0:01 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1820, the well-known British writer Sidney Smith mocked the United States for its lack of culture and sophistication. 0:10 [SPEAKER_00]: In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book or goes to an American play or looks at an American picture or statue, this was a common sentiment at the time. 0:21 [SPEAKER_00]: America was a young country barely 40 years old and most Europeans viewed it as a kind of low brow hillbilly backwater. 0:29 [SPEAKER_00]: According to the National Park Service website, for decades of the nation suffered the embarrassment of a shortage of recognized cultural achievements. 0:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Unlike established European countries, which traced their origins far back into antiquity, the United States lacked a long artistic and literary heritage. 0:47 [SPEAKER_00]: The absence of reminders of the human past, including castles, ancient ruins, and cathedrals on the landscape, further alienated American intellectuals 0:59 [SPEAKER_00]: It may be shocking to hear now, but the feeling among many European intellectuals of the time was that there was nothing to learn from America and nothing to see here. 1:09 [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned this because taunts like the one you just heard from Sydney Smith were partially responsible for the development of our national parks, Americans were increasingly sick of hearing Europeans brag about old buildings and ancient literature. 1:23 [SPEAKER_00]: We realized that while you couldn't just manufacture a medieval castle, nor could you just decide to have a redwood forest or an epic desert moonscape, like Death Valley, you either have these things, or you don't. 1:36 [SPEAKER_00]: And when it came to singular gorgeous landscapes, America had more than a chair. 1:41 [SPEAKER_00]: According to the NPS, it's response to constant barbs about these deficiencies from old world critics. 1:48 [SPEAKER_00]: By the 1860s many thoughtful Americans had embraced the Wonderland of the West as replacements for man-made marks of achievement. 1:56 [SPEAKER_00]: The agelessness of monumental scenery instead of the past accomplishments of western civilization was to become the visible symbol of continuity and stability in the new nation. 2:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Rather than invading the architecture and cultural heritage of Europe, Americans began to compete with that heritage and change the rules of the game, with their aggressive preservation of outdoor spaces. 2:20 [SPEAKER_00]: In the words of the NPS, when national parks were first established, protection of the environment as now defined was the least of preservationist's aims. 2:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Rather America's incentive for the national park idea lay in the persistence, 2:35 [SPEAKER_00]: of a painfully felt desire for time-honored traditions in the United States. 2:40 [SPEAKER_00]: So, Monumentalism, not environmentalism, was the driving impetus behind early national park conservation. 2:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Ancient environments, like the One at Death Valley, were older than the most ancient ruins that Europe could offer. 2:56 [SPEAKER_00]: The Roman Colosseum in Italy is 2000 years old. 3:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Death Valley predates that by 1.7 billion years. 3:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Embreath taking outdoor spaces like these, America had found its trump card. 3:09 [SPEAKER_00]: And so in 1872, the American geologist and surveyor, Ferdinand Vendrovire Hayden, would say, we passed with rapid transition from one remarkable vision to another. 3:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Each unique of its kind and surpassing all others in the known world. 3:26 [SPEAKER_00]: The intelligent American will one day point on the map to this remarkable district with a conscious pride that has not its parallel on the fact of the globe. 3:36 [SPEAKER_00]: The term often used for this movement is scenic nationalism. 3:40 [SPEAKER_00]: The last time we talked, I brought it up with our friends over at more than just parks, Jim and Will Patties. 3:47 [SPEAKER_02]: I would say that calls to mind when we first started promoting these national parks, these original national parks, back in the turn of the century, the campaign was called Sea America First, because we had all these Americans going overseas to see Europe's grand cathedrals and to see the Swiss Alps, and to see all these things the famous landmarks monuments would have you, 4:14 [SPEAKER_02]: FDR called Glacier National Park the American Alps. 4:18 [SPEAKER_02]: Why go to Europe when you have these absolutely incredible places here in the United States? 4:24 [SPEAKER_02]: And so they worked with the railroads to do this campaign called Sea America First. 