Given that Death Valley is the largest National Park outside of Alaska (3.4 million acres – the next largest is Yellowstone at 2.2 million acres) I think we really made the most of the 23 hours we had there. We had to do a little bit of picking and choosing, but I’m very pleased with the variety we wound up with.

From our starting list, we managed to see:

• Dante’s View
• Harmony Borax Works (at night)
• The Night Sky!!
• Furnace Creek
• Ubehebe Crater
• Stovepipe Wells
• Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes
• Badwater Basin
• Artist’s Palette

We missed or skipped:

• Zabriskie Point
• Devil’s Golf Course
• Golden Canyon Trail
• 20 Mule Team Canyon
• Mosaic Canyon (not planned for this trip)
• Telescope Peak (not planned for this trip)
• Teakettle Junction (not planned for this trip)
• The Racetrack and Sailing Stones (not planned for this trip)
• Darwin Falls (not planned for this trip)
• Panamint Springs (not planned for this trip)

My husband agreed that if we were to do it again, our ideal time frame would be 3 days and two nights. We would love to have more than one night for stargazing. We would also plan the days a little differently, with the day’s Big Hike (like Mosaic or Golden Canyon) earlier in the morning, with a break for lunch and maybe a nap or a pool swim, and then another outing later in the day for either a short hike or a long drive (like to the Racetrack). Maybe 3 nights if we felt like we needed to do EVERYTHING, but at least two nights to get a less-rushed feel for it.

I absolutely understand why other hot places embrace “Siesta Time” – getting things done in the morning and evening with a nice rest during the heat of the day makes a lot of sense when the heat of the day is over 100°F on the regular. And while yes, it IS a “dry heat” (and yes, that is very different from a humid heat) it is still hot enough to cook an egg or your brain or the bottoms of your feet.

We left Death Valley and went on to the rest of our vacation, which was 4 days in Las Vegas. You don’t get pictures of that because 1) what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas or so they tell me and 2) it was a great adventure but not a part of this blog.

I’ll toss in some pictures of the Hoover Dam, though. It’s close enough to on point, and I need some good eye candy for this page anyway. I tried to get a good view of the dam from the main bridge that crosses the canyon, but my fear of heights kicked in and I was unable to walk out to the middle of the bridge. I went as far as I could and stood with my back to the wall (traffic whizzing by about 3 feet behind me) and very shakily took the first picture in this group.

It was a nice side trip and a cool contrast of the forces of Nature versus the Ingenuity of Man.

Remember that little lizard? We were inspired to keep him as a souvenir from this trip. I mean, not really the lizard itself, as it would have been impossible to catch and not easy to transport or care for, but the spirit of the lizard including the ability to adapt and regenerate, which were both timely messages for me at this particular moment in my life. So I brought him home in a different way.

His name is Leroy and I take him on all of my walks.