gravel, and we hiked around the rim in a bit more than an hour.

There were several additional smaller craters in the area. One was not too large, so we all walked into the crater.

Once again, common sense did not prevail when Ari and Greg decided to hike into the main Ubehebe Crater. The hike down went fairly quickly. The climb out was a struggle, especially for Greg: the loose gravel slipped underfoot as they hiked up the path. Indeed, Ari and Greg contributed to the erosion around the crater. They were hardly alone - other hikers struggled as footsteps pushed more small rocks into the crater.

After Ari and Greg exited, we drove towards Devil's Hole. On the way, we made two stops: first at the ghost town of Rhyolite, where one resident built a home from 51,000 used beer bottles. A sign said it is a rare example of bottle architecture.

Next, we stopped at a Tesla Supercharger in Beatty NV. Wild burros were walking in the town. They seemed very friendly, probably since they learned they can get handouts from people. While we waited, we took Ari into his first casino, where a slot machine made quick work of the $1 we gave him.

Finally, we reached Devil's Hole, a desert oasis. Yes, a rare breed of fish - the pupfish - live in a deep pool in the middle of the desert. This hole is the only place that the pupfish live. It is carefully monitored by ecologists due to its unique habitat.