Death Valley

Death Valley is full of amazing things to see, just make sure you have time for it. We only had one day to enjoy this amazing place full of desert, sun, sand, and rocks. It probably doesn't conjure up pleasant images for most people. The pictures that come to mind are probably of a flat desert floor, where the ground it so hot it literally is peeling, vultures, dead animals, or just flat empty land and maybe some rocks. Death Valley is amazing though because it has amazing rock formations. It is also full of all sorts of landscapes and terrian, plants and animals. There was even some green plants (although I didn't really take any pictures of them because the landscape was so amazing). It really did look like the surface of another planet as we drove around the park. 

We first pulled into Death Valley and found the Badlands. The Badlands here are similar to the ones found in South Dakota. They are rocky and have been made into interesting shapes. It looks like a pre-historic playground. Centuries of volcanos, weather, water errosion and earth quakes are the culprits in making this interesting landscape. 

Some of the scenery might seem kind of familar. Part of Starwars, episode four, (the original) was filmed here. This was were Luke lived. Yeah, it seems kind of cheesy, but we brought our R2D2 popcorn container with us to take pictures. 

Death Valley has interesting things to see all around and it is the largest national park in the lower 48 states. There are really really high points, (3000 ft above sea level) and really low points (282 feet below sea level). The biggest highlight we had was driving through artist's pallette, it was extremely beautiful because there were so many different colors in the rocks. They were pink, green, purples, yellows, and reds. They contain just about every type of mineral imaginable. 

Even though the temperture was 91 degrees fairenhait, we could still see snow on the nearby mountains.  The valley is actually made of salt flats and looks a bit like a mirage from the road. It is easily mistaken for water until you get up close to it. 

Water is hard to comeby in the valley, but badwater basin is where it can be found. The water isn't posinous, but it's not good water. It has large amounts of choloride, sodium, and sulfate in it.  The entire area used to be a lake thousands of years ago and in the hills you can see the layers of where it used to be. 

Overall it was a great adventure. It's a two hour drive from Las Vegas and to actually drive through the entire 3.3 millions acres of Death Valley would take about 10 hours. My advice, make sure your car is in good service, bring water, and pray to God your air conditioner does not break. It is extremely hot, even in the spring/winter. 

Ps this is this first time I have blogged using my phone/iPad. Please forgive any bad spelling...