Death Valley National Park

It’s name says it all…. Arid, hot, dry. I honestly felt like I was going to die. We arrived at the park early, but it was still over 100°. The pavement started to melt my tevas and I had to switch to my hot hiking boots. Probably a good idea since scorpions, black widows and rattlesnakes inhabit the park. We stopped at the first pull out with a view, Zack and I walked a little further from the people taking pictures and saw a completely demolished jeep all the way hundreds of feet at the bottom of the canyon. We later learned a guy drove off the cliff to kill himself just last year. Maybe the heat got to him? Maybe he was planning it for a while? But all I know is that it’s weird to think the park will just leave his car there, almost like a prop.

Death Valley is the largest national park in the continental US, so driving from place to place is long; it feels like it takes forever since the heat is so horrid. We tried to keep the windows open but the wind felt like a blow dryer just shooting us with hot air. Our first stop was getting a campground at Furnace Creek. We thought it would be crowded, but we were only group of 4 insane campers to actually stay in Death Valley in the dead of summer. And we were the only people in the park who slept in a tent. Our elevation was -190 feet below sea level.

We drove to some of the popular sites like

Devil’s golf course

Natural Bridge

Artists Palette

And Zabriskie Point

All very different than the mountains we are used to. The heat reached 121° by the afternoon in the shade and we could ring out the sweat soaked in our clothes. Hot but still in good spirits we we went to Badwater, the lowest elevation in the North America. -282 feet below sea level, the sun was smoldering us. The walk to the dried lake is about 15 minutes but it felt like forever. The human body starts to shut down in temperatures like that… I felt physically ill. Concentrating on getting back to the car and regretting walking as far out as we did, I could hardly walk in a straight line. I got into the car, turned on the AC, drank a full water bottle and fell asleep. I really couldn’t handle the heat. Although only late afternoon Zack and I decided it would be best to go back and set up our campsite. Our tent, now in the shade thanks to a single tree in the campground, I laid down in a puddle of my own sweat and tried to sleep. Zack read a book and constantly was checking his watch to see if the temperature was dropping as the sun started to go down. It was 7 o’clock and the temperature was 110°. We gained some energy after cooking some baked beans and Mac and cheese. The metal picnic table could have probably brought the food to a boil.. We kept trying to refill our water bottles but in only minutes the water had reached the same temperature as outside. I easy could have made a cup of tea with the water that stayed in the sun. Thankful we bought Hydroflasks, we could at least drink some water that was cold. If you ever are in need of a bottle to keep something hot or cold, Hydroflasks are the best thing in the world. When we were in the Tetons, my tea would stay warm all day long. They are really incredible.

We caught some of the sunset and gave ourselves the best shower we could in the sinks in the bathroom. Immediately the sweat started to roll off our skin as soon as we dried off. We laid down in the tent, no sleeping bag, no pillow, as far apart from each other as possible and we sweat ourselves asleep.

We later found out that 8 people died that weekend, all healthy and in their 20s. After hearing the unfortunate news, I’m happy we decided to relax the rest of the day and not push it.