5210, Death valley, Furnace Creek and stuff!

August 02, 2010

5210, Death valley, Furnace Creek and stuff!

I have had a lovely day today. I have a lush new kit from Charmed Crafts and Cards and have been scrapping with pretty pretty papers all day (apart from a little walk about half an hour ago)

It is a joy to be paper scrapping. I love my digi but love the 'real feel' as well.

Obviously I can't share what I have made but I am really quite pleased with what I have done so far.

What I can share is my page for the prompt yesterday.

I am incredibly inspired by nature and especially mountains and lakes. We don't have any mountains here - just a few hills - and I LOVE mountains. Add a crystal clear icy cold lake fringed with pines and my happiness is complete.

It's always been mountains and lakes that move me most of all. So Canada was such a perfect holiday as the Rockies were full of scenic view after scenic view.

There weren't lakes (though there were mountains) on our Death Valley trip and what water there was, at Badwater, was certainly not crystal clear or icy cold.

We had always said we wanted to stay in Death Valley and choices are pretty limited really so we ofted for Furnace Creek ranch and it was really very nice.

Our room was very spacious with a patio outside to sit on (why would you when it was 128 and inside it was air conditioned!!!) There was a restuarant there (just as well as there was nowhere else to eat within an hours drive) a bar and also a museum giving the history of the Borax mining in the area which was fascinating.

We were amazed that people lived there - out of choice. Not only was it incredibly hot and not a lot to do, but going shopping for even the bare essentials must be such a chore as there really is nowhere near. I guess the world is made up of people who really do enjoy very different things.

Anyway, we had a good evening and night and se off in the morning to see the rest of the valley.

One of the reasons we wanted the 4 x 4 was because there were a lot of unpaved roads we wanted to explore. And we did. It was great funand this is to prove I drove on them too!!

We went up to Zabriske Point which was just a short walk and beautiful. It was also a teeny bit cooler beacuse it was higher up.

We then headed to our final place in the park, Dante's Peak, the highest part you can drive to. It was cooler and the views were great but heck ... what were all the wasps about. I kid you not when I say there were dozens and dozens of them all round the car. It was horrible trying to run the gauntlet of them and get in and even then we had one who hitch-hiked a ride that we had to encourage back out.

You can see the white salt deposits down int he valley at badwater, you can just about see the tiny badwater road and off in the distance you can see Furnace Creek.

So that was our experience of Death Valley. We headed out of the park and towards Vegas, stopping for a very pleasant couple of hours at Red Rock canyon - but that's a post for tomorrow!

My quote of the day today is