Death Valley National Park

Crossing the Death Valley

By Munish Gupta

June 2^nd, 2016

On this side

This was our second trip to the park. Well it’s more than park. Death Valley is one place I think I could never get bored of exploring. There is something about this place. Geographically, it is merely two hours away from Las Vegas. In every other aspect, it could not be any further away. It is just so quiet and hauntingly beautiful! The Valley is located in California.

Dante's View

We were driving from Vegas just like the first visit. Though this time we decided to make the left turn (instead of driving straight like the first time). During our first visit we had explored the Badwater and surrounding areas. This time we had a bird’s eye view of the same region. It was very different but equally beautiful.

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badwater basin

This region is about 266 feet below sea level.

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Furnace creek visitor center

A quick customary stop at the park’s visitor center. Stamped our travel journals. They have a temperature display outside. That day it happened to be 120 degrees F. Because of such high temperatures, there were signs along the road instructing drivers to turn off the air conditioning to avoid over heating the engine.

padre crowley point

On the other side of the Valley. On the road, we saw a bunch of vehicles covered in generic decals (and without any manufacturer signs or logos) driving in the opposite direction. Although some of the vehicles were easily recognizable because of their trademark design elements. It looked like they were stress testing the new models under extreme conditions.