Death Valley Day 2

We finally got to sleep in a little. After bowls of cereal in the hotel room, we headed north about 8 o'clock. Our first stop was a Borax Mine exhibit. We walked around and took in the history for a few minutes. 

The Harmony Borax Mine display was interesting.

Seth took the photo this time!

Then we continued down to the sand dunes. The wind has been blowing a lot since we've been here, but it was mostly calm as we walked around the dunes, thinking about R2-D2 and C3PO on these same dunes. Seth and Dad even took a picture of themselves ready to get pulled out of the sand by Jawas.

Walking on the dunes just like C3PO and R2-D2.

Do you think the Jawas will pick them up?

It was a fun morning at the dunes.

So much sand!

Our next stop was for a longer hike. It was steadily uphill, and the boys showed some reluctance, but we walked 1.75 miles to the end of Mosaic Canyon. This one was up a narrow slot canyon much like the Golden Canyon the day before. There was a little more scrambling, and Dax climbed straight up a wall at the end of the canyon. The canyon was also a lot narrower in certain sections, which was fun. We like these scrambling hikes, because we have to work together. The boys are really good at helping Mom over the obstacles, and we need that sense of teamwork.

The Mosaic Canyon had a lot of fun rock features.

We thought this wall looked just like petrified wood.

We loved the winding beginning.

Everyone was scrambling all over. Can you see Mark way back there?

Mark found a nice place to rest.

Seth hiding like a Jawa.

We enjoyed this hike together.

Seth found a rock shaped like a tall Utah.

Look at those stripes.

Mom loved this trail.

Good thing Mom didn't know Dad let him do this.

Dad and Mark hiked all the way to the end.

Mom slid right down this chute.

There were fighter jets flying over for some of the hike. They were so loud.

After the long hike, we did some driving. We'd heard of a waterfall and an overlook that we wanted to try on the far west side of the park. The distance of the drive was daunting, and the road was narrow and full of hills and ridges that made it an interesting winding drive. Unfortunately, the overlook was horrible. Not only wasn't it interesting, but it was also terribly windy. The wind almost blew us right over the edge! After only a few minutes, we started back toward the center of the park.

The wind was strong!

We couldn't find the waterfall, so we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. It was really expensive, but the food was good, and we couldn't waste that 50 mile drive. Turns out, the road to the waterfall was all washed out by the recent hurricane, so there was nothing to do over there but eat. We enjoyed the food and the ancient restaurant, so it was worth it.

We enjoyed a hot lunch!

Then we made another long drive. We came back across the park and turned north. Many roads are out up there, too, but we made a single stop at Ubehebe Crater. This is a massive volcanic crater 500 feet deep and almost 2 miles around. We decided since we drove we up there, we better do some hiking. But this one was steep! There were some massive climbs up the along the rim of the crater. Still, we made it through the ups and downs all the way along the narrow rim trail. At the end of the day, the phone informed us we'd climbed the equivalent of 100 flights of stairs!

The crater was huge!

Seth cheered Mom on by finding purple flowers for her along the way.

We had fun some of the time. ;)

It was interesting to see different sides of the crater.

Seth was a real trooper!

A third long drive brought us all the way back to the ranch. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed out through the twilight to the swimming pool. It was warm and nice, and took away many of our aches.

We changed and quickly headed up to the ice cream place. The ice cream was also expensive, but we'd burned a lot of calories on those uphill hikes, so it tasted like we'd earned it.

The pool is fed by a spring, so it is always 87 degrees.

The ice cream tasted so good!

Our final adventure was to see the stars. We drove just a few miles up to our first stop of the day at the Borax exhibit. The sky was so dark, and the stars were so brilliant! With our binoculars we could see moon around Jupiter. We even saw a few shooting starts. It was the perfect end to a long day.

It was a great end to the day.