Death Valley

Death Valley....

Sounds forbidding- so beautiful and at the same time harsh.  There are springs here that feed life as long as it stays in balance.    

“There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand.  There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be.”  Edward Abbey

It feels like there is enough water here.  When we were at Red Rock and Lake Mead it felt sort of dirty to use water- knowing the water level in the reservoir and knowledge of climate change.   There shouldn’t be a city there- or so many people.   For sure not green grass, casinos and fountains.  Likely in the future it will be a surreal ghost town.

A land of extremes – low- Badwater Basin – below sea level with no diving equipment! 

  Hot- we only got to about 87 deg F but it can get to 130 F!.  It is super dry.  Water- springs, and snow and salt and a swimming pool.  Weird.  The area gets about 2 inches of rain per year!  We were there for rain! 

It does turn “dirt” to gumbo and rain to snow at the higher elevations.   Our friends from Kentucky that we met made the mistake of going up to 11,000 ft the day before it rained.  Apparently they are still (one week later) waiting for it to melt so they could get their truck and camper out.  Expensive lesson, but will make for a good story some day.  

 We drove a backcountry canyon road, rock, cliffs, up and down, switchbacks and one way through Titus Canyon- unbelievable that we were actually allowed to drive there. 

I love seeing Leland in the mirror.

Checked  out mines, views, a new rock formation at every turn.  We met an archeologist who was volunteering at the park demonstrating flint knapping and got the kids really keen to see some ancient ruins and cliff dwellings. Even saw a  real live roadrunner!  No picture though.