Before we hit the road we explore the
Fossil Falls. Thousands of years ago the climate was much warmer and
wetter. Volcanic eruptions covered the area with slow-moving flows of
dark lava called basalt. There were also violent eruptions causing
molten rocks to cool quickly when exposed to air. This formed a
porous red rock called scoria. Over thousands of year erosion created
a landscape filled with black and red course sand. There was also a
river running here and over time the water sculpted an amazing cliff
out of the large basalt rocks. We also spotted evidence of Native
Americans in the form of circular grinding holes and a petrograph.
It was very tempting to climb the 40
meters down the empty waterfall but it was too tricky with all the
weirdly shaped rocks that were also very smooth and slippery.
An alien on Mars???
We make our way to Death Valley and
make many stops along the way to admire the views.
There are even sand dunes to play in!!
The tallest one we climbed must have been about 20 m high.
Dried up mud. Ironically, this is one
of the driest places on earth, and they had rain a few days ago.
Water!!
We park up and Stovepipe Wells
campground for the night.
Today: 168km - 3h47m
Total: 25,242km - 491h58m
Stovepipe Wells, Death
Valley NP
