Sunday, September 4th
After spending some time at Tenaya Lake in Yosemite, we hopped in the car and headed south to Death Valley National Park, the hottest, dryest and lowest of all 59 parks. At this point, we were 5 days into our trip and we were both pretty exhausted, but since Jeff had gotten us out of Yosemite, it was my turn to drive.
While cruising along in the desert, minding my own business and listening to music at a low volume for Jeff’s sake (he was napping), I suddenly started to hear a noise that I could not locate or explain. My heart began pounding and I felt like I had already crashed our rental car, although I was still somehow in control. The noise continued to get louder and closer until it finally woke Jeff. A fighter jet flew directly above us. He was totally giving us a show, and a scare. Apparently Edwards Air Force base is nearby. Like, really nearby. He spun off into the canyon leaving us in the dust. It took me a solid 10 minutes to settle down, which was just enough time to reach the edge of the park, hop out of the car, and take our sign picture!
We eventually made it to an area with a gas station and post office, where we mailed the postcards from the 3 previous parks. [On our Death Valley postcard, we made sure to note the strange man at the post office wandering around in a gold speedo. If I had taken a photo of him, you’d all get to enjoy the memory too!] We fueled up the car and headed to Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level.
Death Valley is home to some of the National Parks’ most iconic spots. Getting to them, however, isn’t as exciting as driving through, say, Yosemite Valley. 
Badwater Basin was hot and um.. dry. What else is there to say? I know I probably sound spoiled, but let’s face it, we had just been to Crater Lake, Redwood, and Yosemite. Dried up dirt and a sea level sign didn’t exactly match the view of El Capitan or Mount Scott. Nevertheless, we walked as far as we could stand in the heat (Jeff wore long sleeves! Whoops!), took some pictures and got back in the car. We drove through more of the park, saw a fox, marveled at the mountains that looked more like watercolor paintings or a knitted sweater, and headed to Vegas!
If we were to go back, we would probably plan a hike through the canyons, check out Dante’s View and Telescope Peak, and of course take a picture at The Racetrack. Even still, I don’t think Death Valley is at the top of our ‘return to’ parks list. Maybe some day :).
After arriving in Vegas and checking into our hotel, we started a load of laundry and took hot showers. We took a taxi to the strip and had gigantic burgers for dinner. Jeff and I were both so tired I don’t know that either of us spoke a word during our meal. Jeff played a little poker and I threw a few dollars into a slot machine. We lost it all pretty much instantly and headed back to our room for some much-needed rest in a big comfy bed! On Monday morning, we would drive 4 hours to the Grand Canyon. Follow along to see what happened next!
~Adventure is out there!
Julia
