Death Valley National Park

Death Valley is other worldly indeed! My friend Jackie has retired and on one of our many calls she said, “Lets go on an adventure soon!” We are both fully vaccinated, so we felt safe to be out and about in busy places, and Las Vegas was selected … and I knew then that Death Valley National Park was in my future ( … and we had no clue a new variant, Omicron, would be rising at the time of our trip)!

I researched several tour companies and selected Bindlestiff Tours cause they guaranteed a stop at The Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center so I could get my official stamp. Our tour took us from Las Vegas with stops at Dante’s View, Zabriskie Point, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Furnace Creek, Badwater Basin, Artist’s Pallet, and Devil’s Golf Course … and each stop was awe-inspiring and awe-some! A highlight was experiencing Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea-level, the lowest point of the United States.

This is The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe Land and their “ancestral homelands encompass what is known today as Nevada and California, spreading through the counties of Inyo, Kern, San Bernardino and Mono in California and Nye, Mineral and Esmeralda in Nevada.”

After our adventure, Jackie posted “When a good friend invites you to Vegas, not to gamble, but to visit a National Park, Death Valley!” I knew I have a new convert and lover of National Parks. It is so special to share my love of nature with those that I love.

This is the site where U2 took their cover shot of their Joshua Tree album!

Star Wars, a New Hope, was filmed in Rainbow Canyon (nicknamed Star Wars Canyon and Jedi Transition) in the national park a few decades ago, when that type of filming was permitted.

And on our way back to Vegas, we took a quick tour of the Marta Becket's Amargosa Opera House!