Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here

Death Valley
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This morning we left Vegas and headed back into California towards Death Valley.

As we neared the national park, we kept an eye on our interior car thermometer.

When we neared the entrance sign, it had reached 109. We drove through an environment in which nothing could live for about an hour and a half, getting deeper and deeper into the Mojave. Promises of “radiator water” were popping up on signs across the deserted roads. As we neared what the map called “Badwater Basin”, the temperature was 113. We reached the lowest point in North America around two in the afternoon. At that time, we pulled into an area where folks could park and walk out onto the Basin.

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There is no sand there. It’s salt.

The desert floor is blinding white and is made of pure salt.

The temperature here was 118. People were complaining of sunburns after being out of their cars for 5 minutes. We really can’t explain this kind of heat except to say that we knew it was time to go when we realized that it was so hot that we were beginning to feel cold inside.

As we neared the center of the park and the visitors center – aptly named Furnace

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Creek – it was still getting hotter.

The thermometer on the outside of the visitor’s center claimed a temperature of 124. The cold water in the bathroom sink was hot. While we were there, the electricity went out. “It’s normal, don’t worry,” we were told. We noticed an article on the wall telling of a family stranded in the park just weeks ago. They survived, but walked throughout the night followed by coyotes. We decided to get some radiator water just in case. We had to go through the mountains to get out of this nightmarish environment. We began to feel overwhelmed by the size and potential danger of this place and just wanted to get out of there. We drove for hours past giant sand dunes miles away that looked like they could be in Egypt. They looked like mirages in the desert heat. Eventually the temperature began to drop. We’ll never again be happy for it to be only 107 degrees.

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An hour more and we were coming up on Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states. We found a Motel 6 in a little ski lodge town and paid over $70…$20 more than the famous Stardust last night. That’s the way of the road.

Tomorrow is Yosemite and San Francisco.

P.S. We saw the highest and lowest elevations in North America today. We also saw the greatest temperature change of our trip. It’s 48 degrees tonight. That’s a 78-degree difference in one day.