Last month, we took a much needed trip out of town and chose Death Valley as our mini-destination. Now I finally have some time to write about it! It was probably one of the best camping experiences we've ever had. Death Valley truly is a hidden gem, and it is definitely worth a trip back someday.
The drive was really long- most of it was all freeway and highway, but as we got closer, there were a couple stretches of narrow winding roads. On our way in, it was super windy also. Can you see how contorted Jer's shirt is?
We stopped by Father Crowley's Point and met a couple who told us we should hike Marble Canyon. We're so glad we did- though a bit slippery, it was fun to walk through it. We saw interesting rock formations.
Some of the passageways were quite narrow...
And some looked like that!
On our way back, I told him, hey go lie in that hole.
He did. It was funny b/c right when he climbed up there, this random hiker said, be careful of rattlesnakes! He couldn't get out of there fast enough!
No paved roads, so it got pretty dusty. I'm not a big fan of off-roading but I can imagine why some guys would think that it'd be fun. I enjoyed the first few bumpy minutes but after that I didn't really like it as much anymore.
Next we went to play in the sand dunes! It was so much fun. The sand is soft but sturdy. It wasn't too hard to get to the higher peaks.
We felt virtually alone...as if we had all the dunes to ourselves.
Sliding down seems fun in theory, but it wasn't slippery enough! Next time we need to bring a plastic sheet or a sled or something haha.
We ate pretty well- I made kebabs per Jer's request. They make for easy camp food, you just have to be willing to put in an hour or so to prep them the night before.
Emmanuell and Susan joined us also! They brought hamburgers as well as Nutella...yummy!
The first night we slept horrible. It was so windy we thought we were gonna get blown away- I'm not exaggerating. In fact, if Jerry hadn't secured the stakes as well as he did, the tent would have been dislodged from the ground and we would have been shit out of luck! None of us slept a wink that night! However, the second night we slept like babies. Instead of using individual sleeping bags, Jer found out that if he bought a certain kind Coleman sleeping bag, he could zip it up with my old Coleman sleeping bag, so we did that and had this really roomy and comfy sleeping bag. I like how sleeping bags are cozy, but I don't like how there's not that much elbow room. By doing this, it almost felt like we were sleeping in a real bed (I know, defeats the purpose of camping). Oh yeah we had inflatable sleeping pads too. We slept like kings (except when it's windy. Then we're like two mice who are scared shitless.)
We ate really unhealthy food. And managed to polish off almost a whole jar of nutella between the 3 of us (Jer doesn't like that stuff)
I spied a coyote! We also saw a kangaroo rat but it ran away before I could take a picture.
Zabrieskie Point. Boring, whatever.
Badwater Basin was pretty cool though!
What I love about Death Valley is the variety of the terrain and how you can go to hundreds of ft below sea level and then thousands of ft above sea level in an afternoon!
Trusty truck to get us everywhere. It badly needed a wash when we got home.
This is Devil's Golf Course- Jer is standing on top of really jagged salt formations.
Artist's Palette. It was pretty. You can only see it while driving- it's a one way road to get there.
The highlight of our trip had to be our trip back to the sand dunes at night. Under a gorgeous full moon and an inky sky full of stars, we hiked back to the dunes with E and S this time and had the time of our lives on the dunes! That pic is pretty crappy- but it's of Jer rolling down the dunes. E and S did it too, but I was too scared, haha.
After everyone had their share of rolling around the dunes, we laid on the very top and watched for shooting stars. Incredible feeling. We were also the only people out on the dunes. Quite a magical feeling!! On our way back, we saw some other people make their way to the dunes also. I hope they had as good of a time as we did!
Afterwards, we had planned on going swimming/showering at one of the lodging places. However, the pool wasn't heated so we opted for showering instead. Best shower ever. It was also free! It usually costs $4 a person, but since it was already after 10pm, the guy told us to just go ahead. How nice! Even so, we'd still pay $4 for a shower. You can just imagine how sandy we were after being on the sand dunes for two days in a row! We headed back, and like I mentioned above, had the best sleep ever!
Here are some more pictures at
picasa. You can also go to photoist for more pics as well.
