Death Valley

Death Valley is really awesome. It's the lowest, driest and hottest place in North America. Pretty cool that Mt Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, is only 80 miles away. Sure it's crazy hot, but if you know that going in, you can appreciate the weirdness ad beauty of it all.

Heat sometimes makes my camera a little woozy.

Aww...it's bad water

The temp was actually 110 until they got close to the sign and cooled it off. The hottest we recorded later in the day was 115.

What I don't have a picture of is us (mainly Jim) helping some people in a rented sports car. They were trying to make a u-turn and got the front of the car stuck in soft sand of the shoulder. As we passed, we saw a van had stopped to help too. Then a truck joined us soon after. We used our jack, leveling blocks, tow rope, shovels, and popsicles, and the pickup driver's vehicle to pull it out. All in all, a good day for humanity! The kids got a giant muffin from the stuck guys. Also diversity! Our crew included Americans, men, women, kids, possible Australian or British accents and possible Indian or Pakistani accents.

Don't ask Laura to take pics for you while you're driving unless you are ok with toes in the shot. I'm ok with it.

We wondered if this guys is an ultra marathoner or something. He took some pictures with a group of tourists, so maybe somebody famous?

Lots of different colors in the landscape.

It's very pretty.

We walked up to this lookout point.

Death Valley is so weird, and beautiful, and I hope to go back sometime in the winter.