Having survived 24 hours on the floor of Death Valley, I was grateful to head up 4,000 feet in elevation into the
Panamint Range. I watched my car's temperature gauge steadily drop as I climbed, and let out an actual cheer when it dropped below 100 degrees. Unfortunately, I was dismayed to see the temperature soon start rising again! Perhaps my overnight camping wouldn't be as comfortable as I'd hoped.
I'd read about
the park's wild burro population, and eventually came across a small herd hanging out along the road. This fellow looked like he'd been in a scuffle or two over the course of his life.
I stopped and watched the group for a while. There did appear to be a leader who would encourage stragglers to move when they didn't seem to be moving fast enough for his liking.
I was regarded with mild interest at best. If I couldn't be eaten and I wasn't going to eat them, it was clear that they didn't consider me to be worth much of their attention.
The burros seemed comfortable with the heat, too. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find triple-digit temperatures at 4,000 feet. Denver hits 100 degrees in the summer, too, and it's more than 5,000 feet above sea level.
Buddies make good headrests.
I came upon a small family group later with this fuzzy baby. These adults took more interest in me, so I didn't follow them for any more pictures.
There was no waterfall or alpine lake to find. Instead, the scenic attraction is this
row of 10 kilns that were used to convert lumber to charcoal in the late 1800s. Apparently there is also a quarter-mile walk to an overlook with a nice view back down Wildrose Canyon, which I unfortunately wasn't aware of.
Yup. Nice kiln.
The sunset that evening had the color that I had hoped for the night before. The terrain obscured the actual horizon, but the show higher up in the sky was still impressive.
My night's sleep actually wasn't all that bad. There was a light breeze that helped keep things cool. And something hoofed did saunter past my tent during the night. Still, my sleep overall was restful and I was up and back on the road headed to my next destination early the following morning, with nothing but fond memories of my questionable decision to visit Death Valley in July!
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