as promised, i ended up dragging my dad to death valley. we both love, love, loved the trip - even though it took the entire day to get there and back. it ended up being a 14.5 hour trip in the car. i got up at 5:00am and we hit the road by 6:20am and got back in the house by 9:00pm. there were a couple of walks to sites within the park that i wanted to do - but realistically, we just did not have the time. as much as i am a city girl, i am a nature-lover at heart and i am always ever-so-happy to explore areas i've never been before. so, i took the chance to wring as much nature as i could out of this inhospitable desert.
a little primer on death valley : it is the lowest point in the western hemisphere (282 feet below sea level). it is also one of the hottest places on earth. in the summer, temperatures routinely hit 120F (no idea what it is in celsius, but damn, doesn't 120F sound hot????) with the ground temperature once being measured at 201F. urgh. basically - you can die here. that message was probably the most advertised in park information. you can die here and many have before you.
the park that holds death valley is also the largest park in america and it apparently got it's name from some gold prospectors in 1849. seems they tried to take a shortcut through the desert to make it to the gold rush that was happening on california's coast. needless to say, their shortcut didn't end up being a good bet. hence the name.
as always, pictures tell a better story than i.... so..... keep on looking down...
here we are with the devil's golf course (a rock salt field. you wouldn't belive how hard and sharp and hurty salt can be).
if you turn around at the devil's golf course you will see this flat field of salt, doing it's best snow imitation.
these are some incredible red hills. they look spray painted - but they're not.
this is the artist's palette. unfortunatley, the camera didn't capture the amazing colours - we have reds, yellows, greens, turquoise, violet, mauve, chocolate and gold all in this one group of stone.
these formations were seen at one of the many look-out points in the park. stunning in person and pretty cool here too!
just to prove that there are living things in the valley i thought i'd include a few things that aren't rock or mineral. i saw this little lizard during one of my mini-walks. he was pretty good at staying as still as the stone he stood on. these yellow flowers (they're called 'golden daisy', believe the name or not) are just starting to bloom throughout the park. and finally, no visit to death valley would be complete without seeing one of the major scavenger birds, the raven.
[music | the doors, "roadhouse blues"]
raja at his regal best
sporting one of his, 'i'm so much better than you' expressions
ready for your extreme close-up?
chillin on the sofa
no one is pround of this shot - but it just had to be included! raja in his rolly-polly prime
here we are with the devil's golf course (a rock salt field. you wouldn't belive how hard and sharp and hurty salt can be).
if you turn around at the devil's golf course you will see this flat field of salt, doing it's best snow imitation.
these are some incredible red hills. they look spray painted - but they're not.
this is the artist's palette. unfortunatley, the camera didn't capture the amazing colours - we have reds, yellows, greens, turquoise, violet, mauve, chocolate and gold all in this one group of stone.
these formations were seen at one of the many look-out points in the park. stunning in person and pretty cool here too!
just to prove that there are living things in the valley i thought i'd include a few things that aren't rock or mineral. i saw this little lizard during one of my mini-walks. he was pretty good at staying as still as the stone he stood on. these yellow flowers (they're called 'golden daisy', believe the name or not) are just starting to bloom throughout the park. and finally, no visit to death valley would be complete without seeing one of the major scavenger birds, the raven.
