Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park
Spring 2005 Vacation

Neither of us had been to Death Valley before (or for that matter, California) so our trip here was a treat for both of us. Because there was still significant damage from the August 2004 flood, we took a slightly longer than expected trip through the valley - but it was worth it. We came in from Beatte, NV and came out in Shoshone, California and then worked our way back up to Vegas by going through the Spring Mountains.

Since we hadn't been there before, we tried to get as much as possible in - we must have stopped at every single pull-off to look around and see the place. It's so starkly different from anywhere else, it's amazing. At Salt Creek you are in the middle of the desert, but there's a stream running through a salt marsh that is as green as could be - except the water is saltier than the ocean. There's even little fish in the stream (and sidewinders in the brush - we saw one!). And then when you get to Badwater Basin, where you're several hundred feet below sea level, the water is so salty that the wooden platform they have for visitors is actually dissolving in the salt.

By the time we left the park, our shoes were caked in salt and the car was coated in it. Luckily it was still April so it wasn't incredibly hot (actually it rained a bit when we first got there), but even then it was in the mid 90s at Badwater Basin and in the 80s in the rest of the park. When we got back to Las Vegas, it was only about 60 degrees there.