Trip to Death Valley

Do you like to travel? Do you like to explore new places where you want to go back again and again? If you answer "yes", you would understand me :) One of the places where I want to go again and again is Death Valley National Park. So today I would like a story about my last trip to this gorgeous place. You can click any image to get a little bit bigger size.

In general, Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and the lowest place in Northern America. The lowest point is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. This white crust on the picture is salt.

Death Valley National Park is huge. To visit all points of interest is almost unreal in one day. To get familiar with all easy to reach points (I mean the points that you can reach on paved roads), you'll need at least 2-3 days. And I'm not mentioning the places that are reachable by high clearance or even 4-wheel-drive vehicles only. :) So can you imagine the size of the park now? :)

Death Vally always have been attracting for me. I'd heard and read a lot of articles and stories even before I visited this place first time. The park always was for me as such a mysterious place with the scary name. But believe me, nothing scary there besides very hot and dry weather. Look at those beautiful landscapes. See how vast are they!

This park is a real pearl on California's map. There are you can find a lot of different formations. There are huge multi-colored mountains, big crust of salt, sand dunes, craters... The only one thing that is not frequently seen is water.

Ubehebe Crater. It appeared as a result of large steam explosions

Zabriskie point is attractive because of the interesting hills shape. Seems like huge water streams washed them out. Well... maybe they did after ice age.

There are at least couple dunes in the valley. When you get there, you really feel you are in a desert. Sand is everywhere.

Also, I think roads in the park are quite interesting. Some of them are straight like a ribbon from ridge to ridge, and they start waving only in mountains.

Death Valley is also famous as historical place. It was quite developed mining place during California Gold Rush. There are a lot of abandoned mines and small ghost towns around.

When you are planning to visit California, make Death Valley as a destination point. You'll never regret... believe me!

Story by Irina (IrinaPhotography)