I visited Death Valley around mid-February. I couldn’t believe how warm it was at that time of year. When I arrived, it was mid 70s during the day and low 50s at night. Beautiful! It was nice to break out the shorts and sandals. Maddie wasn’t as excited as I was about the warm weather LOL!

The next morning I woke up to a fresh and beautiful day!

I couldn’t wait to get to Death Valley. It was going to be gorgeous! Along the way I passed a funky intersection. I made sure to fill up with gas here. Nevada gas prices are way lower than California – especially inside a national park! While there I saw gas prices were at $8/gallon for diesel. At this station I paid $3.75/gallon.

Once I entered the national park, I was immediately impressed with the beauty of the landscape before me. I was descending down at steep grade into a scenic and colorful geologic wonder. Not too far into the park near the top of this descent, I noticed a dirt road called 20 Mule Team Road that led into a beautiful canyon.

I stopped several times along this side road as the scenery was just too spectacular. I hiked up to the top of a hill to see that steep decent that I was going to be continuing to drive down into the park.

This side road drive was so fun. Maddie and I had a great time exploring all the little side canyons and climbing up periodically to see the expansive views.

While your eyes are mostly drawn to the expansive and stunning landscape, there is also beauty in the small details. I found these tiny slivers of gypsum sticking out of the hill. They were very delicate.

After a fun morning exploring the 20 Mule Team Road, it was time to go further down the road. By this time the temperature had gotten a lot warmer. It felt awesome after that cold and stormy night!

The next stop was Zabrinsky Point. It’s a short trail that takes you up to view all the way down into the Badwater Basin.

From the vantage point of Zabrinski Point, the view below was spectacular! I love this photo! I love all the texture created from erosion. The contrasts of light and shadow make your eye wander all over the photo.

After I took this photo, I later saw that the cloud in the background made it look like the peak was an active volcano.

I loved this photo so much that I felt it would make an amazing black and white photo. I wasn’t wrong!

At this location there is also a side trail that takes you down into the formations of the photo above. This hike was beautiful and fun to explore.

I loved the contrast of the black-capped hill so much that I hiked down to it for a closer look.

At the end of my first day in Death Valley, I saw the most beautiful sunset.

The next day I headed south to explore the badwater basin area. I drove a side road that went through the Artists Palette area. The colors among the hills were so varied and beautiful.

From there I drove further down the road to lowest point of Death Valley – 282 feet below sea level. The view of the basin and the mountains was so beautiful. I loved how the pools of shallow water reflected the snowy peaks of the mountains.

Another feature in the badwater basin was the Devil’s Golf Course. It’s an area where the salts of the valley floor have been shaped into unique formations. You had to be careful walking out there as these salt formations were jagged and sharp.

The last area I enjoyed exploring was the Mesquite Dunes. This area is a long narrow strip of sand that has been sculpted by the wind into beautiful dunes.

It was challenging to hike these dunes. They were steep and your footing would constantly slip down while you try to climb. Walking in sand is tiring, hiking uphill in sand is exhausting. But it was worth the effort to get some wonderful views of the dunes.

Maddie acted like it was no big deal scrambling all over the dunes. I was definitely jealous of her four paws!

There were several open areas in among the dunes. The bottom of the areas were white. I was thinking maybe this white material was gypsum or salt. But to my surprise, it was clay. So unique!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my visit to Death Valley National Park. I was there a week. I had to leave at the end of the week because the temperature in the valley was climbing higher and higher – and in February!!! It went from low 70s to high 80s and not a breath of wind. My RV turned into an oven! I drove back in to Nevada to the area around Tonopah to cool off and get supplies.

My next post will be covering my drive from Tonopah to the California coast. I took a very scenic route to get there!