Hey Actifitters,
Our second day in Death Valley started very early because we wanted to catch the sunset. Getting up at 5am is no fun, but this was for a good reason. We chose Zabriskie point. Even though it's not the most spectacular, it's the most popular. A big advantage is that it was only 10 minutes from the hotel. We arrived before it really started, but the views were already great.
Of course, the Moon too, so gorgeous as always.
Finally the first colors started to appear on the opposite peaks.
Apparently we weren't the only ones who had the same idea this morning...
Vibrant yellows started to join the mix until it was full daylight.
The next stop on our list was Badwater Basin with the lowest point in North America, 86 meters below sea level.
The short hike there called Badwater Salt Flat is very unusual: you walk on salt! It seems some years you can cross to the mountains on the other side, including Telescope peak. But this year, with Death Valley receiving lots of rain, it's actually a lake.
It looks like a super clear water ocean, but it's not!
You still walk on salt!
After that unusual hike, we went to a more normal one to see Natural Bridge and the dry falls.
For many people, this hike stops at this small cliff.
But we climbed a little more until we really couldn't go any further, at least not with some kind of climbing equipment.
The extra effort was worth it for additional views.
We added another hike to our schedule: Devil's golf course. We had no idea what it was (and we're still not sure really), but for a Satanist like me, I couldn't skip it.
Basically you just walk till you reach another huge area covered with salt, facing Telescope peak. It looks like you're walking on snow and with the snow on the peak, you could almost be fooled. But then again, it's close too 100F out there.
To finish our adventures in Death Valley, we drove up to Dante's View, at 1669m above sea level. I thought we already found fantastic views, but from up there, wow!!
The colors were just stunning. Blue of the sky of course, white of the salt and snow, green of the water, and also vegetation (like I said, Death Valley saw much more rain than usual so far this year).
We could see all the tiny people where we were this morning at Badwater Basin.
As you could gave guessed, I snapped so many photos...
It already took me a lot of time to select photos out of the 250+ I had for that day, and now I have to pick only one for Around The World contest? Okay, I'll go with this one:
But we also followed this trail for a while. Not really sure if it's an official one.
We discovered another snow capped peak on the other side.
And finished with one last short walk up that peak.
I could have stayed there for hours, just enjoying the view. But we finally had to leave it behind because we had at least a 4hour drive to reach our next destination: Zion National Park. Even during the drive, the views were very cool!
And we were greeted by a rainbow, just before reaching our hotel.
Well, these two days in Death Valley National Park were just awesome! Like I mentioned before, we had low expectations but the vistas and hikes we found were fantastic. It is very possible that the unusual weather helped a lot, but Death Valley was a great way to start our trip. To the next park now!
As always, thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow from Zion.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 36.22079 lat -116.72658 long d3scr)
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