Stovepipe Wells, CA to Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park, CA
We left at midday, we had to let almost everything dry after last night! It rained for most of the morning too, meaning 3 days of rain in 3 days in Death Valley. Unbelievable!
Speaking to one of the rangers we found out that Death Valley holds the record for hottest temperature of all time (54 I think) and only 2 months ago it was over 50 degrees. Celcius. Yep. Anyway, once underway our first stop was the Mesquite Sand Dunes, which we walked across and up and down, the sand beautifully carved and sloped by the wind. The rest of the day we spent making our way through the Valley, surrounded by pyramid style, but more multi-dimensional, mountains, with salt flats in the foreground, at one stage riding downhill past sea level! You read that correctly, downhill, past a sea level marker. In fact Badwater, where we will be going tomorrow, is the lowest point in the western hemisphere at about 86 meters below sea level.
We spent the afternoon gorging ourselves on overpriced National Park priced junk food. As a surprise bonus, the Las Vegas Astronomers crew put on a free 'show' of sorts that night, where incredible telescopic images of far away stars/galaxies were broadcast and a laser torch presentaion of the night sky and some constellations was made by some experts, in the pitch black of the Death Valley desert. Awesome.
Speaking to one of the rangers we found out that Death Valley holds the record for hottest temperature of all time (54 I think) and only 2 months ago it was over 50 degrees. Celcius. Yep. Anyway, once underway our first stop was the Mesquite Sand Dunes, which we walked across and up and down, the sand beautifully carved and sloped by the wind. The rest of the day we spent making our way through the Valley, surrounded by pyramid style, but more multi-dimensional, mountains, with salt flats in the foreground, at one stage riding downhill past sea level! You read that correctly, downhill, past a sea level marker. In fact Badwater, where we will be going tomorrow, is the lowest point in the western hemisphere at about 86 meters below sea level.
We spent the afternoon gorging ourselves on overpriced National Park priced junk food. As a surprise bonus, the Las Vegas Astronomers crew put on a free 'show' of sorts that night, where incredible telescopic images of far away stars/galaxies were broadcast and a laser torch presentaion of the night sky and some constellations was made by some experts, in the pitch black of the Death Valley desert. Awesome.
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