The Valley of Death

We had a three day weekend. And if you know me at all, you know we couldn't spend it at home.

The weather wasn't exactly on our side. It was February, after all. We also didn't intend to stay in a little hotel room for the weekend. Because honestly, we JUST moved out of an apartment the size of a hotel room. We couldn't stomach the thought of spending a few days cooped up in a room together. Even staying home sounded better than that!

And then, we discovered yet another reason why it is SO FREAKING AWESOME to live in Carson City. Not only are we minutes away from the beaches, slopes, and trails of Lake Tahoe...not only are we an afternoon's drive away from the Pacific Ocean, redwood forests, San Francisco (and my SISTER!)....not only can we enjoy any number of amazing destinations up and down the Sierra mountain range....(I really could go on and on and on)...

We can also escape the cold and snow and drive 5 hours to the hottest place in America. Death Valley. Hellllloooooo new favorite winter spot!

We were lucky enough to convince my sister and her kids to come with us. (See her trip recap here. Her pictures are as always way cooler than mine.) Her husband was in China, her kids had the week off school and she was feeling like she needed a change of pace. Totally bueno.

Since none of us had ever been to Death Valley before and we were going to be arriving late, we didn't want to mess with tents. We picked a little speck of a town from a map on the edge of Death Valley and reserved rooms for us and Shannon. Turns out, we booked the entire motel.



It was seriously rustic. Camping without tents. It was FREEZING inside. The room was heated with a tiny space heater that seemed to turn off automatically. The shower had a trickle of water that after about 20 minutes turned lukewarm and sent out about as much water as you might get through a syringe. Very awesome. We actually happen to love a good, memorable hotel. Remember our favorite Double wide trailer?

This kid...needs a haircut.


Turns out, Death Valley is a pretty stunning place. The campsite we found, on the other hand....not so much.

I strategically took this photo. True, it has a stunning view. What you can't see is that we were sandwiched between two land whales (RV's) in a big dirt parking lot, which on a holiday weekend was also loaded with more land whales and scout troops. Also turns out that there aren't a lot of things like TREES in Death Valley that might offer a little privacy.

But that's ok. Nothing a little jaunt to the mountains can't fix. We hiked Mosaic Canyon, an awesome, narrow slot canyon shortly after setting up our tents in dirt city.




The sunset at Zabriskie Point was amazing.



The next morning we woke up to a pretty stiff wind. That happened to not be ideal since we were within view of the sand dunes. Pelting sand isn't my favorite weather. So, we went to Scotty's castle which was on the other side of said sand dunes.

Turns out I'm a cheapskate though (shocking, no?) and didn't end up paying for the tour. I have a feeling we'll be going back again before long so stay tuned for an eventual Scotty's Castle recap.

Then we spent the rest of the day at the Ubehebe Crater. The crazy wind died off almost instantly as we were packing up our picnic lunch and we spent a few hours hiking around the rim of the crater.





After our final night in the dirt lot, we spent the morning hiking down Gold Canyon, another really cool hike through slim canyons and awesome moon-like dirt hills.



And then....It SNOWED!!! Can you believe it???

Just kidding. That's the salt flat of Badwater, 282 feet below sea level. This was our last stop before heading home.


And there you have it. The Card Family (plus Shannon and kids) first camping trip of the year! In the middle of February.

I have a feeling this year is going to be a good one for us.