Family Vacations

Living in the great white north now through the cold winter months I have been taken back by memories of hot family vacations in Death Valley, California.   

When my grandfather was alive he loved to vacation in Death Valley over Thanksgiving Week. So we went there a lot. If you’ve never experienced Death Valley it is one of the strangest places on the planet. At 3.4million acres it is the largest National Park in the continental US. Boasting the lowest point in the US (282 feet below sea level) as well as the hottest temperature recorded in the US (134F). Death Valley formed when the two mountain ranges, the Panamint and the Amargosa rose up and separated and the land between them dropped. 

I grew up in Los Angeles so we would all jump in the car and travel over the long HOT highway to Death Valley for our family vacation. Good times! Upon entering the park the highway leading down the valley floor is a serious of whoop-de-doos. If taken at the right speed a kid in the back seat could actually catch air off their seat!   

Once inside the park there are many strange things to see, like the Devils Cornfield, Badwater, and Scotty’s Castle. And its HOT! Especially in summer. Unbelievably hot. A very normal sight when we were there was cars on the side of the road with their hoods up, overheating.    

I think the weirdest place of all the sights was the Racetrack. A long bumpy drive will get you there and its well worth it.  The Racetrack is an old dried up lake bed, 3 miles by 1 mile. There are about 150 rocks sitting on this lake bed, ranging in size from 2 to 700 pounds, all with tracks behind them for hundreds and hundreds of feet. This is the weird part. No one moves these rocks. They have been blown around on this lake bed making these tracks over time, yet no one has actually seen this happen. It’s been a wonder for geologists for years. In fact they’ve gone up there and done studies on the rocks. Naming and marking them and watching their movement over time. Some move about 800 feet over a winter, some larger ones hardly move at all. And some very large 700 pound rocks have even disappeared and then have been found again many years later somewhere else! 

I remember lots of great times with family spent exploring this wonder of a place. Death Valley, sure to be a treat and something very very different than you have ever seen.