After my friend and I left Los Angeles, we started driving to Death Valley. For some reason, while in Death Valley, I was fixed on calling it Desert Valley. It was probably because upon arriving to the location, the two of us were surrounded by sand, mountains, and dunes, as far as the eye can see. That initial intake of visuals hammered into my head that the place should be called Desert Valley so I called it that for the next few days.
DAY 1
While escaping LA, we made a short stop at a place called Red Rock Canyon State Par. We had a three hour trip from LA to our motel in a town called Beatty. The park was the only stop we were going to make before reaching Death Valley National Park.
I'm not much of a hiker. I’ve gone on some basic hikes with a group of friends near New York. We usually stayed on the paved path and I found them easy to complete. My friend had different ideas. Upon arriving to Red Rock Canyon, my friend quickly strayed off the path to get a close look at some of the offerings of the canyon. There was the Turk’s Turban and Camel Rock. My friend thought it would be a great idea to climb Camel Rock. Though I figured out the path to rock climb to (near) the top, I realized that I was totally out of m element and that I’d need to build some confidence for some of the other hikes we had coming up as a part of this road trip.
We arrived at Death Valley National Park. We were a bit confused as to what the meant because there wasn’t much of an entrance. Eventually, we just rolled into this area that was epic and unthinkably vast. We were dwarfed by mountains and planes that rolled along for as long as we could see. It was amazing.
We drove for a lot of the day through the park. It was exquisite under the sun. You would think that it gets monotonous but it doesn’t. Each escarpment and field was unique and breathtaking.
Eventually we arrived to a location that was very different from what we were looking at. Mesquite Dunes. It was around sunset and the golden sun was gracing these sandy terrains beautifully. We jumped out of our cars after we arrived and started heading towards the sandy hills. The sand was golden and the sky was blue. It was quite a sight to behold.
After taking a ton of pictures at the Mesquite Dunes, my friend and I figured that we should start driving so that we can make it to our motel safely. The Death Valley National Park had no lights and so we wanted to make sure that we can get close to the city with some light still in the skies.
We arrived in Beatty in the darkness. It is a small town in Nevada that is close to Death Valley National Park. We had beef brisket and a sweet banana pudding before falling into a deep slumber.
DAY 2
We started off the day with a town that is no longer inhabited. A ghost-town. The town’s name was Rhyolite. There are a ton of towns in the area that exist because of the gold rush that happened a few hundred years ago. Rhyolite is one of the ones that have become a tourist attraction. There are a few buildings that are still erect there and an open air museum. It was an interesting experience and cool to see a place that was once bustling with life and energy is now nothing but an historic monument.
After leaving the down, we made our way to Zabriskie Point. This location was the most popular place we visited in the National Park. We were atop an incredible view point which overlooked a vast area of badlands with salt flats in the distance. We did a bit of rock climbing to get an even more incredible view of the golden canyons. Once we absorbed the view we made our way deep into the canyon itself. We were surrounded by different terrains and minerals. The formations were incredible and dizzying. The solitude and silence made the experience even more intense. We would walk for long periods at a time without encountering anyone on the path.
For the sunset on that day, we wanted to go to a place called the Badwater Basin. It wasn’t too far away, so after we explored a bit of the canyons of Zabriskie Point, we started driving over. Before making our way to the location, we drove through a place called Artist’s Palette. It was an outstanding escarpment flooded with various colours. The colours were bright blues and yellows that sat radiant over the glowing reds.
As the sun started coming down, we arrived at Badwater Basin. Once we left the parking lot, we saw a pathway that went on forever. This place was the lowest point in North America and it was extremely warm compared to a lot of the other locations we visited in Death Valley National Park. I think it is almost one thousand meters below sea level. It is a location that looks very alien when you compare it with the rest of the park (and the world). It is beautiful nonetheless.
After the sun disappeared into the horizon, we went back to the car. We were now keen to head to our next destination - Las Vegas.