Hottest and Lowest

 

Death Valley National Park is the hottest place on earth with a recorded temperature of 134°F and features the lowest elevation in North America; 282 feet below sea level. When Mark and I planned this trip we worried that being in Death Valley at the end of March, might be a bit late in the season and we could find ourselves dealing with some really hot temperatures. Of course, most things you worry about never happen anyway and we have had some of the best weather of the trip.

I love the desert but realize not everyone shares that feeling. Most of the places we’ve seen in the park were given unflattering names, long ago, by prospectors crossing the valley to get to the gold fields in California. Because of the dangers the miners faced, they chose names for these beautiful places that often related to satan or death; The Funeral Mountains, Coffin Peak, Devil’s Golf Course, Devil’s Cornfield and Death Valley. Try as I might I just don’t see this landscape as a version of “hell”. In my opinion it’s  a wonderland of mountains, valleys, canyons and salt flats; the most magnificent of deserts!