Death Valley National Park/Mojave Desert, California

Got some much needed r & r recently in sunny California. We spent 2 days camping in Death Valley. Very stark contrast from the high precipitation we see in Sitka. As with most of the large national parks, the scale is difficult to catch in pictures.

Mesquite sand dunes

Selfie

Badwater basin, 282 feet below sea level. The next 7 images were shot here.

Badwater basin salt flats

NaCl + some stuff I probably shouldn't be ingesting.

En route to Racetrack you find this.

There's got to be a story to explain why all the teakettles but I haven't looked it up yet.

Some parts of the park can only be reached by Jeep. We rented one for a day of off-the-paved-road exploring.

Racetrack is a dry lake bed...

...where you can see the paths left by sailing stones.

Trying to get the right angle.

It's cool to see life in such an arid environment.

The next 2 photos I shot from a 73-foot rock outcrop called the Grandstand. 

I love this picture of my wife with this almost perfect backdrop.
You can barely make out to her right where some smart-ass wrote NOAA
in the sand (you're not supposed to step on or write on the sand
when it's wet because it can stay that way for years). 

The tent.

Iconic Zabriskie Point.