Wednesday, 11/16/2011

Yesterday we went to Death Valley and the Badlands in California.  It was a long drive, and not very exciting for a good portion of it, but once we arrived in the Death Valley area, it was well worth the drive.  That's happened to us several times - just when we started to wonder what all the fuss was about, we come upon this spectacular place.  As I've said before, the roads here are straight, straight, straight.  This road sign bears me out.  (Look closely)    : ) 




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This is a picture of Death Valley, which is actually not a valley created by water, but a basin, created by shifting of the earth plates.  The mountains on each side parted, and created the basin.  (There was a Ranger giving a tour).  That's salt and other minerals on the ground.  We were approximately 5500' above sea level at Dante's View. 

Here we were on the valley floor, 248' below sea level - the lowest point in the U.S.  If you look very closely at the middle of the mountain, you can see a small sign that says -284' to give you an idea how far below sea level we were.

Here's a view of the "Badlands" at Zabriski's Point.  There were a few spots where I expected cowboys to come out from behind the rocks!  : )