4:28 [SPEAKER_02]: That was that scenic nationalism trying to get people to spend your tourism dollars here at home, but also take pride in these incredible places that we have here in the U.S. 4:40 [SPEAKER_03]: I'm actually in Rome right now and just walking around the streets here, you do have this history, but it's funny because you chat with folks and they say, oh, but in America, you don't have that kind of history. 4:50 [SPEAKER_03]: It's not that old. 4:51 [SPEAKER_03]: I say, actually, the history that we have is a lot older. 4:55 [SPEAKER_03]: It's just not human history. 4:57 [SPEAKER_03]: And it is this great natural heritage. 4:59 [SPEAKER_03]: And for us, I think one of America's greatest exports in Jim and I have talked about this a lot is National Parks. 5:08 [SPEAKER_03]: It's a 100% American idea that we have shared with the rest of the world. 5:12 [SPEAKER_03]: Americans were the first to save land for conservation's sake, which is just an incredible thing and a gift for future generations. 5:21 [SPEAKER_03]: And so it is interesting. 5:22 [SPEAKER_03]: If you want an older human history, 5:27 [SPEAKER_03]: But the difference between a place like Europe and they do have national parks here now and America is you don't find like civilization, artifacts all over these places. 5:37 [SPEAKER_03]: They are pristine, conserved for all time and that I think is very special. 5:43 [SPEAKER_00]: The Sea American First Campaign, that Jim mentioned, was so aggressive and so nationalistic that it spawned as a theoretical musical by Cole Porter, titled simply, Sea America First. 5:55 [SPEAKER_00]: But precisely because America was so fiercely proud of its own culture at the time, combined with the fact that it wasn't very good, the musical was a massive flop. 6:04 [SPEAKER_00]: The only recording I was able to find was a revised version, performed by Amateurs at the University of Pennsylvania. 6:14 [SPEAKER_05]: See America, first and feet, see it in all its beauty, see America, duty free, America's juicy, fruity, see America, first and feet, outflow a gold be fraught old. 6:32 [SPEAKER_05]: No champagne to a guarantee, unless it is New York bottled. 6:38 [SPEAKER_05]: Double your pleasure with Uncle Sam for double the price you can see, Bullardam. 6:44 [SPEAKER_05]: See America coast to coast, land to the full bright scholars. 6:50 [SPEAKER_05]: See the country out of the most America needs your dollars. 6:57 [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, come now, Mr. President. 6:58 [SPEAKER_04]: That's a hell of an attitude. 7:00 [SPEAKER_04]: Why without American tourists traveling abroad, the economy of half-100 countries would collapse. 7:07 [SPEAKER_00]: The National Park that we're talking about today, Death Valley, didn't become part of the National Park System until 1933, 15 years after Porter's play, but this theme of exceptionalism is fitting. 7:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Death Valley may not have castles, or elaborate histories, but it's the hottest place on Earth. 7:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Initially this valley was protected as a National Monument. 7:29 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1994, Congress 7:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, it is not only the hottest, but also the lowest and driest of all the national parks, as well as the largest park in the lower 48. 7:43 [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned this theme of exceptionalism to Jim Burnett, suggesting that it's become a central part of the park's marketing. 7:52 [SPEAKER_01]: It certainly is. 7:53 [SPEAKER_01]: The, in fact, the park makes a port of that on their website, they're the hottest and the driest and the lowest elevation 8:00 [SPEAKER_01]: place in the country and the largest national park in the US outside of Alaska. 8:05 [SPEAKER_01]: And some of those titles probably add to the appeal for the park and that's reason enough for some people to go visit. 8:12 [SPEAKER_01]: But in the case of death valley, they also create some extra factors that people really need to be aware of if they're planning a visit. 8:20 [SPEAKER_01]: So my number one tip for any part of visit is always to be sure you get current information about the park and things that are to do that things are appropriate for you to do and also you want to be sure that if you have something particularly in mind that's really on your to do list. 8:36 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be sure that that facility is going to be open at the time that you're going for your visit and what's the weather likely to be there during your visit in in the. 8:45 [SPEAKER_01]: Death Valley, we'll talk about that in a second. 8:47 [SPEAKER_01]: The weather is certainly a factor of more so there than perhaps over the places. 8:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, a good place to start, to try to get that information, to check in the official park website. 8:57 [SPEAKER_01]: As soon as you start planning a trip, just take a look and see what's there. 9:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Search online for the park's name, and then look for the list in that includes the term NPS.gov and we're on the official site. 9:10 [SPEAKER_01]: I know there's a lot of great, 9:11 [SPEAKER_01]: places on the internet for information about parks and certainly you ought to use as many those as you can. 9:18 [SPEAKER_01]: But the reason I suggest checking the official site, at least as part of your planning, is that's the best place to get some recent updates about some changes that may have come up on short notice, maybe some major road construction in a different way that might affect your trip. 9:33 [SPEAKER_01]: So when you go to the website for the first time for the park website, 9:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you click on that words link, if there's something really important going on in the part of you to know, then they'll come up there and it was a good example right now for Death Valley. 9:50 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the key attractions for a lot of people there is a place that the official name is a Death Valley ranch, but you should people just call it Scotty's Castle. 9:59 [SPEAKER_01]: It's really just an intriguing building, but unfortunately, a record flood service, you go wiped out eight miles of the road, at least it's got his castle and took out the water system and the sewer system and the power. 10:11 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's been a long process getting that back together. 10:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Fortunately, the good news is that it's got its castle itself, it wasn't damaged. 10:19 [SPEAKER_01]: but a lot of infrastructure was. 10:21 [SPEAKER_01]: And so they're still working on that. 10:23 [SPEAKER_01]: They hope to have it finished maybe sometime in 2023. 10:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps even they'll have some of it open for limited tours, maybe this coming winter. 10:33 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's an example of a page to check at the park website. 10:37 [SPEAKER_01]: You may not know that if you just look for a general site what's to do at Death Valley, may say, we want to start his castle, but if that site hasn't been updated, 10:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Then you drive in and ready to go to Scotts Castle. 10:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's a big barricade, sorry, you can't get there. 10:49 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's one reason why I really stress check and see what's going on and check that park website for those updates to be sure you don't get there and have a disappointment. 10:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Another really great place to get information on the park's website for Death Valley is they have something called the Death Valley Visitor Guide. 11:08 [SPEAKER_01]: And they put out a winter edition 11:11 [SPEAKER_01]: And a summer edition, it's got a lot of great information about places to go and things to do and the easiest way to find that online just search for the term park newspaper death Valley National Park. 11:25 [SPEAKER_01]: And that should take it to the link we can get to it down low that. 11:29 [SPEAKER_01]: And my suggestion is go ahead and download that and save it on your phone or your tablet before you leave home because you're probably not going to have access to the web or a cell phone schedule when you get to the park. 11:41 [SPEAKER_01]: We've had it on your device. 11:43 [SPEAKER_01]: You could pull that information back up when you get there. 11:45 [SPEAKER_01]: We mentioned the weather being a factory at Death Valley and that certainly true. 11:49 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's my second tip is don't be surprised about the weather if you go 11:55 [SPEAKER_01]: Death Valley is a fascinating place from late fall and early spring, but with exception of a few high elevation places, in my opinion, it's just not a great place to go in the summertime. 12:08 [SPEAKER_01]: I checked their records in one summer, had 40 days when the tipper was over 120 degrees. 12:15 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's measured in the shade, by the way, that's how they check the temperature. 12:19 [SPEAKER_01]: The tipper doesn't cool down enough where you can sleep comfortably at night unless you're in a place with air conditioning. 12:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Some people are fascinated by whether it's shrimp, that's just their thing. 12:28 [SPEAKER_01]: And they want to get a photo of a big digital fog. 12:32 [SPEAKER_01]: The mom would have out in front of the first Greek business share that shows the current temperature. 12:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And there was even an aim for this actor in the part that called it heat tourism. 12:41 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's a big deal for some folks. 