On this, our last day in Death Valley, we went out to Harmony Borax Works to view the equipment that was used to mine borax here before the creation of the park:

Back at Furnace Creek Ranch, we browsed the “rusty stuff” museum.  This train was in much better shape back when I came here as a teenager:

On the way out of Death Valley, the kids received their Junior Ranger badges and toured the visitor center.  Death Valley is indeed a land of superlatives:

We left Death Valley and overnighted on BLM land just Southwest of Las Vegas.  See the trip map for details.  Good Shabbos!

This morning we left Page and drove a couple miles South to the overlook for Horseshoe Bend.  I walked out a far as I dared, which was about 10 inches from an 1100 foot drop.  I wish I had brought a monopod to get the camera completely beyond the ledge, but you get the idea:

Next we visited the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center:

The kids earned their Glen Canyon NRA Junior Ranger badges, as well as the badges for Rainbow Bridge National Monument.  Rainbow Bridge is only reachable by boat, so the visitor center for the monument is here as well:

More views of the dam:

We drove West from Page and set up for dispersed camping in the Lone Rock area.

We walked down to the beach to fly the kite:

We had a campfire at sunset:

Another amazing day on the road!  Visit the trip map for details.

This morning we left our dispersed camping site near Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park and drove into Kanab.  The road is closed daily from 8:30am to 11:30am due to blasting for road widening, so we wanted to be sure to get through before that.

We arrived at the Kanab BLM office promptly at 8:30 for the lottery for The Wave.  Each group filled out a lottery form and was assigned a number.  Corresponding numbered balls are placed in a bingo spinning cage thing and the winning balls were read off.  There were 20 groups there, and only 10 people are allowed in per day.  The first four winning groups were each two-person groups, so there were two slots left.  The next winner was a group of four, and they declined the permit as it meant only two of them could go.  The next winner was a group of one, and I won the last permit.  The other 11 groups went away empty handed.

Unfortunately, it means only one of us gets to go, but that’s better than no-one.  Trish and I decided I would go, as the 3.5 mile hike to The Wave is not marked and it’s largely across slickrock, so there are no footprints to follow, and I’m the better map reader of the two of us.

After the lottery, we checked out the visitor center displays.  The visitor center is also for the

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, so the kids picked up their Junior Ranger workbooks:

After grocery shopping and getting gas, we drove a bit North of Kanab to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the world.  Trish and the kids took a tour while I did some work in the RV.  There’s a description and photos on Tricia’s Blog, and M’s blog and B’s blog both have descriptions as well.

We left Best Friends and drove 40 miles East of Kanab, then drove 8 miles south on House Rock Valley Road.  House Rock Valley is a dirt road, and we had to keep it about 15 miles an hour, so it took a while to reach the trailhead.  There’s no camping at the trailhead, but thankfully there’s a dispersed camping site just up the hill from the trailhead.  See the trip map for details.  The terrain along the road was incredible:

Tomorrow, we will do a bit of home schooling in the morning, and then I’ll hike to The Wave!