Southern CA Parks Day 1 - March 19, 2016

Day 1 March 19, 2016

This morning we left our house at 7:15 and our “Lift” driver took us to the airport.  We got through the line easily and had plenty of time to relax before our flight took off.  We took an uneventful flight to Vegas (I read a great book called “The Collapse of Parenting”!).  We landed around 10am Vegas time and took a shuttle to the rental car place.  We rented an awesome Dodge minivan through Enterprise – the van has a DVD player, leather interior…the whole nine yards. 

We drove up the Vegas strip and the kids were pretty amazing but also a little bit scared.  We stopped at an Einstein’s Bagels for lunch then to Trader Joe’s for some food for tomorrow.  They didn’t have everything we needed so I stopped again at a Target and got most of what we needed. 

Everything took longer than expected so we were running a little behind schedule.  The kids watched The Sandlot in the car on the way to Death Valley. 

We finally arrived around 3:45 and checked into the Furnace Creek Ranch. 

We quickly dropped our things off then drove another mile north to the Visitor’s Center where we got our magnets, hat pins, maps, etc.  I’m bummed that I left our passbooks at home so we had to just stamp a sheet of paper but that’s okay.

Then we turned back around and took the road down to the Badwater Basin (the lowest spot in North America).  We walked out onto the salt deposits and it was really, really cool – 284 feet below sea level. 

Afterwards we headed back north on the same road and stopped at the Natural Bridge.  After 1.5 miles on a really bumpy road, it was a short but steep walk back to the bridge.  The bridge was cool but also a little creepy because it was full of cracks!

We then took the Artist Drive and saw the Artist’s Palette.   Also very neat – the drive was 9 miles and at certain places along the way, it was like we were on Mars.

Last stop (7pm and sun setting) was the Golden Canyon Trail (2 miles round trip).  This trail is apparently where parts of the original Star Wars movie was filmed.  It was getting dark so we cut the hike short and Grant, Ryan and I ran the whole way down. 

At 7:30 (9:30 Dallas time) we went back to the Furnace Creek Ranch and ate at the Saloon, which was not very good but the other two restaurants on the “resort” both had really long waits.  We basically sat in a bar, which I think also made the kids kind of nervous, then, after overeating, we got back to the room (8:30ish).  I took a quick shower and we all got into bed.

Quite the first day.  Generally speaking, the kids were fantastic.  Tomorrow should be fun too!