Hottest, Lowest, Driest (Fall 2024 Western Adventure)

(I'm documenting our latest trip through several blog posts for my future reference. Feel free to read along, or if you're not interested come back in a few days.)

When Hubby Tony and I started planning add ons to our California family visit, the first decision was what route to take. We quickly figured out that going north from Boulder City would run into winter weather, so for the third stop on our trip we chose something that was the opposite of cold. As a matter of fact, Death Valley National Park is notable as being the hottest place on earth and driest place in North America.

Wikimedia

However, the "hottest place on earth" ended up being lovely in November, with warm days and cool nights. Hiking was a pleasure. The park wasn't crowded, and there were no bugs. We chose to stay in Beatty, Nevada, which calls itself the "Gateway to Death Valley". The town was a blink and you miss it space on the highway, but our hotel was a ten-minute drive to the Hell's Gate entrance to the park. Beatty is an old mining town, and the burrows roaming the streets added character.

Death Valley National Park is over 3.4 million acres, and the largest park in the United States outside of Alaska. It's filled with extreme and unique landscapes, but Tony and I came up with a plan that let us see many of the highlights. Among my favorites was Badwater Basin. At 282 ft below sea level, it's the lowest point in North America.

See the arrow? That's a sea level marker.

When you turn around from the cliff in the photo above there's an expansive salt flat that covers almost 200 square miles. The packed salt looked like snow, and I kept expecting my feet to get cold when I walked on it.

Throughout the course of the day we saw scenic vistas, colorful hills, and show-stopping canyons. Our last stop was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, which the visitor center said was one of the best places to watch the sun set. Unfortunately heavy clouds covered the sky and there was no sunset, but it was still interesting to walk through the area.

At the end of the day we returned to the hotel. It was an interesting drive on a sometimes windy two lane roads, because the area is recognized as an International Dark Sky Place with very little artificial light pollution, and I was glad when I saw the motel sign.

To be continued...