Tuesday 2 October 2012

Joining a Trek and camping in Death Valley

As my friend ran out of money and decided to fly home, I continued the rest of my trip by joining a Trek America tour. I did the Southern Sun tour and met 12 other travellers who all really made the trip what it was!

We travelled in a Trek America minibus with all of our luggage in a trailer on the back:


Driving to Death Valley, a desert valley in Eastern California, the roads stretched endlessly before us. Death Valley has the lowest and driest locations in North America and is located near the border of California and Nevada.



Before arriving at the campsite, we stopped at Badwater Basin which is the location of the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

Badwater Basin:


We set up camp at Furnace Creek Campground and lit a roaring campfire, made some fajitas for dinner and drank wine out of mugs to warm ourselves up. During the evening, there were coyotes howling throughout the campsite which was quite frightening but they never caused us any harm or came too close.



Death Valley is home to the Timbisha tribe of Native Americans and the Timbisha name for the valley 'tumpisa' means 'rock paint.' Death Valley inherited its English name during the Gold Rush in 1849 although only one death was recorded during the rush.

Death Valley is open year round and in summer months the temperature rises to over 100 degrees.

Death Valley has a very desert like landscape and infact has 3.4 million acres of desert with 4 distinct areas and viewpoints.

The 4 areas are:
 Furnace Creek
Stovepipe Wells
Scotty's Castle
Panamint Springs

To plan a trip to Death Valley and for more information on these areas, visit www.nps.gov/deva/.

Fo more information on Trek America and the vast range of tours they provide click here.





1 comment:

  1. Death Valley really is on my bucket list. Hoping to make it some day. Reading this I am sure it will be one-of-a-kind experience :)

    ReplyDelete