Started the day thinking we would drive out to Racetrack Playa with our puny two-wheel-drive sedan – wrong. When the sign says recommended for high clearance vehicles, well, at least here in Death Valley, they mean it. One of these days, we’ll see those mysterious sliding rocks.
Now, with about 8 hours to play with as the Playa is off the itinerary, we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with other sites. Flowers are a nice start.
And more flowers.
We are often asked, “What’s to do in Death Valley?” If layers of multi-hued rocks, sand, salt flats, grand vistas, the occasional wild animal, extremes, hanging out below sea level, views of things you’ve never seen with your own eyes, and the stinkiest toilets in Southern California (at Bad Water, especially when in Summer) are of no interest to you and your experiences, you might hate being in Death Valley. But, if you are intrigued by things never seen, smelled, or felt by your senses, then this place will have things in abundance for you.
The next stop was Dante’s View, one of the more famous overlooks of Death Valley and the salt bed below. A few years ago, a flood of near biblical proportions inundated this National Park. Had we been here those days, we would have been looking out at a very temporary lake that, in places, was two feet deep. Some people canoed across the basin, likely the only time in their lives they would have that opportunity.
In the month that followed the most intense wildflower explosion occurred, which we did not learn of until the tail end of the phenomenon and sadly missed it. Now we’re stuck with this dried-out salty white view of a lonely desert. Oh, well, at least there are these human ornaments enhancing the view.
Maybe it’s the psychedelic attraction at work here, as images such as these trigger memories from long ago.
Like us, Jutta never tires of seeing these sights as we try to cement impressions deep into our histories.
Yesterday, I wrote about Bennetts Long Camp and the naming of this desert valley to reflect what it did to some of those who passed through over 150 years ago; here’s another sign identifying their way into death.
I don’t believe I knew prior to today and our walk on this trail that there were water-carved slot canyons here.
So, just how did this aggregate fill what appears to have been a burrow that seems to have been dug into accumulating layers of sedimentary sand well before it turned to rock? Was this once a home for a creature long ago?
One day, we’ll need to carry a book about the geological history of this region with us so we might better understand precisely what’s been going on here across time.
Into the sand dunes because nobody can ever experience too many environments in a single day.
We didn’t make it out to those dunes, but maybe someday.
While I didn’t share a photo, as I’m already posting so many here today, I’d taken images of the fading stars as we entered the park along with the first glimmers of sunrise, but this moonrise couldn’t be ignored.
A good macro lens would have come in handy in photographing these fine examples of salt crystals branching off like fibers reaching for the sunlight.
As above, so below.
Happy mom and fortunate daughter after another tremendous day experiencing the extraordinary.