12:43 [SPEAKER_01]: And if that's your main reason to go to the death valley, we'll go and have a great time. 12:47 [SPEAKER_01]: But otherwise, my advice is to go between about late October and late March. 12:52 [SPEAKER_01]: and even then check the forecast for you leave home, be sure that there's not some big surprising what's going on. 12:57 [SPEAKER_01]: If you go during the more moderate season of the year, there's just a lot more options for things that you can do and you'll be a lot safer. 13:06 [SPEAKER_01]: And you won't be measured with a hot and thinking, okay, so who has a great idea for this trip after all? 13:11 [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll say that on the basis of some experience, part of my park service years were spent at Lake Mead, National Recreationary, a place called Willow Beach, Arizona. 13:21 [SPEAKER_01]: And we had an official weather service monitoring station there, and a lot of days in summer, we were only a few degrees cooler than Beth Valley. 13:32 [SPEAKER_01]: The cooler is relative when it's 12324. 13:35 [SPEAKER_01]: So I know what that weather is. 13:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And I can say, there's just a lot of things you can't do safely in the out of doors than that kind of weather. 13:42 [SPEAKER_01]: So think about what you want to do on your trip. 13:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of those numbers, like 120 in the shade, are stunning. 13:49 [SPEAKER_00]: But having just been there, I can say that at times it feels even hotter. 13:54 [SPEAKER_00]: You have to basically force feed yourself water the entire time you're out to compensate for the huge amount of water, just evaporating through your skin. 14:02 [SPEAKER_00]: I was curious as to how cool it gets in the winter, and I asked Jim if he knew. 14:07 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have the exact numbers in front of it. 14:08 [SPEAKER_01]: My recollection is that you get it into the fall of the house. 14:12 [SPEAKER_01]: You can be more in the 80s, blows in the 50s, you get on into October, November, you're gonna have highs in the 60s and 70s, blows down in the 30s and 40s sometimes. 14:22 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's really, very pleasant. 14:24 [SPEAKER_01]: It's rare for them to have freezing temperatures. 14:26 [SPEAKER_01]: There unless you get up in the high country. 14:27 [SPEAKER_01]: There are some places you can get up for 4,000, 5,000. 14:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Pete High, and that's gonna be a different story of the maritime. 14:33 [SPEAKER_01]: But the place is the majority of the people want to go. 14:35 [SPEAKER_01]: whether normally it's going to be ready to be pleasant there again as they wait October into late March. 14:42 [SPEAKER_00]: It was fun to experience the extreme temperatures that I did, but if I go back, it will be in the winter. 14:48 [SPEAKER_00]: The hot season is so radically inhospitable that even without knowing the stats, I could guess that it was one of the most dangerous national parks. 14:57 [SPEAKER_01]: It absolutely is, and that's one of the things that the park stresses, it's people say it's a dry heat. 15:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And that is true, it feels a dry light. 15:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Come out of the oven, that's the reminder description of my days at the Willow Beach. 15:09 [SPEAKER_01]: And the problem is, because it is so dry, your perspiring vigorously, your body is trying to cool off, but it evaporates, so if you don't even realize you're sweating. 15:18 [SPEAKER_01]: And so what happens, you can very quickly get seriously dehydrated. 15:22 [SPEAKER_01]: And so the key is you've got to really stay up on your beverages, combination of water and one of the sports drinks that has electrolytes is really the best bed. 15:32 [SPEAKER_01]: And the clue is, if you're thirsty, 15:34 [SPEAKER_01]: drink. 15:34 [SPEAKER_01]: That's your body trying to tell you they need to catch up the park staff. 15:37 [SPEAKER_01]: The death value says a bit of the rule of thumb you should need a gallon and a minimum of beverages in order to keep yourself healthy. 15:45 [SPEAKER_01]: And just a clue about how hot it is and how that affects daily life. 15:51 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a story the park staff shares about about the water in your house or the building there. 15:58 [SPEAKER_01]: The ground is so hot there. 15:59 [SPEAKER_01]: It acts basically like a giant solar hot water 16:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And so the pipe running underground through the ground gets so hot that when it comes in the building, it's almost so hot you can't use it. 16:12 [SPEAKER_01]: And so to just for this, if you live there, what you do in the summertime, you turn off your hot water here, so it's not heating water and you use it as a storage reservoir, so you let the water come in from outside, you store it in your hot water heater, if it sits there along 16:33 [SPEAKER_01]: And so, if you want to tap and water, you open your hot water tap and you get tap and water. 16:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you want hot water, you open the cold water tap. 16:45 [SPEAKER_01]: And the water comes straight in from outside through your cold water line will be almost too hot to use. 16:49 [SPEAKER_01]: So, if you want cold water, you've got a stored refrigerator somewhere, but I thought that was telling that the cold water coming in becomes hot water during the summer time, if you live there. 16:58 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, they actually set a record at first creek with the main development area there. 17:03 [SPEAKER_01]: In July of 1972, when the air temperature was a relatively cool 120 degrees, they measured the ground temperature as a 201 degrees. 17:14 [SPEAKER_01]: Fahrenheit. 17:15 [SPEAKER_01]: That's just blue boiling for boiling water. 17:18 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's just a hint about how how it is. 17:21 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's key if you go there in the summer, you really have to use good judgment about where you go and what you do. 17:29 [SPEAKER_01]: The park website has some really excellent tips that you really have to look at carefully if you're going to go there during the summertime. 17:36 [SPEAKER_01]: If you google death fell in natural park safety, you'll find a good list of stuff. 17:41 [SPEAKER_01]: But 17:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Stay on the paved roads. 17:45 [SPEAKER_01]: They have a thousand miles of roads in Def Valley. 17:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Most of them are just dirt, forward drive, kind of things. 17:52 [SPEAKER_01]: But in the summertime, stay on the pavement. 17:54 [SPEAKER_01]: The reason is if you have a breakdown, at least you're likely to be spotted that way and somebody can get you some help. 18:00 [SPEAKER_01]: These days, most of us have come to our aisle and cell phones. 18:03 [SPEAKER_01]: We have a flat tire running out of gas and we're down to the bottom of grab your cell phone and call for AAA and they're right there. 18:09 [SPEAKER_01]: You're very few places in Def Valley 18:13 [SPEAKER_01]: And so that means if you have a breakdown, there's no way before you to call for help. 18:18 [SPEAKER_01]: So still, the paved roads are during the summertime. 18:20 [SPEAKER_01]: If something happens and somebody who's going to come along eventually, they're going to have to drive someplace and send them to it also that you're there because they can't get a cell signal ether. 18:29 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's really important. 18:30 [SPEAKER_01]: If you get off on a side road and you break down and there's no cell signal, you're on your own. 18:35 [SPEAKER_01]: And you just don't want that happen during the summertime. 18:38 [SPEAKER_01]: The other thing you want to be careful about there 18:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Like most of us now, I rely on that like that app on the phone, it's a great way to find directions in a place you're not familiar with, but the part and stress is, please do not use GPS to navigate the death valley. 18:56 [SPEAKER_01]: It's such a hazard. 18:57 [SPEAKER_01]: they've got a big warning actually in capital letters. 19:00 [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't mind, you see something caps is like somebody's yelling at you. 19:03 [SPEAKER_01]: It's the good and they're yelling at you. 19:04 [SPEAKER_01]: About this on the park website, the wrong UGPS says GPS is so unreliable in around the parks. 19:11 [SPEAKER_01]: Travers have been directed to the wrong location on the dead end or closed roads. 19:15 [SPEAKER_01]: And so the distress you always carry an old fashioned printed map with you. 19:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Just a validate. 19:20 [SPEAKER_01]: If your GPS says turn here, check it on your printed map and be sure that's really what you want to do. 19:26 [SPEAKER_01]: ball means if you're following GPS, this is a good rule of thumb anywhere, but especially in place like Death Valley. 19:32 [SPEAKER_01]: If GPS says, turn here and they're trying to turn you off the pavement on your dirt road or turn here and there's a lot of gate or maybe a gate that's closed and it's blocking going through there looks like shortcut. 19:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Don't do that in a place like Death Valley unless your intention to begin with was to get to a riddle remote spot in the hands of the directions about how to do that. 19:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Some search and rescue 19:54 [SPEAKER_01]: groups in parts of the West have even coined the phrase death by GPS, because people have been let us stray and didn't survive the experience. 20:03 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's important to know, hey, from apps low school, but this is the situation where you could be your friend. 