A best kept secret for winter vacations, Death Valley
is the largest national park in the lower 48 states. 
Over 3 million acres, about the size of Connecticut.
Zabriskie Point has wildly eroded and brilliantly
colored badland peaks. 
Mike and I are the only living thing for miles. There wasn’t
 a bug, a leaf or anything.  Only a few oddball species
 survive when rain is less than 2 inches per year.
  The evaporation rate is 77 times the precipitation!
  We drank a LOT of water.
There are 3 digits on this sign for a reason.  Death
Valley is officially the hottest place on earth, with
a temperature of 134 degrees, recorded in 1930.
Hiking salt flats is a good reminder that you are
282 feet below sea level.  How cool is it to 
imagine you’re underwater with fish going by?
Early marketing efforts tried to
attract tourists.  Death Valley had
140 years of boom and bust
mining.  The only really successful
find was borax, mined to use as
a cleanser additive.