178 ft below sea level in death valley

Day 135 – Death Valley Sojourn Part 3

Day 135 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Today in Death Valley National Park, I started out at the Borax Museum.  It is located next to the Furnace Creek Ranch which includes a motel, restaurant, bar, gift shop with a grocery, tennis courts, a golf course, and a short trail through palm trees to a solar power viewing station.  The museum displays original mining machinery and also has a sign indicating the location is 178 feet below sea level. 

This happens to be a virtual geocache too.  In fact, several of the stops I mentioned yesterday were either virtual caches or earth caches. Unfortunately, I may not have collected all the information required in order to claim…BUMMER.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
sea level in death valley

Day 133 – Death Valley Sojourn

Day 133 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

I can’t even begin to describe Death Valley National Park in the detail it deserves, and I’m certain my pictures won’t do it justice, especially since I have resorted to my point and shoot camera. I won’t have a replacement for my good camera that broke a few days ago until April 14th.  While I know the temperatures over the summer average a ridiculous 115 degrees, Death Valley is a misnomer for this park.  On this April afternoon, it was unseasonably cool with temperatures in the low seventies.

Death Valley is a land of great extremes that also includes an immense variety.  Every twenty miles seems to offer a different landscape: snow capped mountains, desert canyons, wildflowers, sand dunes, streams, and salt crystals that cover the lowest point in the forty-eight contiguous states.  I’m simply awestricken. I suppose my only frame of reference previously was knowing that runners follow the roads’ white lines during the century race each summer so the soles of their shoes don’t melt. Not a very inviting description!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!