20:09 [SPEAKER_01]: So don't hesitate to fall back to the old days and don't be a robot and just follow GPS blindly if it tries to take you someplace that doesn't look like a mix answer. 20:19 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember something similar happening to us, a number of times in these parks. 20:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Before we knew it, we were off the trail entirely. 20:26 [SPEAKER_00]: It's so easy to get used to trusting GPS with all navigation, that it sometimes takes a moment to realize that it's leading us into trouble. 20:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Another thing we realized when in Death Valley was how accessible most everything was from the main road. 20:42 [SPEAKER_00]: In many parks, extensive off-road hiking is encouraged and even necessary. 20:47 [SPEAKER_00]: If you are frequently wandering far from your car in Death Valley, you are probably doing it wrong. 20:53 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, even if you go in the summer, the good news is most of the parks really best attractions you can get to on the paved road. 21:00 [SPEAKER_01]: So even if you're there in the weather's highest, you just burst and I get an off the pavement, you can have a gray trip and see a lot of super places just by staying on the pavement. 21:09 [SPEAKER_01]: A good base operations, if you go there, if you're going to stay there overnight, and I guess you can make a day trip to Death Valley. 21:15 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll let's come with our hours and make us up there to drive and turn around and go back. 21:19 [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're going to stay overnight, 21:21 [SPEAKER_01]: kind of the key place for most people is either at the furnace creek, which is the main developer. 21:27 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a campground there and by our large and restaurant, a gas station store and just up the road about 30 miles from furnace creek is the place called stove pipe wells. 21:37 [SPEAKER_01]: They also has camping and other facilities. 21:41 [SPEAKER_01]: I just remember if you got to go there during the 21:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Nice time here that I'm suggesting from midfall to spring and that's when everybody else wants to go to be sure you jump in there and get your reservations well in advance and don't wait to the last minute you'll find that they're not in a spot some of the great places that you can go one of the popular spots is called Dante's view. 22:02 [SPEAKER_01]: It's about a 45-minute drive from Florence Creek and gives you an outstanding 360 degree view from a mile up above the valley, Europe, 5,000 feet. 22:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Florence Creek has below sea level. 22:14 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's quite an impressive perspective. 22:16 [SPEAKER_01]: But we'll give you one little hint of about the road to the top of you for your unease about mountain driving. 22:23 [SPEAKER_01]: The road that goes up to Dante's view. 22:26 [SPEAKER_01]: It's the last part of the drive has got a lot of really sharp 22:31 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's really steep. 22:32 [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't verified it, but several sources say that the grade the last half mile is 13 to 14%. 22:40 [SPEAKER_01]: That's already steep road. 22:42 [SPEAKER_01]: So just be aware that concerns you, maybe that's not the spot for you to go. 22:46 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you've got a big RV, anything longer than 25 feet, can't make that drive because you can't make the European terms. 22:53 [SPEAKER_01]: If you're telling a trader, there's a parking lot at the bottom of the building. 22:56 [SPEAKER_01]: of the hill that you can drop your trader and go ahead and make that bet if you want to. 23:00 [SPEAKER_01]: But Dante's view gets some really hiring views on a lot of travel websites. 23:05 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a great place to see you sunrise or sunset. 23:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Another interesting phenomenon there, if it weather is good from Dante's view, if you look up to the western horizon, then you can see Mount Whitney, which is the highest point in the 23:22 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you look down below, Dante's view, you can see a plus called bad water they're in the park, which is the lowest place in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. 23:32 [SPEAKER_01]: So from that one spot, you can see the highest place in America and the lowest place. 23:36 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just a little bit interesting in that video to tell you about that. 23:38 [SPEAKER_01]: And you can go to a bad water that's another one of the places people like to go and it's good place to get a photo op. 23:44 [SPEAKER_01]: It's about 30 minutes on a paved road from Phoenix Creek. 