{"id":157,"date":"2015-03-25T20:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/?p=157"},"modified":"2015-03-25T20:00:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T20:00:37","slug":"f-18s-marble-slides-and-a-castle-a-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"F-18s, Marble Slides and a Castle. A National Park?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Surprises await at Death Valley National Park. \u00a0We were amazed by the varied scenery and the huge amount of history found in\u00a0this wonderful desert landscape. \u00a0Never expecting life in Death Valley, we were shocked by the many thriving towns that had sprung up in this area due to mining in the 1800’s. \u00a0The most successful\u00a0mine was for Borax.<\/p>\n

The Badwater Basin is a huge pool of primarily subterranean water but is terribly salty and in the drier seasons is covered by three feet of salt that we walked on. \u00a0Way above on the rocks is the sign for “sea level”.<\/p>\n

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The Ranger told us if we saw a puddle not to step in it because we might fall through. \u00a0Why is that not posted on a sign there?! \u00a0Interesting enough there is a huge aquifer with millions of gallons of pure clean water under acres of this park and of course Nevada and California want the water! \u00a0Never would have guessed there was so much drinkable water here but it explains the springs.<\/p>\n

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Another surprise greeted us very early in our visit \u2026F-18s flying overhead. \u00a0Oops, I missed it! \u00a0It was like watching an air show! \u00a0Awesome! \u00a0That inspired us to launch our own rockets.<\/p>\n

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If this has not convinced you yet that this is a kid paradise then add in the fact that the kids can hike and climb anywhere. \u00a0It is an “open park”. \u00a0So many parks ask that you “stay on the trails”, which my children do not appreciate. \u00a0This park is also an international dark skies location which means it is so dark at night (no ambient city lights) you can see the stars in an amazing way. \u00a0The Milky Way was clearly visible along with millions of stars and we enjoyed just lying on the ground at the camp staring up at the night sky. \u00a0Death Valley has risen to\u00a0my children’s\u00a0top four\u00a0favorite national parks list.<\/p>\n

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They loved hiking in Mosaic Canyon where the walls have sections of marble worn so smooth that they could slide on them. \u00a0We hiked, climbed and slid this trail twice they loved it so much!<\/p>\n

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We also hiked the Natural Bridge trail and the kids again pretended to be mountain goats.<\/p>\n

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Artists Palette was a beautiful drive and the pictures do not convey the dramatic colorful layers of rock. \u00a0The geology of the park was fascinating and so varied!<\/p>\n

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We expected a boring, dry, sandy park. \u00a0We did find sand and really \u00a0enjoyed the dunes but most of the park was dry and rocky and in every direction were beautiful mountains. \u00a0Are we slow? \u00a0That is the description of a valley but somehow our expectations were that this would be a boring flat piece of desert. \u00a0Boy, were we wrong!<\/p>\n

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To add to the adults’ interest we visited Scotty’s Castle which is more of a spanish mansion than a castle, but the story and history are again so very intriguing. \u00a0A whole story in itself but I’ll leave something for you to discover yourself when you come to visit!<\/p>\n

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While waiting to take the tour, we had our first up close and personal time with some local coyotes. \u00a0We saw more back at our campsite as several casually walked through camp just a few feet away.<\/p>\n

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We really enjoyed this unexpectedly beautiful park. \u00a0The camping is plentiful. \u00a0 Our first night we camped at Panamint Springs, a private (not owned by the National Park) campground, motel, gas, gift shop and a restaurant. \u00a0They offer full hookups for camping and a nice restaurant and bar. \u00a0Furnace Creek Campground has 16 sites with water, sewer & electric sites (reservations required); \u00a0we dry camped there and at Stovepipe Wells. \u00a0Both campgrounds had water and a dump station available. \u00a0 \u00a0We preferred Stovepipe Wells campground due to the scenery and it was less busy. \u00a0For those not interested in camping, the Furnace Creek Inn is a beautiful facility and there are other lodging options as well as restaurants and bars in this area. \u00a0We highly recommend this national park and if you have any questions feel free to contact us for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click on photos to get larger version Surprises await at Death Valley National Park. \u00a0We were amazed by the varied scenery and the huge amount of history found in\u00a0this wonderful desert landscape. \u00a0Never expecting life in Death Valley, we were shocked by the many thriving towns that had sprung up in this area due to … Continue reading F-18s, Marble Slides and a Castle. A National Park?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wanderingadams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}