Welcome to Death Valley, boys and girls.
I'm Kristin. I've been traveling the world for the last nine years entirely alone,
but a couple of years ago, I ended up meeting a pretty amazing person and we've been traveling
all through Nevada together. We just wrapped up the most bizarre road trip I have ever
been on US 95 between Reno and Vegas before we made a turn to come to Death Valley.
So our first attraction, if you will, is the Artist's Palette. Most people watching this
will probably be coming from the California side. In which case, you would start at the
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes first and we're gonna get to that. But since we were coming from
the Nevada side, which I have to say is a much grander entrance into the park, we stopped
at the Artist's Palette first. This is the first thing I did last time I came to Death
Valley, too. It's just so colorful and beautiful and now, I have someone else with me to make
the photography a lot easier so I'm excited.
The Artist's Palette is accessible down the Artist's Drive, a really beautiful drive that
leads to this overlook. The name is quite indicative of this next stop, which I like
photographing best around sunset, just after the sun dips below the mountains so that the
colors are even more beautiful on the rocks. The Artist's Palette was formed volcanically.
Eventually, erosion showed the layers of color caused by oxidation of metals, including iron,
mica, and manganese within the rock. The entire drive is gorgeous with layer cakes of color
swirling through as you go. It's a one-way road that takes about 10 to 15 minutes to
drive, accessible off of Badwater Road.
You know, it's pretty close to the winter solstice right now, so we have very little
daylight. And we opted for the Artist's Palette because the lighting is just so nice, like
red after the sun sets there. And now, we're at the Badwater Basin because stars.
As if Death Valley wasn't already varied enough, the Badwater Basin gifts us with an intricately
patterned salt pan. This is the lowest elevation in North America at 279 feet or 85 meters
below sea level. Give it a lick if you dare. It tastes just like Himalayan sea salt.
It's like that Himalayan pink salt. You should try it.
Good morning. We're at Zabriskie Point. We camped out in the park last night, which you
are allowed to do in certain areas. So we just backcountry camped in the truck. I'll
show you more about that later. But now, we're at Zabriskie Point for probably the most famous
sunrise in this park.
Garrett is not impressed by how long the sun is taking to rise. Such a long time.
He keeps saying, "It's not gonna happen." Oh, it's happening. It's starting now.
That's Zabriskie Point Lookout there.
Well, as completely illogical as this may be, we woke up, caught the sunrise, walked
partway down the trail, came back, and ate breakfast because I cannot function without
food. And now, we're gonna hike the rest of the Golden Canyon Trail.
This is one of the most beautiful and famous hikes in Death Valley and in my opinion, all
of California.
If you do intend on hiking the Golden Canyon,
my best advice is to keep going down the Zabriskie Point Trail until you connect with it.
And be sure to do this hike in the early morning hours.
This is probably a good time to mention that I don't recommend visiting Death Valley in the summertime.
I've never visited it outside of the winter but even in the winter, this hike gets brutally hot.
I'm sweating and it's December so I can't imagine trying to do this in anything but the winter, no thank you.
Okay, you can go.
Of the same road as Zabriskie Point, next, we continue onward to Dante's View,
an overlook 5500 feet or 1700 meters above sea level.
It's tough to adequately photograph or even describe this viewpoint except to say that you've got to see it.
Looking down, we could see the Badwater Basin and views all the way at either end of Death Valley. Gorgeous.
Since we were going to be heading out on the California side, we decided to hit up the
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
I love these the most at golden hour, the hour before the sunsets. I just love the shadows
and the colors at this time of day, and I think it casts a nice color on everything.
It's sand. Oh, nice.
Garrett: I've got to try the anal pleasure way.
Kristin: The Anal Pleasure-Way. That might be a winner.
Well, look at this. So many people out there have fancy camper vans but we just sleep in
the back of this guy and it's a pretty good setup. He's got it. Check it out.
Garrett: There's a lot of stuff in there now but.
Kristin: We've got camp chairs. That's our little, tiny, Jetboil camp stove which works
pretty well.
Garrett: Here are the sleeping bags.
Kristin: Sleeping bags.
We finished off our trip by ending in the Alabama Hills off of the 395 freeway so that
we could drive back up to Reno this way.
"Beware the influencers..."
It is a beautiful drive and the Alabama Hills is so awesome and definitely something I recommend
checking out, either on your way to or from Death Valley. You can free camp wherever you
want and there's lots of movie-famous places to take photos and videos.
I hope that you loved this video. I hope that it showed you all of the amazing things to
see in Death Valley National Park, especially if you're short on time and only have two
days like we did. If you love videos like this, let me know, and be sure to check out
our video on the Golden Canyon, where you get a lot more information on doing this hike
if you fancy it. Be sure to hit that subscribe button, share it with your friends, and I
will see you next Wednesday.