Blue Page Special: Vacation - Part 1: Death Valley Days

After a major snafu (something about bad weather in Atlanta) with Delta Airlines we arrived home just after midnight without our luggage (over 3 hours late). I won't go into all the details, I'm sure everyone has a good airline travel story.

I am planning to blog about our trip and post photos in phases so not to bore anyone that reads my blog with too much of "what I did on my vacation" at one time. So first I will talk about Death Valley.

This was my first trip to Death Valley National Park and I was extremely surprised to see such a beautiful surreal place. I had not given this place much thought before; maybe because of the name. I think I was expecting a place that was desolate and hot. Death Valley is full of wonder with its mountains, alluvial fans, canyons, craters, sand dunes, salt basin (Badwater, 282 ft below sea level), wildflowers, salt creek and geologic history; a splendid place to visit. We were there only two nights and I wish we could have stayed an extra day. We mostly did a driving tour of major sights in this spectaclar land along with a few short hikes. The weather was somewhat hot at times; although, it was reported to be 10 to 15 degrees below normal. Due to roads being closed from flood damage, we missed Dantes View, Zabriskie Point, Artist's Drive among other beautiful spots. Here are a few photos of some of the sights we visited.