5in29: Day 23-24

Jan 10, 2025

Death Valley National Park has been on my to-visit-list for a long time. Besides the reputation, I was most intrigued by the word “Death” in its name—it sounded a bit scary, especially accompanied by some photos I saw—chipped dry muds and blowing wind on top of sand hills.
My personal experience proved none of the photos I’ve seen would justify the beauty of the park, and the death in its name is misleading! It is just one of the most beautiful national parks, and the most intriguing in its quick changing nature of diversity—a few miles apart, it is like a completely different place!
We spent two days in the park and only visited several spots. We definitely left more to come back for.

Attraction #1: Death Valley-Zabriskie Point

This was the first breath-taking spot we encountered. The area is an erosional landscape. It is considered the badlands.
It was once a borax mine.

Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America—it is 282 feet below the sea level. What’s amazing is that Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, is only 84.6 miles to the northwest.
Salts made the water undrinkable, thus the name Badwater.
At the edge of the basin, the salts are collectable.

Further to the center, the surface became very hard, so much so that one could see the salt flats that could not be flatted out by force.

The views before and after sunset can be drastically different and equally beautiful!
If not know it was salt, one could mistake the white stuff for snow or even ice. Think about ice skating here with an imagined flat surface!

The stuff on the ground was so hard that I felt my fingers almost get cut when I touched them.
Turning around, in the same spot, the views can be so different! White or brown or dark!

The name didn’t register until I read the description.
The drive was miles of miles long. Just when I thought “This better be good!” a colorful rock appeared in the distance. I said, “Let’s stop there!”
Have you ever seen purple hills and purple dirt?? I was in heaven when I saw them!

How about jade, ivory, brown, pink, and black rocks?
In fact, there are so many colored hills! This spot is called the Artist’s Palette!

Out of nowhere in the valley come the sand dunes! You have to look carefully from a distance to see them!
The sands are so fine that they reminded me of the White Sands.

Saw this parked in the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Don’t you think it’s cool?!

This is a place where one has to spend one or more nights in the park! It takes a long time to get to the edge, then takes a long time to get from one spot to another.
We called ahead a few places inside the park. Most were on answering machines/recordings. One said it was first come first serve. None had hookups, which was fine by us since our van was equipped for boon ducking.
We drove by and saw several campers and vans at a spot close to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We thought that would be our night spot. It was close to the visitor center, which was the only place to catch some WiFi signal so that Roman could work on the first working day of the year.
When it was dark, and really dark with almost no lights but the head beams from cars, we had trouble finding the entry to that RV park!
After countless going around, we found a gap, not a clearly marked entry, to an empty lot that had campers. We got into the lot and saw many spots that required reservation. Oh well, no way and no time to get a reservation at this hour and without a cell signal or WiFi. We found a quiet place and settled for the night.