Death Valley, day 1

Neither Eric or I have ever been to Death Valley, so naturally it has been a point of interest since it is just five hours away.  

Although we had been checking the weather we were still surprised to find so much snow in the driest place in North America.  

Our first stop was Mosaic Canyon. 

The canyon formed from water running through faults that formed millions of years ago.  

The name of the canyon comes from the breccia (sedimentary rock made from large angular fragments).

Erosion has made the layers of the lithosphere visible.  

Earth's processes continue to this day but the most dramatic effects are tens of thousands to millions of years in the making.  

We were going to go to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes but it looked like a line at the bank so we went to Historic Stovepipe Well instead (on the back side of Mesquite Flat).  The dunes were not as dramatic but there was no one around which made them a hundred times better.  

Death Valley is the largest national park outside of Alaska, so I think that all of our pictures should look like this, peopleless (not including us).  

Today was the perfect introduction to Death Valley.  

Surprisingly, less than 1% of death valley is covered with sand dunes.  This area has the ingredients necessary for sand dunes to form; sand, wind, and a location for the sand to collect.  

Beatty, NV was our home for the night, and Thanksgiving leftovers were on the menu.