Death Valley, Day One

I left Red Rock Canyon Campground before the sun rose and drove two hours straight to Death Valley National Park. The photos below show the highlight of that day.

composite rocks!

desert holly?

holly bushes in the drainage ditch

sand dunes

giant crater! my favorite part of the day!

people on ridge for scale

I hiked all the way around the rim and got a pic from every angle :D 

smaller crater next to big crater! 

I just love all the desert sand and rock formations.

Beautiful sunset that night at my campsite!

Home sweet backcountry

Red Rock Canyon, NV

I know this is an excessive number of photos for one blog post, but it was just so gorgeous...

A pink polka dotted rock!!!!

I loved it

A pink cactus!

The temperature changes throughout the park were drastic. Notice my outfit here compared to the polka-dotted rock photo, where I'd taken off my shirt in the heat.

petroglyphs!

I *think* these are genuine? honestly no idea, could just be modern grafitti

a prehistoric pi symbol??

snowy cactus :D 

more petroglyphs!

gorgeous sunset

The park closes at dusk, and I stayed as long as possible, amazed by all the rock formations and petroglyphs and snow!!!

In the end, I was super grateful that my bag got lost and delayed me by a day, because a day at Red Rock Canyon was 100% worth it.