Death Valley – Sunday 14 & Monday 15 June

We had Sunday morning in Lancaster, just a way north of Los Angeles, then headed through the desert to Death Valley National Park. The first thing that strikes you about Death Valley is its starkness and, well, desert-ness. The second thing that strikes you is when you first open the window or stop the airconditioning and discover that it is about 40 degrees... It wasn’t quite so bad when we first arrived actually – it was late afternoon so the temperature had dropped to 36 degrees which was almost bearable. Unfortunately our car didn’t think so and started overheating driving up the hill into the main part of the park. So in an attempt to cool it down, we had the heater cranking at full blast... Believe me, in the middle of the desert on a stinking hot day, sitting in front of a heater is not top of my list of things to do!! We got there eventually though! And it still didn’t come close to our trip in Las Vegas the following weekend, but more about that later...

Death Valley is a pretty unique place. It is pretty easy to see why it is called Death Valley – there isn’t a real lot of life of any sort there – a few hardy desert plants and animals, and not much else. And I wouldn’t like your chances if you were stuck out there for any length of time. Much of the valley is below sea level – the lowest point is 85.5m below – and it traps in the heat like you wouldn’t believe! The average daily temperature in June is 43 degrees celcius, and the minimum isn’t actually all that much cooler since the valley traps the heat in all night. It was the one place where we really wished we had booked some real accommodation for the night (ie with airconditioning!). We didn’t get a lot of sleep that night...

The sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells were well worth the trip to Death Valley though. We climbed about halfway along them just before sunset, and they make for some pretty awesome photos as well as lots of fun. The saltwater flats and Devil’s Golf Course were pretty cool as well, and the lookout at Dante’s View was stunning as well (and we only had to stop once to let the radiator bubble over on the way up!). I think half the reason we liked the lookout so much was that it is over 5,000 feet, and it is amazing the different that elevation makes to the air temperature! We were pretty happy that the lookout was good after the painful drive up with the heater cranking once again. Luckily we had made a well-planned stop beforehand for some Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked icecream (‘Chocolate Fudge Brownies meets Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough’) so we had that to help cool us down!

As much as we enjoyed visiting Death Valley we weren’t sorry to leave. If you are planning a trip to Death Valley we recommend:
1. Don’t go in summer;
2. If you do, book some accommodation with airconditioning; and
3. Take a car that can handle the hills and the heat so that you can use the airconditioning while you drive!

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/canadianmport/DeathValley?authkey=Gv1sRgCJycje-MocT94AE#