Man, oh, man! I think what we will remember most about Death Valley is the wind! It was so powerful on the day we visited, that we thought Jadyn could have been blown away! A mother actually gave me a scolding look as she grabbed Jadyn’s arm when she heard her cry out. Jadyn was fine, but this stranger mom couldn’t tell.

Anyhow, I think I expected Death Valley to just be an endless, boring desert of sand. Maybe some sand dunes, but nothing spectacular.

I’m so glad we visited. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of colors and structures throughout the park. We pulled off at the major hotspots for some great pics – Zabriskie Point, Badwater Basin, Devil’s Golfcourse, Artist’s Drive.

I’d heard of stories of people getting running out of gas in Death Valley in the heat of the summer and thought how silly they were not to fill up. Well, I was naive. There are endless stretches of highways and roads in and out of Death Valley, and really only 1 or 2 gas station options – with steep prices of almost $6/gallon!

So, yes, we almost ran out of gas. Our friends, the Halls followed us back to a gas station when we had less than 5 miles left in our tank. The wind and heat didn’t help; at one moment we freaked when it went from 17 miles to down to 12 miles in 2 seconds! So, we put our car in neutral and rode the windy downhill for a bit. There was a silly part of me that kinda wanted to run out of gas . . . just for the story . . . but I was grateful we made it back safely!

Our boys spent the night with the Halls that night in their RV, and we took the girls out to Lone Pine to stay in hotel before traveling to Bishop the following day. Great times!