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| The dunes |
We left the high canyons of Bryce Canyon in Utah, located at 7,000 feet in elevation, and drove down to the lowest point in North America, Death Valley in the Mohave desert in California. It is located 282 feet below sea level.
Mrs. Yollis also went to Death Valley and shared her photos with us. We arrived late at night, and it took us 12 hours to get there. At night, it was extremely windy and we heard the wind howl outside. We were all snuggled in our sleeping bags trying to keep warm.
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| Palm tress growing in the desert |
On average, Death Valley has the highest temperature in the word. July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 116 F. But the temperature on the ground gets even hotter. A ground temperature of 201 F was once recorded. Luckily, while we were there, it was only around 80F. Death Valley gets really hot because it is surrounded by steep mountain ranges that traps the heat inside the valley. The tall mountains also keep the rain clouds from on the other side of the mountain, leaving death valley very dry. Even though the desert is dry, there are a few spots with green palm trees grow.
In the morning, we quickly got dressed and hurried out. After we got outside, we noticed that we didn't bring our hats, and it was very hot outside. We didn't want to get burned, so we tied our shirts on our heads to make mini hats. My little sister looked like little red riding hood with her red hat shirt over her head.Even my dad and my mom put on shirt hats. All of us looked very funny in our hats.
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| On top of a Sand Dune |
We then went outside and saw huge sand dunes. They were beautiful, dark yellow sand, and had small patches of green bushes in a few places. The sand was very fine and felt nice and warm. They looked very fun to climb and slide or run down. When we climbed our first sand dune, we rolled down. I got really dizzy sliding down one of the sand dunes, but it was still fun. My little brother Michael and our driver, Victor, went to the highest sand dune, and my Mom, my little sister Hannah and I went the third highest dune. We were just too tired to follow Michael to the top.
While standing on top of the sand dunes, we had a competition of who can jump the farthest down the hill. Victor won first place, I jumped second farthest and Michael was third. We had a great time there. When we came back in our car, we were so hot and tired that we wanted to go swimming. Victor had a great idea of going to the hot springs near Bishop, California.
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| Climbing up |
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| Rolling down |
Have you ever visited the desert?
What interesting things did you see?
