Death Valley National Park

Amanda and Romeo invited us to join them for a camping trip in Death Valley National Park several weeks ago (March 6.) They were kind enough to take our tent out to the park with them when they drove out early Friday morning and set it up for us. Their generosity was key in making the trip toddler friendly! Friday night after work had dinner on the road, played car games, and then changed Monroe into her pajamas and "tucked her in" to her carseat so she could sleep for most of the drive.



It was cloudy moonless night, so once we got out of the city the sky was so inky black that it seemed to swallow our headlight beams a few feet from our car. We felt as if we were skimming the black floor of an uncharted ocean in some kind of submarine. The eerie nigh drive was probably a great way to see desert animals--we saw all kinds of smaller critters and encountered a beautiful ghostly Bighorn Sheep standing on the side of the road just as we entered the park.



After settling into our tent in the dark, were amazed to see our surroundings after dawn broke. We were in a large basin near some salt flats in a lovely campsite at about 180 feet below sea level!






Amanda and Romeo were our driving companions as we explored the park.




Scotty's castle was an elaborate vacation home built in the middle of the dessert. "Scotty" was the caretaker of the place, but he also lived there as a sort of upscale squatter and told everyone in the area that the palace was his! And it's known as Scotty's Castle to this day.
We all explored the grounds of this odd spot and then scouted out a place for our picnic lunch.



We had a picnic lunch at Scotty's Castle.




We went to Death Valley in search of the treasured desert wildflower bloom, but these were the only flowers we saw all weekend. The desert held many beautiful treasures for us, anyway--we were not disappointed.


We could never decide if it was the sky or the earth we ought to be looking at--there was beauty in every direction.