I took a road trip to Death Valley National Park! Better yet, my dog took her first road trip to a National Park. I went during winter, so it wasn’t unbearably hot. It was about a 3.5 hour drive from LA, and we left at 3 am to be able to get there in time for the sunrise. Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest of all the National Parks. Even scenes from Star Wars Episodes IV and VI were filmed here. Death Valley got its name because of the 1.9 inch annual rainfall with a 150 in. evaporation rate, make it extremely tough to survive here.
The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Our first stop when we got here was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. They were pretty incredible, but they were nowhere near as big as the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. An ancient lakebed is what forms the floor beneath these dunes, and this was one of the spots on the Star Wars tour.
Badwater Basin
From here we drove in all the way to the deepest part of the park, to the Badwater Basin. This exact spot has the lowest elevation in all of North America. It is -282 feet below sea level. You can walk out to the middle of the Salt Flats, and it looks like the polygon salt formations just stretches on forever. The flats got its name from the spring-fed pool of “bad water” next to the road, and the accumulates salts are what make it undrinkable. Repeated freeze, thaw, and evaporation cycles is what pushes the salt crust into its famous honeycomb shapes.
Devils Golf Course
Leaving Badwater Basin, on your way back out, there is another stop called the Devils Golf Course. This section of the park is an area of salt rock that has been eroded by the winf and rain into jagged spires. It is named as such because, “Only the devil can play golf on such rough links”. They say that if you put your ear to the ground, you can hear the constant tiny pops and pings of the salt crystals exploding as they expand in the heat.
Artists Drive
On the way out of the park, we took the scenic route and toured through the Artists Drive. It is a 9 mile drive that passes through eroded colorful hills. This was another part of the Star Wars tour. Photos really don’t do the rainbow mountains justice whatsoever, you definitely would want to come back at a time closer to golden hour, because the over exposed light of the sun doesn’t help to see the colors much.
I’m so excited I got to knock another National Park off of my list, and my dog definitely enjoyed her first road trip!
