The Valley of Death

Aptly named, it turns out people visit Death Valley in the winter for a reason! Needless to say, our experience in this massive National Park was, well, interesting! Driving in we saw lots of Joshua Trees (very fun) & lots of rocks & lots of desert & very high temperatures.


Yes, it says 122F degrees!


Before setting out to find a campsite, we visited some crazy, crazy cool sand dunes.



But then the forest fire we saw on the road to Death Valley covered the sun & the shadows on the dunes disappeared (making them not so photogenic). But the sky turned some aMAZing colors!



So here's the thing about camping in Death Valley in July: don't do it! We drove by one Visitor's Center (scarcely populated, of course), bought some Gatorade & went on to find a campsite. After 2 failed attempts (details coming), we ended up back at the motel at the Visitor's Center where there was a pool, showers &, most importantly, air conditioning! Ok - back to camping in July.

30ish miles from the Visitor's Center (after stopping at the sand dunes), we found campsite #1 ... creepy desolate. Now, you might ask, if no one is there, what could go wrong? 1. It was HOT. Dangerously hot. And not one person knew where we were. 2. We are women. Strong, powerful, amazing and invincible women. But women, nonetheless. And it seems like the better part of wisdom for 2 women not to stay in a campsite by themselves at a public place. Maybe we're crazy, but we're happy with our decision!

40 miles later, we arrived at campsite #2 ... creepy desolate. See campsite #1.

Insert here: the Visitor Center (& the pool, & the showers & the air conditioning)! After talking to some Park folks, we learned that the ground temperature was 220F. That'd make for some hard tent sleeping!

For your entertainment, here's a little video of the delusion that occurs when you're looking for a campsite in the Valley of Death at night in the heat:



Before we left Death Valley, I (Beth) wandered out further into the sand dunes just after sunrise to take more pictures. It was very, VERY hard to pick which pictures to include, so if you want to see more, let us know & we'll send them! Sand dunes are very picturesque!


These people beat me to each sand dune crest before I could snap a good vista-ish picture of the dunes, so they're in the picture. Oh well, I guess it adds perspective!


On our way out of Death Valley, we stopped at 2 tourist sights:

1. The sign for 200 ft below sea level. The lowest elevation in the lower 48 is actually 280 something, but we were hot enough already so we passed on the opportunity to go there.


And 2. the view from Dante's Peak. After a crazy uphill, windy drive, Dante's Peak offers a view of the highest and lowest places in the continental US. Sadly, though, because of the fires Betsy wrote about in our traveling blog, the smoke covered Mount Whitney! But here's a view of Badwater Basin:


And finally: the desert critter I wanted to see but didn't. Oh well, maybe in Utah!


That's all folks!