Day: September 4, 2014

September 4th, 2014
Death Valley, California,  USA

“I wasn’t sure if to include this desert area in a trail for Israelis that are so familiar with deserts” – this was the first sentence talking about the Death Valley in our Hebrew guide book.
For people that come from a country that almost two thirds of its area are desert, there is nothing special in this desert.
But not for me =)
Each desert has it’s special thing. Like the Eskimos that can tell one snow from the second, or the British that can tell one rain from another, I can tell on desert from another.
Almost everything we saw here (from the deepest point here, to the crystallized salt and salt ponds) is unimpressive compare to the nature in Israel but I still enjoyed it =)
There are just people like that… I remember the time that we went to the Judaean desert after a long night in a party. We stood upon the cliffs above the Dead sea and looked east. You can see a lot if you want, but you can see just a Hugh basin full of nothing. And when you are part of the second part, when you realize you are so small – you just have to scream have to scream… and that’s what my friends did: They started screaming.

Take Care
Gad

 

Driving east to the mountains and the desert.

one of the creeks when entering the small valley before the big one.

Crossing the small valley

HOT!

An oasis! … or just hotel for the rich =)

A dune in the Death Valley

God that’s hot! (It’s probably not the real temperature, but it’s still scary)

A Borax mine operated by Pacific East Borax Company. The Borax was delivered from here by a 20 Mule Team, that since than has become the symbol of the Borax industry.

Devils Golf Course -The surface is covered with crystallized salts that were deposited ancient by a salt lake.

Artist drive – Those American! They even made drive-thru from their desert! =P

Badwater basin – as its name says, those are very bad water to drink =) The names of the places in the valley, as the name of the valley itself, were given by the gold seekers that crossed the valley in 19th century.

Badwater basin – That’s low? come to Israel we will show you how low it can be =) (See the small white sign in the upper left sign? It signs the sea level)