Joani & David's Travels: Tuesday, February 18, 2014, Death Valley National Park, CA

Today we made our first trip into Death Valley National Park, CA, only an hour from our site at Wine Ridge RV Resort in Pahrump, NV. We were overwhelmed with the beauty of this park. Obviously, it is not the place to be in the heat of the summer and I cannot imagine trying to cross this forbidding place on foot or even horseback. Fortunately for us, it was slightly overcast with temperatures in the mid-seventies and we are in a car on nicely paved roads. Since we didn't have to worry about just surviving, we could enjoy the beauty of the widely varied landscape.

Hottest, Driest, and Lowest National Park

The first stop was a very short hike, but steep climb up a paved walkway. One of the few hikes that allowed Sam.

Looking off to the left from Zabriskie Point.

Looking off to the right from Zabriskie Point.

It seemed like most of the rock was sedimentary, but there was some volcanic rock as well. Joani commented she would like to study some geology to better understand what we were seeing, but I don't think we want any "gravel monkeys" in the family (if I may use Sheldon Cooper's term for the geologists.)

Looking straight ahead across the valley from Zabriskie Point. We had no idea the best was yet to come!

"Bring your compass, because it's weird to have to eat your friends"

My favorite Tshirt at the visitor's center.

Be sure to top off your gas tank in Pahrump, you do not want to be in need of gas in Death Valley!

The Racetrack can only be reached on a rough gravel road (26 miles) and the rangers cautioned against taking our car out there. The extremely sharp rocks cause a lot of flat tires and I didn't think it was worth the risk to see some rocks that move when no one is looking.

We are going to stick to the paved roads. We were told we should have two spare tires if we planned to venture off-road.

Telescope Peak at 11,000+ feet elevation was visible from a lot of the valley floor and provided a nice point of reference to keep us oriented.

Snow covered Telescope Peak is 11,043 feet above sea level.

At Badwater, we were at the lowest place in North America - 282 feet below sea level. Just how far that is was graphically demonstrated with a sea level marker high on the cliff above the parking area.

I placed the arrow to help find the sign that says "Sea Level."

The boardwalk was covered with an eighth-inch layer of powdery salt.

Sodium Chloride, better known as table salt, makes up the majority of salts on Badwater Basin. Other evaporative minerals found here include calcite, gypsum, and borax.

A placard read, "It was so hot that swallows in full flight fell to the earth dead and when I went out to read the thermometer with a wet Turkish towel on my head, it was dry before I returned." Oscar Denton, caretaker of what is now the Furnace Creek Ranch on the record hot day of 134 degrees F in July 1913.

There was some water (not much) in Badwater Basin.

In our opinion, Artist Drive is not to be missed! This nicely paved, one-way drive takes you through some of the most colorful landscape in the park.

All of the hills in Death Valley are amazing, but Artist Drive takes you through hills that are beyond belief.

Just to the right and above the middle of the picture, a sunbeam broke through the clouds and is illuminating a spot on the hill.

We were told that the colors seem to change with the direction and intensity of the sun.

A placard tells us "The greens and blues are chlorites; the pinks and purples are manganese oxides; and the reds and oranges are iron oxides."

Our pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the landscape. We would need to be there at sunrise or sunset without the cloud cover to really capture the colors. We will probably take this drive every time we visit the park.

We will hike into the hills the next time we visit. The person in the foreground gives a sense of scale to the hills - I think we can wear ourselves out in this one area hiking.