Sadly, there are high wind warnings starting later today, so we must bid goodbye to Death Valley sooner than we would like. We’ll definitely have to come back since we haven’t checked out the west side of the park yet, plus there are more hikes we want to tackle. On our way out, we made a couple of stops, though!

Lowest Point in North America

Badwater Basin gets its name from a map surveyor who couldn’t get his mule to drink this salty water and wrote “bad water” on his map. It’s not poisonous, but it is too salty for most life forms. There is one plucky snail, the Badwater snail that lives in the Badwater pool which has some water year-round.

In addition to being the lowest elevation in North America, this park is also the record holder for highest temperature on the continent. An air temperature of 134 degrees F was reported on July 10, 1913 at Furnace Creek, very near where we spent the night. In the past five years, with very reliable instrument readings, temperatures of 130 degrees F have been recorded a few times during July and August.

20-Mule Team Canyon

Twenty-mule Team Canyon Road is a narrow, one-way drive through a canyon was used in filming a planet Tatooine scene from Return of the Jedi. This was the backdrop for C-3PO and R2-D2 walking to Jabba the Hutt’s palace when Luke Skywalker sends them to Jabba with a message.

There is dust in the air and reduced visibility of the mountains as the winds pick up. We are off to Las Vegas!