February 23-26, 2017
Believe it or not, we carried snow on
top of our RV and truck from Tahoe, overnight outside of Carson City
and then all the way to the campground in DEATH VALLEY! The ranger
was definitely surprised to see us pull in with snow into an area
that regularly has temps over 120 degrees in the summer. And just so you know, Death
Valley has the highest recorded temperature in the world at 134
degrees in 1913. (There are hotter places in the world but this is
an official recording). The average rainfall is under 2 inches per
year!
Did you know that Death Valley is not a
valley and that it did not get its' name from lack of water? It is
actually a basin 282 feet below sea level! And it's name came from a
pioneer who left here after nearly starving to death for lack of
food (not water).
Death Valley has such a variety of
landscape to enjoy from mountains, sand dunes, canyons, water falls,
springs, the basin to the beautiful starry night skies.
Here is Badwater Basin where all of the water flows from the surrounding
mountains and leaves behind salt and other minerals. With all of
the mineral and sediment deposit, one might think that the basin
floor would be rising so that the distance below sea level would be
decreasing. However, the tectonic plates are shifting at a rate
greater than the sedimentation deposit so that the mountains are
actually growing taller.
These are the salt flats:
This is the view from Zabriskie Point
and the view down into the basin from Dante's View
We took a ranger-led hike into Golden
Canyon,
Hiked on our own to Darwin Falls,
and the Natural Bridge
Tried sledding down the sand dunes and
didn't have too much luck with that
And then into the Mosaic Canyon which
was so incredibly beautiful with its' mosaic rock pattern and
polished marble walls.
After three beauty-filled days here, we are leaving for Las Vegas!
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