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Published: June 23rd 2017
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Geo: 36.3395, -117.475
Staying at Jessica's Aribnb was a real treat. She even made
us a hot breakfast before we had to hit
the road. Bellies full and the car packed up, off we went, now headed for Death
Valley. About a 5 hour drive, we stopped in a town called Bakersfield a couple
hours into the drive and ate at a Mexican restaurant. While at lunch I made our reservations for
camping at Paramint Springs in Death Valley. Seeing the temperatures scheduled
at 120/high, 75 low, we were wondering how we would deal with the heat. Approaching
the camp, we were greeted by high mountains, long roads and intense views. This
region is definitely a desert devoid of virtually any visible life other than a
bush here and there. Watching our
gauges, we saw the temperature hit 100, 110, 113, all the way to 116. Opening
the windows, it really felt like someone was aiming a hairdryer at us. We
arrived at our camp which included a small bar/ restaurant across the street,
as well as a gas station and little store. Our camp, pretty much a large tent
with two cots, out in the open with the other sites, was sufficient for our
needs for the night. While in the store paying for our site,
I overheard there
was a waterfall nearby. Still hoping to make up for the other so called excuses
for falls, I told Alex to drink some water, we were going in search of Death
Valley Falls, the redeemer. Yes, this was going to entail some minor hiking in
the hot climate. I will take a second though to give you an idea of the temperature
difference here. I have always heard people say, “But it's a dry heat”, and I
have always thought, ok, I get it, we have high humidity in FL. I never thought
what a difference the humidity makes. I will take 105 degrees of “Dry Heat” over
90 degrees with 80% humidity all day long. When the temperature dropped to 95,
it actually felt like spring in FL.
So off we went in search of the falls. On the way, a funny
thing happened, as I the case quite frequently when Alex and I go off
somewhere. I hear Alex say look, a Wolf! Now, it was interesting, because this
thing resembled a wolf so little, that I immediately thought he meant a fox.
Then I looked closer and saw it was a mangy Coyote. Laughing, I told him there
are no wolves in the desert. We had a good
laugh then pushed onward down a dirt
road towards the trail head. Once there, we hiked the mile or so up to the
falls, and BEHOLD, a double miniature falls!!!! Staring in disbelief, I just had to chuckle
and accept that while most everything we have seen has been abnormally big on
this trip, the waterfalls were not. Again, the area surrounding the falls was
beautiful, just not very big. Back at camp, we sat up and waited for the stars
to come out. While the night was clear, the moon is in a larger phase so
stargazing was limited. Tomorrow, we explore Death Valley.
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I would never have guessed there would be a waterfall in the desert, nice find!