5-days exploring Death Valley National Park. Entering from Beatty, Nevada, exiting through Pahrump. Follow the pictures for text explaining each location.
Leadville Ghost Town - Coming in from Beatty, NV, you enter Death Valley National Park on a very non-descript dirt road. In fact, there's not much fanfare that you're even in the park. Sounds like my kind of place. You climb slightly to Red Pass before descending rapidly, losing almost 1000 feet within 2 miles. In a small valley nestled in the hills are several abandoned mine shafts and a half-dozen structures. The following is an excerpt from Death Valley Ghost Towns by Stanley W. Paher -

"In the early spring of 1926 the town of Leadfield came into boisterous being in the upper part of 11-mile long Titus Canyon, a colorful rugged defile that cuts and winds 5,500 feet through the Grapevine Mountains to the floor of Death Valley. The town was concieved by stock promoter and manipulator C. C. Julian, who had purchased a very large deposite of low-grade lead in the canyon for promotion and resale. His reputation already was suspect becasue of oil stock shenanigans at Signal Hill in the Los Angeles Basin. (One account states that he was salting the tailings piles with lead ore in an effort to gain investors - ed)

"With radio and newspaper advertisements in California, he drummed up interest in the new development by announcing that a special train would run from Los Angeles in March 1926

"The fanfare kicked off a real boom. Other eager fortune hunters invested in Julian's newly formed Western Lead Company which owned the principal properties. The short-lived Leadfield Chronicle extravagantly claimed that great ore tonnages soon would be shipped.

"But late that summer everything folded because the lead attained values of only low-grade. Leadfield had mined more stockholders' pockets than mountains. By January 1927 only one person remained and the post office closed. Since then the district has been dormant and only a few scattered rusting corrugated iron shacks and concrete foundations are left. Numerous deep test holes have blemished the canyonsides"
Teakettle Junction - Named for the teakettles spontanously left by visitors on this remote signpost. About 2/3's of the way between Ubehebe Crater and The Racetrack, Teakettle Junction is the road to take to get to Hiden Valley and bypass The Racetrack. One can also drive to White Top Mountain, the canyon displaying wonderful wildflowers in the spring. Several abandoned mines are also visible from the drive up to Hunter Mountain. Bring a teakettle if you want to leave a lasting memento of your visit!
The Racetrack is a magical place, one of the most interesting Playas I've ever visited. A Playa is a dried up lake bed. The Grandstand is a hummocky formation of granitic rock that rises from the playa near the Northern end of The Racetrack playa. One theory suggests that The Grandstand is very similar to an iceburg, in other words, we are only seeing the tip of a much larger formation that lies buried within the sediment of the dried lakebed. One can visualize that theory quite easily by seeing other similar formations that are not covered in sediment near the bottom of Lippencott Canyon, a road we take to exit The Racetrack valley.
The Racetrack is mostly known for this very interesting phoenomenon, the sliding rocks. There are hundreds of rocks with raised trails such as this one that criss-cross the playa. There are several theories as to why this happens. Several people have spent years documenting and cataloging the varous rocks, the trails they have left behind, and coming up with different theories as to how they move.

Here is a link to a particularly interesting site that I have used as the majority of my reference about The Racetrack.

We cannot camp at The Racetrack, it is protected wilderness and no camping is allowed within the valley. Fortunately there is a wonderful campsite not more than 2 miles down the road where we will setup. Sunset and sunrise photography at The Racetrack will be made very easy due to the close proximity of our campsite.

The Racetrack is VERY fragile and delicate. Footprints from those who carelessly have walked on the playa after rainstorms are very visible. Several of the rocks have been stolen, with tracks leading off to nowhere. Most of the rocks on the south side of The Racetrack have footprints surrounding them. Some have more than others. If we encounter rain during our trip to The Racetrack we will make a judgement call weather or not we go onto the playa for photography. Odds are, if there is water on The Racetrack while we are there, we will NOT be walking across for photographs. Footprints can last for years, and even though the playa has been closed to vehicular traffic for decades, there are still tracks visible in the sediment.
Mesquite Flat Dunes at Stovepipe Wells - Nothing says 'desert' more than sand dunes. There are several dune fields within Death Valley National Park that are picturesque. Some are quite remote and require a fair amount of hiking to reach. The dunes near Stovepipe Wells are very convenient to the road, so we will spend an evening and a morning at these dunes. The photogaph above was shot at about 9am, while the photograph below was shot at about 8pm under a full-moon. Stovepipe Wells is where we will spend an evening in guest rooms at the Villiage. A heated pool, general store, giftshop and service station will give us a chance to clean up, stretch our legs and take a break at the mid-point of our stay in Death Valley. Several other side-trips can be arranged for those who might rather see the dunes once, and another nearby site instead.
Part of the colorful history of Death Valley are the wagons and relics left behind by several different Borax mining operations. This is one of two preserved sets of 20-Mule Team wagons on display in Death Valley. The Harmony borax Works was operational from 1883 to 1888 and produced 20 million pounds of high grade borax. The wagons were built by Studebaker (the same company that went on to produce passenger automobiles and trucks), and could haul 36 1/2 tons of processed borax. The rear wagon was a water tank for the mules and skinners. There is a short interpretive hike at the site which also has a remaining boiler and a few random structures.
Death Valley is home to the lowest point in the US at Badwater. Actually there are two seperate locations that have been found to be 282 feet below sea level by the U.S. Geological Survey. There is a small salt-flat with a walking path out onto the playa here. Directly west of Badwater is Telescope peak, which stands at 11,000 feet. There is a small desert snail that lives at the edge of the pools at Badwater. They are so small that by the time you get close enough to see them, you've probably already crushed many others. Please be sensitive to wildlife and geologic features as you explore Death Valley (and anywhere else for that matter).
The summit of Mill Canyon looking into Panamint Valley is an impressive sight after climing the long windy road out of Grapevine Canyon. Visible on the valley floor is Lake Hill (dark hills), and The Dunes to the left. The Dunes are probably the most remote ones in the entire park, a 3-mile hike at the end of the road keeps them pristine. These dunes are interesting because they are more rounded in shape due to the lack of cross-winds.
The Badlands at Zabriskie Point make interesting patterns in the early morning light. The Furnace Creek Formation is made of fine grained sediments that were deposited in one of Death Valley's prehistoric lakes. This sediment was compressed and weakly cemented to form the soft rock called mudstone. The small valleys and rills you see are nature's ultimate water removal system. The mudstone grains are very flat, and don't allow water to seep into the soil. When rain falls in Death Valley it is sudden and violent. Witn no plant life to absorb the rain and the soil characteristics such as they are, the badlands show a very efficient way of removing water.
Manly Beacon at Zabriskie Point is a magnet for photographers. The morning we were there perhaps 15 photographers were ready and waiting for the sun to peek up over the horizon. There is a 'cap' of harder stone at the peak of Manly Beacon, which has allowed it to erode at a slower rate. This is a 'must shoot' for any serious student of photography. Death Valley has several sites that you have to see before you leave, this is one of them. This is planned to be the last morning photographing in the park before returning to Las Vegas.
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