so i’m back from death valley. after being out in 100 degree weather for 2 days with no shade what so ever, i have finally developed somewhat of a tan… with minor sunburn. so here is how it went:

me, mo, and kala left LA around 5:30 pm on friday and headed towards the hottest place on earth… literally. the drive took 4 1/2 hours, its almost the same distance as if i were to go to vegas… except death valley has less slot machines and keeping hydrated is the key to staying alive out there. we planned on camping out at stovepipe but that campground was closed, which sucked because stovepipe is only 2 miles away from the sand dunes. the sand dunes was our first place of interest @ 5:30 am because we wanted to catch the sun rise due to the fact that shadows will be casted making the dunes not so flat on film. since stovepipe is out, we had to drive to the next campsite… which was 20 some odd miles further down. by the time we found an available spot and set up camp it was well past midnight. i had the hardest time falling asleep… i’m still debating if i fell asleep at all on friday night. the night temp was very plesant so we didnt put on the rain fly and the roof of the tent was mesh so we could totally see thousands of stars out in the night sky… it was beautiful! next morning once mo’s alarm went off we left our base camp and headed towards the sand dunes. here are my pictures documenting our whole entire trip… well most of it anyways:

here is mo and kala

hiking in sand is hard work… we worked up quite a sweat that morning hiking from dune to dune getting the perfect shot.

look closely… i wrote something in the sand

*wink*

awww

then the sun got too high and the dunes lacked depth so we headed off to the next point of interest:

badwater!

that white stuff i’m walking on is basically your typical table salt

i was curious so i put some in my mouth and yea… it was pretty salty

salt crystals

next point of interest:

exactly what the sign says. but it no longer looks like the picture… probably due to erosion, well thats my guess.

next point of interst: Artist Drive

its basically a mountin that is in shades of green and purple… like an artists pallet.

and i dont know why i am standing like that

Adventure Dog is looking emo

then we headed back to base camp for lunch, little break, and an all out super soaker war (super soaker war not pictured). it was 100 degrees on saturday and we were burning up. so i changed into my bathing suit and we cooled each other down by shooting each other with super soakers for about 30 mins. then i dumped a gallon of water over my head… it felt soooo good.

after a cat nap we rolled some vanilla flavored tobacco but mo’s turned out looking like something exploded…haha this cracked me up.

then we changed into our running gear, packed up everything and started our 2 hour drive to the racetrack. we parked the car by the explosion crater, which was right before where the off road starts and did a 3 mile run in 90 deg temp @ 5 pm… it was crazy!

*bump bump bump*

we saw a destination sign decorated with tea kettles, we had to stop for pictures:

thats us… +kala… i left out her name, i am a bad person.

by the time we got to the only camp site  by the race track it was already dark. luckily there was only ONE more available camp site, the other FOUR were taken. the racetrack campsite is extremely small due to its remoteness. racetrack valley isnt even really in death valley… the racetrack has its own valley. we set up camp, cooked dinner, drank monster/vodka, and did some trick photography. i will post those later. we planned on waking up at sun rise again to take the best photos. with alcohol in my system i slept very very well.

the next morning:

this is the mountain-ish rock that i will climb to take the next shot

that speck… is mo

we got our shots and the sun got too high, so we headed back to base camp 2

by this time kala (aka Adventure Dog) is dead tired. its probably 8 o’clock in this picture and she’s knocked out on our sleeping bags. she is the biggest sleeping bag hog ever. whenever we lay out our sleeping bag kala jumps on it and just crashes. she wont get up unless we force her to… i guess she likes down bedding.

after breakfast (coffee and cup o’ noodles) i join her.

we chilled in the tent for a little bit, then it got too hot. messed around camp some more then around noon we packed up everything and it was time to go. but before we left the racetrack valley, we stopped by the racetrack again to get pictures of the famous “moving rocks”:

and the train is never late:

then kala takes a dump right on the fucking racetrack… but i decided to make the best of it:

so i made it artsy fartsy! this is when mo goes “why are you playing with shit?!”. yea… then i got rid of it.

racing rocks + mo… mo is coming in last.

then that was the end of the race track. i was sad to leave. the trip is almost over. i really really really didnt want to go back to LA. there are still so much to do here in death valley and sooo many more pictures to take. *sigh*

but lucky us the land rover took a shit! so we hitch hiked to nevada…. um actually i lied. the rover is fine and this picture is posed.

one last stop: Scotty’s Castle

by this time we’re already dead tired and kala’s beginning to refuse to come out of the car with us. we took a short nap on the lawn of the castle before we went to go check out the structure.

spirl staircase. this officially marks the end of our death valley trip. it took us 5 hours to drive back to LA. after 2 days of not showering, the first thing i did when i got home was drop all my gear and headed straight into the shower. as much as i miss being in death valley and didnt want to come back… it feels good to be home.

http://gallery.ourbackpackingtrips.com

Yes, I know!  You’re thinking to yourself.. just what the world needs.. another wordpress blog.  Well boo-hoo. 

I know we haven’t been backpacking in a long time recently, but summer is quickly approaching and we just *might* be able to squeeze in a few trips.  Plus this gives me us a chance to get back in shape.  I know Mo wants to go in April, but perhaps we can wait until after my GMAT?  Pretty please?

• You won’t freeze and die a horrible death.
• It’s too rushed to plan a trip in April.
• It will be summer-time and we’ll all feel more relaxed.
• We can ALL go.
• Did I mention we can ALL go if we schedule it at a later date?