Toward Death Valley, CA

The high desert on the way down to Death Valley is beautifully punctuated by these unbelievable trees -- Joshua Trees.

Joshua Trees are quite similar to the yuccas we have in our yard in Austin, except that they can grow for hundreds, or even thousands of years, stacking on top of themselves year after year, and actually forming trees.

Impressively large trees, actually! We're parked in the only shady spot for miles and miles!

A little later, we entered Death Valley National Park.

True to form, it was both hot and dry. Amazing that just four hours earlier, we were at 10,000 feet elevation, standing in the snow and splashing icy water on our faces in Tenaya Lake. Here we are below sea level in a desert that sees less than 2" of precipitation per year touch the ground.

Sunset in the desert is painted with a different palette than anywhere else. What looks like water on the desert floor below is actually dry sand. We drove all the way to the bottom of the valley to check out a campground. However, at dusk down at sea level, the temperature was a steamy 95 degrees. About 10 miles back, we past another campground, at about 2500 feet of elevation, and 83 degrees of temperature. So we turned around and headed uphill to the Emigrant campground, arrive right at dark.

The moon is not to be outdone by the sun. We watched (and videoed) a lovely moon set over the mountains to our west.

The clarity of this shot of the moon is indicative of the night that would follow.

I can honestly say that this particular night camping in the desert just above Death Valley was, by far, my favorite night camping on this entire trip. The temperature was just perfect. I slept on top of my sleeping bag. We left the rain fly off of the tent entirely (I mean, it rains like twice a year here). We watched both a sunset, and a moonset. The moon set early enough that we watch a dark, starry sky for hours and hours. We counted shooting stars in sets of 10. I saw at least 30 shooting stars in about 4 hours. Wow. We also made the acquaintance of our friend in the campsite next to us, an awesome guy named Bob Barker who was about our parents' age. We talked to him for hours. We sat around the picnic table, Bob, Kim, and I, each of us staring just over one another's shoulders as we told camping and hiking stories. We weren't being rude -- we were each counting our own shooting stars. It was a perfect night.

The sun shines bright and hard in the desert. Here's first light of the morning, coming through our tent's mesh.

Huh? Oh, yeah, we bought a new tent at a mountaineering shop in Mammoth Lakes, CA the previous day. Right, so our first tent (the Swiss Gear) suffered a broken tent pole. We bought a cheap replacement at Wal-Mart, which got us through one night, but was just too darn small. So we bought a much nicer North Face at a deep, end-of-season discount. It's a great tent!

Like I said, we slept with the rain fly off, just in the mesh shell of the tent. Did I say I counted 30 shooting stars? I stayed up, in the tent, counting shooting stars until I reached 10 more. Note that the date was 10/10/10. ;-)

There aren't many plants in the desert. This was one of the few we did encounter. I'm just glad I didn't step on this guy last night. I think he would have had the last laugh.

We left the campground in the morning and headed back down the slope toward the valley. Death Valley.

:-Dustin