Sunset at Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley

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At the end of my bone-jarring drive back from the Racetrack, I arrived at Ubehebe Crater just after the sun set.  The Amargosa Mountains to the east were still lit by the sun, but quickly turning from purple to grey.

I admired Ubehebe Crater for just a minute, before getting back in the car.  No surprise, it was windy here, just like it was when I visited the crater back in 2005.

As I drove the 38 miles from Ubehebe Crater to Daylight Pass Road, a beautiful late-evening sky lit up, then faded away in my rear-view mirror.

After making the turn onto Daylight Pass Road (which, by the way, is notmarked for southbound travelers), I still had 133 miles to go to get to Las Vegas, where my disappointing motel room was waiting at one of the far-off-the-strip casinos.  I filled up with gas and beverages at Beatty, which has a few good motels.  I stayed in Beatty on my 2005 trip, and it would have made sense to stay there again, except I wanted to use the final full day of my trip to return to Zion National Park — which I had missed (due to food poisoning) on Day 2.  That meant a long drive to Vegas, sleep, then another long drive into southwestern Utah the next morning. 

If you’re traveling Daylight Pass Road before all the daylight is gone, or you just want to have a truly ghostly experience, be sure to visit Rhyolite.  It’s an old ghost town with plenty of well-preserved ruins.  Check out my 2005 visit to Rhyolite to learn more.

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