The Travelling Celts

I was in a hurry

by Michael Cameron

Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is one of the hottest places in the world along with deserts in the Middle East. Badwater Basin is the point of the lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet below sea level. This point is 84.6 miles east-southeast of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F at Furnace Creek in Death Valley.This temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth.

The valley received its English name in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. It was called Death Valley by prospectors and others who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields, after 13 pioneers perished from one early expedition of wagon trains. During the 1850s, gold and silver were extracted in the valley. In the 1880s, borax was discovered and extracted by mule-drawn wagons. Death Valley National Monument was proclaimed on February 11, 1933, by President Herbert Hoover, placing the area under federal protection. In 1994, the monument was redesignated as Death Valley National Park, as well as being substantially expanded to include Saline and Eureka Valleys.

Thankfully we didn't find it particularly hot when we were there, pleasant best describes it. Funny who you meet on travels, and by an amazing coincidence, given how few people were around, we spoke to a couple who had come from Northern Ireland. The husband complained that he had been pulled over and fined for speeding suggesting the police officer didn't really care that he was in a hurry!

Click the links below for Death Valley photos and/or videos