The Death Valley

Visited- November 2017

Our half a day trip to Death Valley National Park was one of the highlights of this trip.
One of the largest in terms of area, Death Valley  is the hottest, driest and lowest of the national parks in the United States.
Never knew an endless stretch of arid, haunting nothingness could be this extraordinarily fascinating! The valley with its badlands, salt pans, canyons, sand dunes was one overwhelming experience.


We started our journey from Zion National park Utah at 4 am and drove for about three and a half hours to reach Death Valley Visitor centre at Furnace Creek California at about 8.30 am. We took a couple of short 10-15 minutes break at two places. The temperatures rose from about a 3 deg C to almost a 30 deg C, by the time we were inside the valley. The sun was scorching and since I unfortunately forgot to apply sunscreen, I got blisters all over my face the next morning and some sun burns. 
Note- 
  1. Whatever the season, sunscreen is a must!
  2. Carry lot of water
  3. The one compost toilet is at the pay booth as you turn onto Badwater road. there's no toilet once you cross that until Badwater basin, which is around 15 miles.







We visited the Artist's Palette (pictures below) and on the way the road takes a few straight almost vertical 'dips', that can be extremely dangerous if one does not exercise caution. That has resulted in deaths actually. While they are scary but a fantastic adventure to say the least! 






Artist's Palette is a part of the Black mountains, that has some brilliant colors on them due to oxidation of different compounds, like iron, mica, manganese etc. A fabulous experience!





We then drove about another few miles straight down the Badwater road to visit the Badwater Basin. the Deepest Salt Pan in the US. Its a long stretch of walk on the pan, we could not go to the end of it due to shortage of time and  a plane to catch from Vegas. The Basin is at its lowest in North America at 282 feet below sea level!
The drive back to Vegas was about two and half hours. 


some more Dip





















Photographs can never justify its magnanimity and grandeur but I have tried my best. Half a day isn't enough to cover the extraordinary experiences that it has to offer. We were just about able to literally scratch the surface, but we are overjoyed we did that at least. We will come back for more.

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