Death Valley

Ridgecrest and Death Valley

9.29 - 10.1

In Ridgecrest, we learned about the local pictographs and petroglyphs.  Interesting...

Evidence of aliens, for sure.  ;)

We drove from there to Las Vegas,

and had to either drive around Death Valley or through it...

...so of course we drove through it.

Never mind that it was over 100 degrees...

 These crazy people were still excited to run out into it...

Can you see how red she is?

That's not a burn...it was just that hot!

After the first stop at the very hot sand dunes,

we stopped to check out the Harmony Borax Works.

The refinery was in operation from 1883-1888.

 Look!  It's a "20-mule team"!  I had no idea where Borax came from...

...and you can tell that lots of people are interested...

Check out all the cars in the parking lot of this place!  ;)

Can you even see our lonely van back there?

Next stop was Badwater Basin - the lowest point in North America!

This might look lovely and all,

but Jadan and I were thinking that we just might die before we made it back to the car.

It was so hot!  Have I already mentioned that!?  ;)

Our final stop in the Park was Artist's Drive and Artist's Palette.

See the cool green and pink in the back left of the photo?

Well, guess who had to get out there into it...

Can you see them out there?

 My compliments to the Artist

All in all...it wasn't my favorite park, and I wouldn't want to camp or go biking there...

Why do people do that???

...but it was a beauty we've never experienced before and were thankful to have seen.