Who would be crazy enough to want to visit the hottest place on earth, the driest spot and the lowest point in North America? Cue these crazy fools....
and about 999,997 other people. Okay well, we choose a particularly 'friendly' time of year to visit once the heat had broken.
I mean it was downright frigid at 98 degrees Fahrenheit when we arrived.
October was really the perfect time of year to visit the hottest place on earth. The nights are cool, even a little cold, and the days are hot, but not unbearably so.
We had a good laugh at the clever and bizarrely named sites as we marveled at the otherworldly landscapes before us.
// Devil's Golf Course. A dry lake bed with what looks like a bunch of rocks but are actually salt formations that snapped, crackled and popped beneath your feet.
Seriously fun to hop along, albeit slightly hazardous for us clumsy folks.
// Badwater Basin, not to be confused with the horrid smelling 'au natural' park 'toilets' (i.e. holes in the ground). Nope, simply named Badwater Basin (I'm guessing) because of the tremendous amount of salt that once tainted this former lake.
It is also lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Little Man was digging it. Be free!
// Zabriskie's Point. A breathtaking view of the badlands and strange rock formations that scatter this massive 3.4 million acre park. It is seriously difficult to take photos that do it any justice.
The scale is so hard to capture and from one second to the next the colors are constantly in a state of change. A photo taken one moment will look entirely different from a photo taken only a minute later. We caught a brilliant sunset from the middle of it all.
Just before the sun set, I spied a few brave souls traversing the badlands on their lonesome. Do you see them down there? It helps put the landscape in perspective. Like tiny little ants!
// Golden Canyon. A peaceful and easy hike (says the girl who made her husband lug a 40 lb toddler on his back!). So quiet you could hear a pin drop.
In one word, serene.
// Furnace Creek was our home base during our several days in Death Valley, and proud owner of the title, 'Hottest Place on Earth', at a whopping 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
Makes you appreciate a tall glass of water doesn't it?
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