Death Valley National Park

And Wow!

It is an amazing park.

The mountains are majestic and so different

 depending on what side of the road you're looking at.

You go around the corner and BAM!

There's that.

 We thought going into the park - we'd just blow 

through and it'd be boring.

 Boy were we surprised and bummed because we

weren't gonna be able to see it all.

Lots of trails to hike and see sights off the beaten path that we sadly,

didn't have time to do because we got there late.

 On a great note, we were sidetracked by other really cool things

we didn't know were gonna be there.

 Fun factoid. Any of you remember 20-Mule Team Borax?

Yeah, we just got dated LOL.

Although you can still get borax and I HIGHLY recommend

it if you have pets. Sprinkle it around your carpets, furniture let it

lay for awhile and vacuum it up.

Shazaam - smells great and fleas are toast.

ANYWAY, they mined borax here and back in the day it

was taken out by 20 mule teams to take it to market.

 An oasis in the middle of the desert.

Not a mirage, although you could see mirages out there.

It tricks you for sure.

 Did I mention the mountains change.

If you see green. That's copper.

 In addition to copper, gold, silver, antimony, lead, zinc and tungsten

were also mined until 1915.

 You can walk in the park - just not off-road unless its designated.

Tom went out to check the salt flat and 

picked up a chunk of it.

Looks like ice - but it is REALLY REALLY salty.

 There is also a neat campground and hotels on the premise.

Maybe next time we'll camp there and explore more.

 Scotty's castle which would've been really cool to see

wasn't open due to flood damage.

It was named for a prospector named Walter Scott who was

in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, but never owned the castle,

which is not really a castle.

Managed to catch the golden hour on the way out.

Check out that cloud cover.

No rain for the desert.