23:48 [SPEAKER_01]: If you go there to the summertime, 23:52 [SPEAKER_01]: drive up, you can see the size, this is bad water, lowest place in the United States. 23:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Take a photo of a road on the window and get a picture and keep your attention cranked on, but don't spend a lot of time there. 24:02 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a nice trail there, no matter whether you can take a walk out on a more walk, go out to the soft landing habit, go to a more close and personal. 24:11 [SPEAKER_01]: And then one other really pocketer spot for sunrise and sunset photos, the death balance 24:19 [SPEAKER_01]: I tried to look at a lot of other sites just to get people's take on spots in the park and one expert photographers, he calls it the most spectacular sunrise location in the park and maybe in all of the desert south Wales, that's pretty high recommendation. 24:34 [SPEAKER_01]: It's only a 15-minute drive from the first creek on Highway 190. 24:38 [SPEAKER_01]: But again, just beware that a lot of other folks have rid of those same reviews, and if you want to get there and get a really great spot to take a photo and get there a little bit early, and allow yourself time to find a good spot. 24:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Knowing Jim's gifts for stories that are also teaching moments, I was sure he'd have one for Death Valley. 24:57 [SPEAKER_01]: I do it. 24:57 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I took my own advice, my wife and I went there several years ago and we went in February. 25:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And since we had a pop-up trader with no air conditioning, we sure were not going to go in the summertime. 25:08 [SPEAKER_01]: And for the most part, for where it worked out to well for us. 25:12 [SPEAKER_01]: But I did get a reminder that the average is not the same as always. 25:18 [SPEAKER_01]: When it comes to the weather, we'll go up the second morning in the campus 10 on our pop was flat around in the window. 25:24 [SPEAKER_01]: So that sounds weird. 25:25 [SPEAKER_01]: I looked outside and there was a nice light rain was blowing sideways and that the wind did death valley. 25:31 [SPEAKER_01]: And so just out of curiosity, I checked the later on average, this valley only gets in your rain at all about 20 days a year. 25:40 [SPEAKER_01]: And on average, three of those are in February. 25:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Still pretty good odds, but we have to catch it on a rainy day. 25:45 [SPEAKER_01]: And a little later in the morning, I got over to the conversation. 25:48 [SPEAKER_01]: There was the guy in there who was the classic example of not a happy camper. 25:53 [SPEAKER_01]: He had a plastic bag from the North Shore rapper around his, he had his trying to keep the rain off and he was muttered about the desert and where's the sun? 26:04 [SPEAKER_01]: I never thought to bring an umbrella of raincoat. 26:06 [SPEAKER_01]: This was a dry place in America, right? 26:09 [SPEAKER_01]: And I could see he was looking for a simple thing to hear. 26:12 [SPEAKER_01]: So I encouraged him to talk a little bit and it turns out that his day he already got off even worse off than that. 26:18 [SPEAKER_01]: He had encouraged his wife to try camping for the first time on this trip. 26:23 [SPEAKER_01]: For one thing is raining in death valley. 26:25 [SPEAKER_01]: That never happens. 26:26 [SPEAKER_01]: But even more important, they didn't have any camping equipment. 26:29 [SPEAKER_01]: So they borrowed some from a friend. 26:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Got in there after dark. 26:33 [SPEAKER_01]: And the white from their headlights. 26:36 [SPEAKER_01]: and their cell phone flashlight, they couldn't figure out how to get the tent set up. 26:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Tits are a lot more complicated than they used to be, it is not a pump tent anymore. 26:44 [SPEAKER_01]: And so they spent the night sleeping in their compact sedan and neither he nor his wife were a happy camper at that point. 26:50 [SPEAKER_01]: And so that brings me to a tip that I do mention a lot of times when I'm talking about where some things to think about if you're going to make an outdoor trip and that is, if you're setting up a tent 27:01 [SPEAKER_01]: for the first time, then don't be surprised that more assembly might be required that you expect. 27:08 [SPEAKER_01]: In order to squeeze that tin into the smallest possible box in the shelf at your outdoor store, all those poles are broken down into a lot of small or pieces that have to be reassembled and sometimes they're different sizes and they're different shapes. 27:21 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's not the intuitive obvious how it goes together. 