Death Valley, California....certainly an interesting sounding place....but would the place match the name.
Yes!
Death Valley was very cool indeed...well, it was kinda warm, temperature-wise, but cool overall.
We had left the fabulous California town of Bakersfield...akin to an episode of Jerry Springer...and drove through the Kern Valley, which I have to admit was a hairy drive.
Samantha was more concerned with going over the edge of the road and into a ravine which had a river below it, several hundred feet below, at times.
That wasn't so much my concern as I was comfortable with the drive, but my concern was the massive boulders perched, seriously, very precariously above us. I had one eye on the boulders, looking for any sign of movement and the other eye on the road.
Certainly an experience, let me say.
Anyways, we got through and entered long stretches of highway in Death Valley.
The most amazing thing is that you are surrounded by desert, yet in the mountains surrounding the desert, there are snow capped mountains. Amazing to us anyway as in Australia, if it's hot it's hot and there aint no snow!
We had a good look around a place called Badwater. This is a salt plain and is about 85 metres below sea level....thus, was quite warm there. It's called Badwater because early explorers took donkeys and horses through and they refused to drink the water here, thus Badwater.
People have died here, recently in fact. Seems that people try to cross the salt lake but it's very warm and disorienting and not exactly safe.
I was keen to see a rattlesnake and despite heading out to the sand dunes, we missed out on this privelege.
We did however, visit a classic desert house, called Scotty's Castle. This was unplanned but really cool.
The story that went with the house was fabulous and it's really worth the trip.
Seems that Scotty was a ripoff merchant but he befriended the owner of the house, who allowed Scotty to live there because the owner reckoned that Scotty was a great friend and worth it because he was such a great laugh. It is truly a story of friendship and is a fabulous story.
We visited Death Valley in April, when it is cooler....a good time to check it out.
