Hello, and welcome to the March 2023 Newsletter. Spring is here!

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We spent most of March camping in and around Death Valley National Park, our third visit to this remarkable area. Love it! The landscape is otherworldly, a paradise for photographers and geology buffs. (Check out these videos from our 2019 visit)

During this visit, we split our time with stays in the heart of the national park in the Sunset campground (dry camping for $14) at Furnace Creek and a free boondocking location called The Pads. The Pads is an abandoned mining worker community. The temporary housing is long gone, and just the concrete pads remain. Located along highway 190 towards Nevada, it was about a 25-minute drive back to Furnace Creek.

Sunset Campground View - No Generator Area

Usually, the valley starts to warm by March but not this spring! California has been getting battered by storm after storm and unseasonably lower temperatures. To the west, significant flooding in the lowlands and massive mountain snowfalls have occurred.

Long term, this is good, bringing California out of an extended drought and replenishing the reservoirs. But our DV visit was much colder and windier than expected, and even rainy at times! We rolled with the punches huddling in the RV on the stormy days and then out enjoying the sights on the better ones.

One plus to the weather was plenty of picturesque skies to enhance the already incredible scenery. It also cut down on the usual spring break crowds.

Besides the numerous Death Valley attractions, we checked out two other cool spots in March: Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Silurian Dry Lake. Ash Meadows NWR is located between DV and Pahrump, Nevada, and is home to beautiful blue/green crystal clear natural springs and pools.

Silurian Dry Lake is a unique boondocking location between Dumont Dunes and Baker, California. Camping on a dry lake bed with barely any vegetation for miles. Very peaceful and lovely mountain views, pretty sunsets, and starry skies. The only negative is it's often windy.

A few days ago, Anne completed editing and published a new drone video featuring our boondocking locations from January and early February near Ajo, Arizona.

It shows off the beauty of the lush Sonoran Desert. She has become quite an accomplished pilot. If you missed her previous videos, check out her YouTube channel. Enjoy!

So 5 months of another enjoyable snowbird journey are in the books. One more month to go! Not sure how fast we will head back north. Gonna play it by ear and see if the weather warms up. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dusk at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley NP

 

Thanks for taking time out of your day to check out the LYRV newsletter. 

Much appreciated!

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett