Death Valley National Park lives up to its name by being the HOTTEST place on Earth! In 1913 it recorded a temperature of 134 degrees! It is amazing that animals and bugs can survive here. On top of it being the hottest place on Earth, it also contains the lowest elevation in North America. The Badwater Basin is -282 feet!
Death Valley is about 4 hours away and we entered the park at Stovepipe Well Village. There is a little convenience store and gas available here. If you decide to go to Death Valley, make sure you get gas here or prior to entering the park. Death Valley is over 3 millions acres! If you run out of gas, I read it is an over $2,000 fee for the tow!! Make sure your vehicle is in good shape too. We wanted to camp while we were there, but unfortunately there is 1 campground that accepts reservations and the rest are first come first serve. We wanted to stay near Furnace Creek because it is close to the hikes and things we wanted to see. We got there around 12 and our only option was the gravel parking lot for overflow... We were kind of bummed, but we moved on and decided to start exploring.
The first hike we headed to was Natural Bridge Canyon which is only 1 mile and is easy.
There is also a dry waterfall.
At the end you approach a 15-foot vertical cliff which maybe if we rock climbed we would attempt. Our biggest worry was trying to go back down, going up would be the easy part! We decided it be best to turn around.
Then we walked back under the bridge!
After this we headed to Badwater Basin where we stood 282 feet below sea level!
The salt flats are formed from salt crystals expanding and making these chaotic formations!
It was really cool to look behind us and see where sea level is too!
Here you can walk as far as you'd like, but there is a point you probably have to turn around. They DO NOT want people going off of the trail! So please preserve the land around where you are walking and the marked trails! After this we headed to Artist's Point. We hadn't planned to go here, but we had plenty of time before sunset to explore more. When we started driving down the one way paved road we stopped at a lookout point.
Then we headed to the actual Artist Point!
I have to say, this looked much brighter in our polarized sunglasses! I had just bought them and I was shocked when I took off my sunglasses! Either way, it is still very pretty and neat how the mountains are blue! On our way to watch the sunset, we stopped at the Sea Level sign.
We stopped over at the convenience store and grabbed some beers to drink while we made our backpacking meal in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes parking lot. We again loved the meal! We also did a much better job with following the directions... so we did not eat crunchy pasta!
After we ate, we headed into the dunes to watch the sunset!
Then we headed back to our campsite!
This was possibly one of the most sleepless nights we have ever had in our tent. The wind was so bad it was as if someone had a potato chip bag they were playing with next to our ears. Our poor tent held up great with the wind whipping it around though! I am not sure why Death Valley made this open parking lot/campground. Maybe there was a building there and it was torn down so they made this... I am not sure, but I highly would not recommend staying there in a tent! If you have a van or RV it would be fine, but not a tent!
The next morning we arrived very early to Zabrinskie Point to watch the sunrise. The parking lot here is very small so make sure you get there early enough to get a spot to park. It is a paved short trail to where you watch the sunrise. There is also an unpaved trail here that you can hike to watch the sunrise. We decided to stay at Zabrinskie Point because it was very wind and cold!
After that we headed home! It was great to experience Death Valley, but for Aaron... Yosemite is still his favorite!
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