Death Valley

Drove over to Death Valley National Park. On the way, I was a bit disconcerted that it was so cool out - I was hoping to experience the relentless heat of the desert down there. Sure enough, as I got to the lower elevations my expectation was exceeded!! It was a really awesome experience. What was interesting was that there were some resorts and hotels down in Death Valley (e.g. I even drove by one that had tennis courts), but they didn't seem crowded at all (maybe in Dec/Jan things pick up ;)

I found the visitor center in Furnace Creek and went to talk to a ranger about hiking trails. One of the park service staff immediately told me that I was already displaying early signs of heat stroke and that if I exerted myself at all I would die and no one would find me out there for days or weeks. We compromised - he hooked me up with some smaller walks around some of the park's attractions (which were totally awesome and better than the hike probably would have been anyways!)

I definitely ended up having the best camping night of the trip here too. I drove up to a campground at about 4000 ft ("Wildrose") where it was in the mid 70's overnight. The campsite was in the middle of a rock canyon and I was the only person out there. The sky was incredibly clear, and I sat there watching shooting stars and listening to coyotes howl for a couple of hours. Totally awesome experience!!

Pics (pardon my indulgence on these...I ended up taking and posting a bunch because it was so nice and random out there):

Surprise surprise, another little ghost town in Rhyolite (right near the entrance to Death Valley NP). Kind of cool to check it out, but definitely uninhabited (unlike the others where you get the sense that you're being watched)






It was so nice and hot in Death Valley (like 110+). In a lot of places (especially where the charred black rocks were all over the place), it actually smelled burnt like the rocks in a sauna when you pour water on them...


Like walking around on another planet or something...


There was a salt flat called the Badwater Basin that was below sea level. You could walk around on it and stuff. It was like having a hot hair dryer blowing at you the whole time down in there - really windy but super bakey!!

A mini lake of "bad water" - probably pretty salty!!

So there was this bathroom in the parking area...I had to go, but couldn't walk within 15 feet of it without gagging (imagine the relentless sun/heat beating down on a place like this for months at a time!!)

Interesting terrain at the "Devil's Golf Course"

Check out the colors in the rocks...

There was a nice road that meandered in and around some desolate rock fields. Very peaceful out there!

I was heading to the campsite ("Wildrose" was at a higher elevation up in those mountains and much more bearable than the 90+ degree nights on the valley floor) and ran across these sand dunes. I caught them about 30 mins before sunset. It was awesome to walk around out there!

Yeah, you can see how I side-stepped Vegas. I'll head back there soon with Habs, but this time I figured I'll protect the wallet until I've got some steady income again (I'm not exactly a lucky gambler!!)