Death Valley

We were originally going to travel from Mammoth Lakes to Las Vegas in one day, but we thought it was too long of a trip. Ben also really wanted to see Death Valley. One of the guide books had a warning about travelling there in the summer, but we decided to brave the elements and go anyway. On the drive down Highway 395, we were able to see Mt. Whitney which is the tallest mountain in the contiguous US (Mt. McKinley in Alaska is the tallest overall) at 14,505 feet. We hit Death Valley late in the afternoon and were stunned by the beauty of this National Park. We had expected just desert terrains and were in awe of the majestic mountains, huge sand dunes and volcanic rock. My pictures don't do the area justice because of the vastness of the landscape. We had no idea that the height from the tallest peak in Death Valley (11,049 ft) to the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere – Badwater Basin at -282 feet below sea level - is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. The temperature was only 118 degrees which was a blessing as the second highest temperature ever recorded was 134 degrees in Death Valley.

We spent the night at the Furnace Creek Ranch which included a warm spring-fed swimming pool. Mom really enjoyed this as she was getting very tired of cold alpine lakes, cold camping water and cold swimming pools! We visited the Death Valley Museum before we left and Ben and Adam became Death Valley Junior Rangers. We topped it all off by having lunch in a Western saloon where Ben and Mom lived dangerously and had Shirley Temples