Do you like death? Do you like valleys? Does hot and dry sound appealing to you? If so, then Death Valley National Park is the place for you! Death Valley is known as the hottest place on earth and the driest place in North America. The first time we visited was in June of 2015 and the heat was no joke. This time around we opted for the cooler weather provided by a Thanksgiving holiday.
Our first stop was to 20 Mule Team Canyon. This turned out to be a great place for a lunch break and to let the kids burn off some energy climbing the hills and exploring the little valleys. From there we went to the Furnace Creek visitor's center to pickup our Junior Ranger books and check out the exhibits.
We then went to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 ft below sea level. There is a 200 square mile salt flat covering the valley floor that you can hike out onto. This area is still sinking as the tectonic plates on either side move apart.
Our next stops were to Artists Palette and Golden Canyon. We just drove the loop for Artists Palette and enjoyed the views of all the different colors of the surrounding hills. Golden Canyon was a fun little hike that we were able to squeeze in before it got too dark (and cold). We explored lots of little slot canyons and dried waterfalls that feed the canyon during the rain storms that hardly ever happen.
Death Valley is an International Dark Sky Park and since we got rained out of our star gazing experience at Great Basin we decided to give it another shot here. The daytime temps were in the 70s but the nights got down to the low 40s, so we made sure to pack lots of warm clothes and sleeping bags for the kids to lay out in.
After eating our dinner and making some hot chocolate we got down to the business at hand, looking for some Leonid meteors. We had a perfectly clear sky and since it was a new moon it was really dark. The Milky Way looked awesome and after awhile we saw our first meteor and it was the biggest I've ever seen in my life. It moved really slow and burned for a good 5 seconds which gave all the kids a chance to see it. It was cool because you could see it burning up and fragmenting into smaller pieces. We stayed out as long as we could before everyone was too cold but we got to see a handful more meteors.
We didn't see too much wildlife while we were there but on the way out we did get to see a desert kit fox. It's a really big park, the largest in the contiguous US, so there is still a lot that we didn't get to see. Maybe one day we'll go back for a 3rd time and I can finally see those magic moving stones on the Racetrack.
This park rates at 4 out of 5 stars based on our standard criteria.
Rating Criteria: Fun, Scenic, Ease of Travel, Wildlife, Crowds