March 27, 2015 Death Valley, California

Our last morning in Death Valley we got up before dawn and hiked Desolation Canyon. You have to get an early start to beat the heat later in the day.

Desolation canyon. Jessica climbing up a dry fall, John and Judy below.

 

First light at the end of the canyon. Looking back at Desolation canyon into Death Valley.

 

Jessica, Judy and Gabriela overlooking from the top. You can see the very edge of Artist Palette from here. On the way back we have John doing the two step to come down a dry fall, then climbing back up to get Judy’s pack, and Judy preparing to come down.

Jessica and John on the way  back down  the canyon. This canyon has every color in the walls. One of my favorites. Here I am at the visitors center viewing the most photographed thing at the visitors center, sheep behinds.

  

Me again with the thermometer outside the visitors center. This may actually be the most photographed thing, but who knows.  It is a hot one today. It was 101 yesterday. We say good bye to the lovely pool at Furnace Creek Inn.

 

We drove out the south end of the valley so Gabriela could see it. Artist Palette from the view point. The salt formations Devil’s golf course. The mid day light washed out all the color, but they are still pretty cool. Well not cool, it is close to 100 degrees. Too hot for me.

 

We stopped at Badwater, the lowest place in North and South America. 282 feet below sea level. We found out this is the lowest pit toilet in North America and needed a photo of it. Jill and Jessica posing. The other photo is the back of the lowest pit toilet, the red arrow is pointing to the sign on the canyon wall that marks sea level 282 feet above us. Bad water is bad because the saline content is so high that drinking it just dehydrates you more.

The desert gold blooming at the ruins of Ashford Mill. While I was out photographing I turn around and see that everyone else is seated in the only shade-the informational sign,  waiting for me.  Gabriela, John, Judy, Jill and Jessica.

  

Pink flowers, a huge 3 inch beetle eating a desert gold, a desert dandelion, and a sand verbena. Near the top of Salsbury Pass there are fields of desert dandelions.

A couple of Death Valley’s textures, cracked mud and salt formations at Badwater.  The girls dropped us off at the airport in Las Vegas, we caught the Red Eye flight at 1030 pm, it was a 4 hour flight and we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 6 am. We got very little sleep. My body can’t keep up with these time changes. It was freezing when we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, in the 60’s, cloudy, just finished raining and windy. Brrrr. Tonight will be 41 and the high will be the low in Death Valley tonight. On the Death Valley Morning report they said that Thursday the high was 101!! It was too hot for me. We had a fabulous visit with family and friends. They and the desert really helped us heal from all the trauma of the accident.

We picked up the car in Fort Lauderdale and drove 500 miles to Tallahassee. We just want to get home. They are saying the bus is totaled, they are still tallying up the damage, we are tired of hotels and restaurants. I saw this sign at a rest stop on the way to Tallahassee, in the dog walking area. . .