No beach here, Death Valley California

We are now in Pahrump, NV. Death Valley, CA is just over an hour away. Thursday we made the drive. Wow, what a drive. Here we were at Dante's View, which is over 5000 ft, looking down at Badwater, which is 282 ft below sea level. It was cold and windy but when we got to the bottom it warmed up to 77 deg. What a sight of the valley surrounded by mountains.
Some of the views seem very surreal, yet beautiful.

Try clicking on some of these pictures to see the beauty.

At Zabriskie Point, the views were awesome, and seemed to go on forever. A couple from Europe took our picture and Dick took their's.

A moonscape? This is the floor of Death Valley.

Unfortunately the sun was setting as we drove through Artists Drive. The colors are incredible, but the sun shining on them would have been more impressive.

The color of the mountains are unbelievable, we hope to get back and get some shots before the sun sets.

And this coyote seemed to pose for us. We got to Badwater Basin after the sun had set, but we still had a little light to get a picture. We spent the entire day at Death Valley, and still only saw a portion. We plan to go back to see more of an incredible area. (And this is the perfect time of year to do it -- the highs are in the 70's, not the 100's.)

Badwater basin is the lowest spot in the western hemisphere, 282 feet below sea level. You can't see it here but this area is all salt.

We had to come back in the dark so missed the view of the last 50 miles, plus we still have over half of the valley still to see.

To be continued...