Death Valley National Park

I remember studying about Death Valley in 5th Grade. The only thing I knew was that it was the lowest place in North America at 282' below sea level. And it is hot there. Being raised in Kansas, I really had no concept of mountains, so I pictured it as a big hole in the ground. Boy was I wrong!

In the first place, I'm so glad that we came in November. The temperature was great. It can be 120+ degrees in the summer. We had 70 degree weather. It was such a beautiful day.

I think my pictures will say far ore than I can. I don't know how many ways I can say "WOW".

We got out and walked in a couple places. The first place we climbed a hill that overlooked the valley. Oh! the colors!

When we got to the lowest elevation, we walked there too. In one picture you can see on the mountain a sign showing where sea level is. You will have to look for the sign, it's up there a ways. We walked out on the 'beach'. What makes this area look even lower is the 11,000' mountain beside it. I took a picture of the salt/sand where someone dug. You can see how near the water level is. All this area has flash flood warning signs.

We also hiked in the Golden Canyon. It used to have a one lane road through here but a flash flood went through this canyon and destroyed it. Lucky us, it was a neat hike. The bright rock walls are in this canyon.

We didn't spend near enough time exploring Death Valley. We needed to get back to Vegas. But I kept seeing one more thing.....

They mined for borax here in the valley, so we got to see the wagon that was pulled by a 20 mule team.

And while we were looking at that, there was a Roadrunner posing for his picture.

Finally Jim said 'enough!', so we headed back to Vegas. There's a couple big hills so we took awhile. I drove the rental car behind him. Unfortunately we got to Vegas at rush hour on a Friday night. It's a good thing the truck was big, so I could follow him. But that was tricky a few times.

We were on the highway that goes right by downtown. It was hard to pay attention to driving and peak at the downtown lights, especially when you're going by all these places you've heard about. That was the closest we've gotten to the strip and really have no desire to go check it out. What a life!

We found a restaurant for supper close to our motel. Even that had casinos all over the place. You can't help but notice that no one seemed to be having fun. They just set there and kept making deposit after deposit.

I took a couple pictures of the palm trees to share with you. Some are tall and skinny and some look like big pineapples. And I had to finish up with a sunset. the mountain doesn't show as well as I hoped, but the colors for the sunset were nice.