EXPLORING DEATH VALLEY

As always, you can view the photographic narrative for this story below. What is a photographic narrative?

Having spent the preceding two days rejuvenating in Las Vegas after our first few challenging adventures, we left the strip behind and drove west to Death Valley. We entered the park from Route 190, stopping to see the sights at Zabriskie Point before continuing to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Here, I grew my collection of Deneen Pottery national parks mugs. We then set out on Badwater Road to Badwater Basin. After heating up some water for some lunch, we walked out onto the iconic rugged salt flats, Telescope Peak and the surrounding mountains on the horizon in front of us with dramatic clouds up above. To be honest, I didn’t expect this grade of beauty before arriving, and was overwhelmingly surprised. 

After Badwater Basin, we drove a bit north to the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes. From the parking lot, we trudged off toward the horizon. Of course, there are no real trails on sand dunes, letting us aimlessly explore. We crested one dune, deciding to climb over the next, and then the next. With such a huge area to explore in an already sparsely visited park, it’s easy to feel like the only people in the world. The sun gradually fell below the horizon sending us back toward the car. We’d walked a lot further than we’d realized. It seemed that at the crest of each dune, another few revealed themselves. But eventually, the sand turned to rock, and then to asphalt, and we climbed back into the car well after dark for our drive out of the park. We drove into the night toward Los Angeles, where we’d continue our exploration in the morning.