Death Valley National Park

Say what you will about Death....

Whatta place.  Huge doesn't describe, and I'm too old to say humongous.  It's the largest national park in the lower 48.  In fact, I think it's larger than the land mass of the Hawaiian islands. 

Big. Too big for us to see more than a small portion in the four days we alloted. 

We dry camped for five nights, and felt satisfied with our new solar panel.  May get another one soon.

Each morning we drove out to different attraction, usually traveling one hundred miles per day.  Broad vistas, narrow canyons, a quirky castle built by a scoundrel, a creek with endangered pup fish, colorful hills.  It was the most unusual and unexpected place we've seen since Yellowstone National Park.

Here are a few thousand words.  And this is the condensed version.

Artists' Drive

 View from Furnace Creek

 Zabriski Point

 Mosaic Canyon Rock detail

Red Cathedral at the end of Golden Canyon

Just before our departure, a major wind storm tormented the area all night.  We drove 100 miles the next day, th. Then we waited another day for yet a second wind storm to blow through the area, rather than drive west through the Tehachipi Pass, which is treacherous in bad weather.  In fact, we waited out a snow storm in the Pass just a few months ago, on our trip east.

Bruce