Today we drove from our little inn on the Nevada/California border to Death Valley National Park. We encountered nothing but empty desert on the 35 minute drive to the park, which was unfortunate because we were hoping to top off our gas tank on the way. Upon arriving at Death Valley without finding gas, we checked with Google and found that the closest station was over an hour away, back past our hotel. Whoops!

We had about 170 miles left on the tank, and estimated that we needed roughly 150 miles of driving to tour the spots in the park that we wanted to see, so the odds seemed like they were in our favor. We’d get gas later (spoiler: it was close, but we made it)!

Our first stop was Dante’s View, a spot in the mountains about 5000 feet above the expansive Badwater Basin salt flats that are famously the lowest point in America. It was nice and cool up here, and the view of the salt flats below was impressive.

Lori at Dante’s Point. She was cold enough to wear a jacket up here.

Next up, we headed down into the valley below, away from the cool mountain air. I should mention that Lori and I have been to Death Valley once before, for a few hours around sunset during a February about a decade ago (we drove over from Vegas, not realizing that Death Valley is too large to experience in two hours). We remember it being warm.

Today, in the midday sun at lower elevations, it was hot. Like really hot. The ambient air temperature only got up to 95 or so, but the lack of shade meant the sun was always beating down on us. Walking more than a mile at a time was exhausting—I’m not sure how people explore this place during summer, when it can be 30+ degrees warmer. I drank an absurd amount of water.

Here are a few photos from some of the more interesting spots that we stopped at on our tour of the valley (click for larger versions):

Zabriskie Point panorama. This is the most popular spot in the park.

Lori at Devils Golf Course. Miles and miles of these very sharp rock & salt formations stretching out in every direction.

Badwater Basin—the lowest point in the country, it’s actually more than 200 feet below sea level. It looked quite different the last time we were here, almost ten years ago.

Artists Palette. The oxidation of different metals causes the bright colors in the mountains.

Tomorrow, we’ll be driving through another area of the park on our way west into California, so we’re planning to stop at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.