Death Valley National Park

How I ended-up visiting Death Valley National Park (DVNP) the first time back in August of 1998 depends on who you ask. I was visiting my aunt in Los Angeles the summer after I graduated from college. One day she asked me what I wanted to do and as far as I can remember I said I wanted to visit Sequoia National Park but she suggested DVNP instead. When I’ve told her this is how it went down, she says I’m crazy because she never would’ve suggested DVNP in August and that I wanted to go there because of some Pink Floyd song. The Pink Floyd part leads me to believe she’s correct because my friend and I had gotten into the movie “Zabriskie Point” because it had quite a few Pink Floyd tracks on it. That being said, I think I only mentioned the movie when I unexpectedly found myself AT the actual Zabriskie Point and made the connection.

Regardless of how I got there the first time, it was that trip and especially the drive back to LA through the nighttime desert that planted a desire to return there some day. When I planned my trip to San Diego in the spring of 2019, I hadn’t even considered going back to DVNP until I realized I could drive through it on the way to visit my uncle in Las Vegas and could do so as the sun rose in the morning. That was when I discovered the park was vast, taking hours simply to drive into and around it all. It was exciting to finally get down to Badwater Basin, too, something I didn’t get to do that first trip.