Burnett's Travels: Death Vally

One of the first walks/hikes was to Natural Bridge Canyon. Simple walk and neat rock formations.

Here is Ken standing under the Natural Bridge. We had a few hurdles to come.

I had to move this rock for us to continue through the trail.

This is a rather slanted piece of rock we had to scramble over. There were two other spots I did not take pictures of that were more difficult than this one.

Badwater - AKA salt flats are concentrated here. But you can see salt deposits come through different rocks in many locations through the park.

This 'dock' leads you out to the salt flats. There are signs asking you to not dig holes, but you do see a few. In those holes you find water coming up through it. This location is 282 feet below sea level. The snow capped peak you see in the background is Telescope Peak and is the highest peak in the park at 11,000 ft, .Pretty good for starting at below sea level.

Here is Ken standing out on the salt flats. The brown areas off to the side are laced with salt and are clumps of sand.

This is another location with very disrupted landscaped. Devil's Golf Course. Want to tee one up?

This rough landscape goes on for quite a distance.

On the tops of this rough landscape at Devils Golf Course is also covered with salt.

Artist Drive is coming up. Some engineer had fun creating this curvy drive through these hills full of color.

The colors are lavendar, greens, yellows, tans and a few blacks. All are various minerals found in the rocks. Oh and a few reds.

This section is called the Artist's Palette.

The lavendar is really pretty. Not something you usually see in rocks.

Helen standing near a big purple rock.

A cave in the area, just crawling out after a little exploring.

One little visitor along the way. A Zebra tailed lizard. he sure was fast. But once he stopped, I think he thought he was adequately camoflauged, I was able to get close enough for a good picture.

Just an example of the various colors in the rocks.

Oh yes and the cost of gas in the park is a bit pricey. This is a commercial station at $5.38/gallon. 20 miles up the road is the station run by the National park service and it is a $1 cheaper. We will plan our visits to go in that direction when we need gas.

This is one of 50 exhibits of things from the 20 Mule Team Borax operation that used to be here in the Park. They found a larger supply of Borax outside of the park and it was also easier to get to modes of transportation. Yes it took a team of 20 mules to transport the borax out of Death Valley.

These wheels are steel on the outisde and what appears to be petrified wood for the center. This wagon was part of the Borax operation and hauled heavy supplies.

Tuesday morning was a Ranger guided walk at Golden Canyon. Some history and some geology. Did you know that Death Valley was once a 600 foot deep lake? You can see the sedimentary layers on the rocks.

When the talk was done, I hiked to the next point about 4.5 miles away to Zabriski's Point. There were a few others that also made the trip. Ken was back in the room, he had an upset stomach last night and did not hike today. Once there. The others I was with had cars waiting for them. I would either have to ask for a ride back to the other parking lot or trek back alone. I did ask and did get a ride back. The way is marked (sort of ) and I probably would have made it. Had plenty of water, but had not brought the snacks with me.