Death Valley National Park

We stayed at The Pads for 7 nights. What a great location choice to explore the park!
Although extreme winds kept us form doing more than one actual hike, we did get in some great walks everyday, and truly travelled every road available in the park. This is the second largest national park, the largest being Denali.
Our hike started at Zabriskie Point and travelled along the Badlands Loop. This day was hot and dry in the gulch, and although there was some wind up top, in that valley it was hot and dry. But we were prepared with lunch and water aplenty. The sign in the photo says Golden Canyon Trailhead, but we hiked the Badlands Loop.
We spent all our days driving and exploring and as I said taking the touristy walks when the opportunity arose.
One interesting spot was the Borax Mines. Yes indeed, Borax, the staple in all the kids homemade slime recipes that are so popular right now. I grew up with Borax in the house, as I am sure many people did. It is quite the story to see unfold, from the early days of the mine to it’s closure.
There is a natural bridge walk in this park as well, but not anywhere near as astounding as in Natural Bridges in Utah. It was a steep but short walk, and offered a great place for a picnic lunch.
I threw in a photo below of the Trona Pinnacles as well, which we saw on a drive outside the park.
The boardwalk photo is the Saltcreek Trail. We were expecting a hike and as you can see it was an easy walk. LOL The fish in the picture are called Pupfish.
The multi colored rock photo is a drive thorough Artist’s Palette. It was hard to capture the brilliance of all the different colors, especially the green rocks.
Our last walk was though Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the US at 282 feet below sea level. Look carefully in the last photo and you will see the Sea Level sign high above the parking lot.

Overall our stay here was relaxing despite the wind warnings, and having The Pads as our excellent boondocking base made it perfect.  Although large in land mass this park is small in activities and we really wouldn't see a reason to visit a second time, we are glad we came and saw. The scenery was breathtaking, and we never tire of exploring different mountain ranges and little towns.
We are on our way to Las Vegas for some city life and a concert. I’ll catch up with you later.