Since it was going to be bad weather everywhere else in California, we decided to go to the one place where we thought there would be good weather... the desert.
Death Valley National Park has the lowest point below sea level in North America at -282 feet. Badwater Basin has the effect of a convection oven and is always hot. When we were there, it was a balmy 95 degrees. The record temp is 134 degrees.
Wanna taste? (I did) Yup, it's salty.
The view of Badwater Basin from Dante's Peak. As you can see, it's a dry salty lake without any outlets.
The Devil's Golf Course
(no we did not make up that name, someone else did!)
We did a lot of short hikes. Without knowing that we were hot, we found our shirts completely soaked with sweat.
Golden Canyon near sunset was gorgeous.
See that white line near the bottom of the picture? That is actually sand blowing. Yes, after sweating all day, we were able to top it off with a bit of sand and then climb into our car bed... grit, grime and all!
The next day was quite a bit cooler and we were able to hike the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. It was early morning so there was not as much wind.
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Death Valley shows what a diverse and sometimes odd creation God has made!
That is truly amazing, beautiful and odd all at the same time. You guys look like you're the only one there. Did you run across any other people?
ReplyDeleteIt was California's spring break so there were other people there... but Death Valley is bigger than Connecticut so it did feel fairly empty!
ReplyDeleteI love that last picture! Very beautiful!
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