Death Valley - Day 2

We pulled into the campsite, which was very sparsely populated as it was “off-season”, and soon set about preparing breakfast. This was a group effort with everyone doing something to concoct a very good – surprisingly so for most people, me included – and filling breakfast. We also made our own lunch to take with us and were encouraged to fill any water bottles or containers we had for the hike.

After clearing and cleaning up we all boarded the bus – which had been “un-miracled” back into seats – and headed for our drop off point from which we would do our first hike.
The bus dropped us off at Zabriske Point and we would hike through to Golden Canyon where the bus would pick us up again.

The hike was wonderful, through a beautiful valley which was a river valley caught in stone. One can easily see what it was before the water went away – it is total rock and desert now – and I collared Eleanor to ask her questions about what we were looking at. I did keep checking to make sure she didn’t mind me playing amateur geologist with her and told her she only had to tell me to piss off when she had had enough. She was obviously too polite to do this and when we had a break for lunch I left her in peace. The place was amazing though, especially when one realises this used to be full of water, as it is real desert (as opposed to fake desert) with hot sun beating down onto the rocks and into the valleys and stealing any available moisture. I can testify to this as the backs of my hands and my lips were dry by the end of the day. I drank plenty of water on the hike and kept it to “little and often” rather than downing a litre in one go.
After getting back on the bus we were driven to our next location: Badwater Basin the lowest point in Death Valley and North America at 65.5m below sea level. This was quite different as it is a sunken valley which always has standing water in it – rather obviously as it is below sea level. After having a walk out on the salt flats we all boarded the bus and headed back to the campsite as the sun was setting.

Next came dinner preparation, which again was a group effort and was soon prepared. After dinner and clearing up we all congregated around the fire pit and got a camp fire going. This turned into a mini party with beers being produced and consumed. Some people had brought tents and would be camping out whilst the rest of us would be sleeping on the bus. It also became very apparent at how quickly the temperature drops and by how much – it was getting very cold.

The temperature dropped so much that I had donned all my layers: t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie, hat and jacket. I also wished I had brought my thermal gloves as my hands and face were the only things left exposed. It got so cold that the only thing I removed before crawling into my sleeping bag was my boots!

I do not know what the actual temperature dropped to during the night but it certainly felt below freezing in any temperature scale. I did have to get up in the early hours of the morning in order to have a wee. I did briefly consider not bothering to get up as it would create some warmth, but realised that any liquid in this environment would cool and more likely freeze so I did get up.