Death Valley and Sand Dune Races

From our base at Ridgecrest we would be able to visit our second national park in the space of a week - the frighteningly named, Death Valley. We had enjoyed Yosemite so much earlier in the week that we had high hopes for what Death Valley lay in store for us.

After a short run in the morning we hit the road and after crossing some steep mountains (we rose around 4000 feet in 10 miles) we descended into the valley. We were immediately struck by the incredible views, which stayed amazing all day. In every direction there were jaw-dropping mountains surrounding us, different colours, structures and shapes meant that no view was the same. The park was massive and with only one day to explore we had to pick and chose our selections wisely.

Our first major destination (apart from all the pitstops for photos) were the sand dunes, which we passed on our drive in. They are what a lot of people think of when they think of a desert. If it hadn’t bee for the crowds of people we could have imagined we were in the Sahara Desert. I found out on Wikipedia the night before that Star Wars had been filmed around here. In fact the whole of Death Valley is very popular with Hollywood, perhaps because of its close proximity… After some photos me and Andrea ended up having a race running up and down some sand dunes. The video of which is below. I won’t tell you who won, you’ll just have to watch!!


Relaxing on the Sand Dunes



We then headed south and deeper into Death Valley to Americas lowest point - Badwater. It sits approximately 280 feet below sea level and is famous for its salt plains and perhaps also for the crazy 135mile ultra marathon which starts from here every July. The salt is so white it can almost be mistaken for snow and we both had to check (just to be sure) when we crossed onto it. It was here that we saw our first film crew of the day, who were doing something involving wedding dresses!!…who knows what!!


Badwater Plains. Its not cold its actually really really hot!!

We then started to head back via Zabriski Point, which overlooks the highest and lowest points in Death Valley. Here there are some amazing rock formations which have developed over thousands of years. We also saw another film crew shooting a music video. We felt quite sorry for the band as they were all dressed up and the day was pretty hot… We got some photos and then headed back. Zabriskie point was a great way to round off an amazing day of exploring. Tomorrow Los Angeles beckons us…


Zabriski Point overlooking Telescope Mountain and Badwater