Road Trip, Part 5 - Death Valley National Park

Hello everyone, we're back on the road! Our next stop is... DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK!

We drove and drove and drove and drove for what seemed like FOREVER. There was not another car on the road and all I could see was mountains and desert all around us.

Finally we drove into the park and made our first stop at Zabriskie Point. This viewpoint is named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. There used to be a lot of borax mining in Death Valley.

You can see the different colors of the sediment layers here. It almost reminds me of ice cream with fudge caramel dripping down from the top... yum... ice cream would taste really good right now...

...I wonder where we can get some ice cream in this park --

"BOO!" It was Droopy (again).

"Stay hydrated, Droopy!" I said. "It can get very hot here."

Next, we headed to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America and the United States at 282 feet below sea level.

Phew, I'm getting thirsty. You did bring extra water with you, didn't you?

Oh, look! I found some water. But this water is not for drinking as it's steeped in salt. It really is bad water!

We got back in the nice air-conditioned car and headed to our next stop, Devil's Golf Course. These are a bunch of eroded salt formations on the basin.

Only the devil would want to play golf here apparently!

Our final stop within the park was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Many people like to do sand surfing on these dunes!

What a fascinating park with breathtaking views! We will be back for sure, but we've got a couple other stops along this road trip to finish first...