July 7
The drive into Death Valley National Park, CA was spectacular. The mountains are so varied in their color and shape. The scale of the whole landscape is huge. Of course, we watched to truck’s thermometer as it climbed well over 100 degrees.
Death Valley is the hottest place on Earth. It is also the hottest (often over 120 degrees), lowest (282 feet below sea level), and driest (less than 2 inches of rain a year) national park. Only 100 miles away lies Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states at 14,491 feet!
We stopped at popular Zabriskie Point. A short walk up a hill in the intense heat affords a view of colorful and wildly eroded badlands. We arrived at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center after 180 miles and about 4 hours. After getting a little more information and taking a picture at the outdoor thermometer that read 123 degrees, we headed 17 miles south to Badwater, the lowest place in the US at 282 feet below sea level. Badwater Basin is a vast, dry salt flat surrounded by mountains. Up on the side of the steep cliff, way above our heads, a sign showed sea level. We walked out only a little onto the salt flat as it was 118 degrees. On the way back we made a quick stop and walked just a short distance on the Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail.
We returned to the Furnace Creek area and pulled into the Furnace Creek Campground. There was only one other camper there. We got a full-hookup site and immediately turned on the AC. The water coming out of the faucet was hot! We sat outside during the sunset with the sad remains of our last ice cubes melting in our much-too-warm drinks. A few scrawny coyotes sneaked by between the bushes behind our camper. We could not grasp how they could possibly survive here.
The temperature display on our camper AC reads a maximum of 99 degrees. It took several hours to finally hit 98, by bedtime is was still 96.
July 8
By morning our camper had cooled to 84 degrees. It felt like the Arctic relative to the 102 outside at 8:30 am. It was supposed to reach 115 during the day. We had decided to spend only one night instead of the planned two. Although Death Valley was incredibly interesting, and we took great pleasure in having experienced its extremes, it was just too hot to explore any further. Again the scenery was spectacular as we drove west toward Panamint. The scale of the landscape is just huge. As we headed south through the Panamint Valley the paved road suddenly changed into a wide, extremely wash-boarded, dirt road that continued for many miles. Surprisingly, only two cabinet doors in the camper flew open.
The Davids' Cross-Country Trip 
Hi guys, just a quick note to say you are headed to Death Valley and Furnace Creek, where Hank and I have stayed several times, I will say you are very brave to do this in summer, we like to stay in March and April. The sites are amazing! Panamint is higher up and would be somewhat cooler however still gonna be hot! Just out of the park is another place that might be of interest is Lone Pine where many great movies where made and in the little town is a wonderful movie museum. Also absolutely no cell service in Death Valley. Totally didn’t realize that you would be traveling self contained for the most part…..keep in mind we have showers, air conditioning, laundry facilities regular beds and a swimming pool at our community that should you like to take us up on it are most certainly available to you, praying your trip is being fun, adventurous and save thus far. Shirl