Death Valley (Not the home of Mr Reaper!)

After a little drive out from Red Rock Canyon, here we are on the surface of planet Mars, or that's how it seemed. What an interesting place this turned out to be!



The rather unfortunate name was given by prospectors who turned up here looking for gold and the such like. When they were met with high mountains and desert conditions they split up and one of them perished in the valley. The other prospectors referred to it as 'that death valley' and the name stuck.




In summer this place is too hot, in fact this place holds the record for the hottest temperature reached in the USA (134 F, 56C) . A lot of the places are named with this in mind, like 'the Devils golf course' and this picture here from 'Dantes View' 5,475ft above sea level. That's the salt lake below known as 'badwater' (good name, eh) which is the lowest point in the USA at 282 feet BELOW sea level - more of that later though.

5am in the morning waiting for the sun to rise. This is Zabriskie Point, an area where the wind has sculptured the rock and eroded it to different levels and exposed different colours. It's gowgeousss!!

Very early on a morning (again), we caught this little chap out foraging for food. He's probably looking for a skip rat or kangaroo rat. Put your kettle on and warm the pot, then tell us the name of this creature.

This is Badwater Basin, the lowest elevation in the USA at 282 feet below sea level. There's still water in this lake but not much, it's below lots of salt that has been left by the powerful sun constantly evaporating the water away.

This is the lowest point, Elvis is standing on the salt bed of the lake. It's about five miles wide at this point.
Does anybody need any sea salt bringing home?

There's the reason why there's no water here anymore! Can you feel the heat from that sun?

This is looking up the valley, the size of this place is amazing.

Here's a close up of a lump of that there salt. By the way (Rusty) no more of your 'fly' sunglasses jokes, check out the new shades man! Notice also the layers! It may be the hottest place in the USA, but not in May! Death Valley is really a winter park and May is just about the end of the season. Being a desert, it's cold on a night and early morning.

Here's a nice contrast for you. That's Telescopic Peak in the back ground, with ice on the peaks and that's bad water lake in the foreground, dried up to a salt bed!!

No desert is worth its salt (pardon the pun) unless it has sand of course! These are the sand dunes at 'Mesquite Flat Dunes'. Very beautiful at sunrise or sunset.

For another cup of tea - how many madgets can you fit into a three man tent?