4 Wheels 4 Girls

After leaving Vegas and going to Trader Joe’s, we headed into my least favorite national park so far: Death Valley. I tell you, it was HOT. Grossly hot, disgustingly hot. By the time I could see the valley I was sweating by butt off and I was DYING. Now I don’t question why they call it Death Valley. When we reached sea level it was even worse. We took a picture of the “Sea Level” sign:

Ana doesn't actually look THAT hot. She did a lot better than me, that's for sure! You'd think living in Atlanta would teach me about hot weather extremes!

We finally got to the visitor center in Furnace Creek, at the bottom of the valley, and got out of the RV. I sprinted into the building, which to my fabulous luck was well air-conditioned. I’m not sure if I had ever appreciated air-conditioning as much as I had right then. After meeting the rangers and finding out more about the park, we went to do a walk in the lowest point in North America- Badwater Basin. I also believe it is a place where people can die of being overheated. We were 282 feet below sea level when we reached the salt flats where we would be walking. It was kinda cool ’cause there was a sign on the side of the cliff 282 feet above us saying “Sea Level”:

You see it way up there?! Directly above the RV, halfway up the cliff.

The ground was full of salt, (you could lean down and taste it!) and water that flows into the basin carries it there. The walk was excruciatingly hot, and Dad and Jean made me wear a ridiculous hat ’cause of the sun. Go ahead and laugh; I know I look SOOOOOOOO stupid. Here we are in Badwater Basin:

On the salt flats. Do we look as hot as I say we are?

We unfortunately had to go on another hike that night into the golden canyon. Luckily it wasn’t very long. It was really pretty and the heat was actually worth it for this one, except at the end. The sand fleas came out and bit Stella and me to pieces, so I guess that wasn’t so great. Those bites hurt!!!

We stayed at a campground very close to the visitor center. We had a small meal of sandwiches and salad ’cause Jean didn’t want to turn on the oven because of the heat. We went to bed sweating. I hated it. 🙁

Death Valley was awful!!! Go there only if you like extreme heat and sweating basically all the water out of your body.