In April our friend Gadi visited us in Pasadena and we took a weekend trip to Death Valley National Park. We stopped on the way at a branch of the famous In-N-Out Burger chain. Mmmm ... those burgers are good. Why don't we have In-N-Out on the East Coast?

One of our first stops in Death Valley was Badwater, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottest places on earth.

The ground at Badwater is covered with salt that has drained off the surrounding mountains and accumulated there since the area does not drain to the ocean. It almost looks like the ground is covered in snow (except it tastes salty - yes we tried it!). The ground at the nearby "Devil's Golf Course" is also covered in salt except there it is greyer and really lumpy.

Death Valley is home to the hardy pupfish that lives in a salty, shallow creek. This cute little fish can exist in water that is 10 times saltier than the ocean and up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We were lucky enough to be there to view the pupfish mating season!

At the end of the day we watched the sun go down over the Death Valley sand dunes. They were a lot of fun to play in and they make so many interesting shapes.

After our first day in Death Valley we spent the night just across the state border in Nevada at the Longstreet Casino and Inn.

Our first stop the next day was Dantes View, a point up high on the east side of the valley. From here you can see the mountains on the other side and a spectacular view all the way up the valley floor.

Back down in the valley some of the views we saw were amazingly full of color considering that we were looking at landscapes composed primarily of rocks.

Before we left the park we took a hike through Golden Canyon. Although it was not as spectacular as canyons we'd visited in Utah or Arizona it was really fun to get up close to all those interesting geological formations.