I’m 90 feet below sea level.

I’m staring at multicolored mountains.

It’s 120 degrees.

How cool is this?

Those are some of my notes when I reached the bottom of Death Valley. It was on my list of places to visit before I set off, and I’m lucky to have visited it twice- once to explore and once to drive through on the way to California. In fact, the California border is near the eastern entrance.

Death Valley is a National Park, and a big one at that. But much to my surprise, several highways wind their way through the valley that people can drive through every day (but it would be healthy for their vehicles if they did not. It is the single hottest place that I have ever experienced. My car’s thermometer reached 119 degrees during midday. Walking is certainly not advised.

In Layman's: If you aren't careful, you'll die.

Death Valley is also quiet. So quiet that you can hear nothing but the scalding breeze and your footsteps, and even they are too loud. It was worth the trip out there. The land is barren and dry, with plant and animal spread far out within the park. I only saw one animal when I was there; a lizard ran into the middle of the road while I was driving, and although I tried to avoid it by slowing down and moving, I think I ran over it and killed it. I inadvertently brought more death to Death Valley.

Another surprising feature of Death Valley is the mind-blowing concept of being below sea-level, yet still above ground. I entered the park at around 5,000 feet above sea-level, and at its lowest point, I was nearly 200 feet below. It is a remarkable place to be.

Due to the heat, foot exploration was limited. When I was walking around, I had the beguiling idea to see how fast liquid would evaporate here. However, when this thought occurred, I was too lazy too far to return to my car to get any water. More importantly, I did not want to waste any. So, I did the next best thing and wizzed in the open airs of Death Valley. My product was gone within a minute-and-a-half.

This cannon is unrelated to anything I have written, but I wanted to include it anyway.

Evening came, and I had had enough. I decided to make my way back to the Motel 6 I was staying at in Beatty, Nevada (by the way, many auto makers, such as BMW and Mercedes, also stay there. This is because they bring prototypes of their products to Death Valley for extreme performance tests). However, on the way out, I saw a road sign that read, “Dante’s Peak- 13 Miles.” Now, how could I willingly pass that up? I made the ascent up to what seemingly was the highest point of the park. The view was extraordinary, and since it was late in the day, it was finally cool enough to take a stroll. Although these photos cannot come close to describing the sheer brilliance of what I was seeing, they can hopefully give you some scope of the park.

The second day I traveled through wasn’t too bad- only 113 degrees. I had to stop at one point on the road to confirm what I thought I was seeing. When passing through the western half of the park, I was shocked when I saw snow-capped mountains in the distance. How was this possible? Due to the altitude? That is what I think, but for the time being, I’ll leave it as a mystery.

I had seen and conquered Death Valley. I continued on to venture into the land that I had always dreamed about: California.

Skeet skeet!