27:23 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you bar that tin from somebody, it's a pretty good 27:30 [SPEAKER_01]: So I could understand this guy and the dark trying to figure out to get this thing together, couldn't figure it out. 27:35 [SPEAKER_01]: So my advice is if you've either borrowed some equipment, whether it's a tanner or whether it's a $200,000 RRV, before you ever leave home, be sure you know how to operate it, how to set it up, just because it's you don't trust that it's gonna be there. 27:51 [SPEAKER_01]: My wife, and in fact, bought a tent a few years ago, we're gonna get back into camping for a while. 27:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Think of luck, didn't my own advice. 27:57 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a fair to big tent. 27:59 [SPEAKER_01]: We wouldn't have some room just spread out and be comfortable. 28:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Got it all spread out of the floor. 28:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And one of those 26 pieces of tent poles was not there, brand new right out of the box. 28:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, we were sitting there at home and saw as they would have picked up the phone and call the, you know, for customer service. 28:16 [SPEAKER_01]: And that, they was very nice. 28:17 [SPEAKER_01]: The politics, you said no problem. 28:19 [SPEAKER_01]: Very sorry about that. 28:19 [SPEAKER_01]: We'll 28:20 [SPEAKER_01]: to keep a replacement piece in the mail and be there a three to five business day. 28:24 [SPEAKER_01]: That was all one of the good because I was sitting home. 28:27 [SPEAKER_01]: If I was in the cap ground trying to set that 10 up, that missing piece coming in three to five business days was not going to do much good. 28:34 [SPEAKER_01]: So that's a really key tip, I think, and it's always amazed me how many people I encountered during my 30 years as a rancher who ran into that kind of situation. 28:44 [SPEAKER_01]: I'd see them struggling with this 10. 28:50 [SPEAKER_01]: I'd seen that enough. 28:51 [SPEAKER_01]: I could use your stop by and so I think this part probably part A goes in the part being we could get it figured out for them, but that's something that seems to get past a lot of folks. 29:00 [SPEAKER_01]: So no matter what it is, if it's new or unfamiliar to or if you borrowed it, give it a trial run before you leave home, I would potentially save you a lot of misery. 29:10 [SPEAKER_01]: Now in terms of the couple at Death Valley, I will say that morning the sun came out. 29:15 [SPEAKER_01]: and the rain stopped and we were rewarded because we looked up the panement mountains on the rise and they were all snowcapped but she's really a deep thing to see in Beth Valley and they apparently figured out the tent once they had some daylight that we got back later in the afternoon there was a tent to all sit up stand at all and pray out of the campsite. 29:34 [SPEAKER_01]: I gave them some bonus points to solve it to myself for sticking out. 29:37 [SPEAKER_01]: I was glad it worked out for them. 29:39 [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're going to make a trip, there's a tip for you. 29:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Jim's parting thoughts. 29:45 [SPEAKER_01]: I hope that valley's a place you'll have a chance to go. 29:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Again, just plan ahead, think about it. 29:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Do your homework and advance as one friend comment to me about death value says it's a really cool place, but not in July. 29:56 [SPEAKER_00]: While Death Valley is best known for its hostility-deliving things, during some springs, the hills of the park blossom with wildflowers. 30:04 [SPEAKER_00]: A half-inch of rainfall is needed for the seeds of these flowers to sprout, but once they do, they produce a gorgeous and unexpected panorama of gold, purple, pink, and white. 30:15 [SPEAKER_00]: But as Jim reminded me off air, most springs do not receive the necessary rainfall for these flowers to bloom. 30:21 [SPEAKER_00]: This is from the NPS website, quote, Death Valley is famous for its spectacular spring wildflower displays, but those are the exception, not the rule. 30:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Only under perfect conditions does the desert fill with a sea of gold, purple, pink, and white flowers. 30:38 [SPEAKER_00]: These tend to average once a decade, with the most recent super bloom years, being 2016, 2005, in 1998. 30:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Although there are years where blooms are few, they are never totally absent. 30:52 [SPEAKER_00]: One of the strangest phenomena, in all of the parks, are the sailing stones, found on a part of the desert floor, called the racetrack. 31:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Massive stones across this dry late bed have left long unmistakable trails in the dirt, with no evidence or explanation for what is propelling them across the ground. 31:11 [SPEAKER_00]: These rocks weigh hundreds of pounds, and some have traveled more than 1,500 feet, apparently on their own. 31:18 [SPEAKER_00]: They are clearly moving. 31:19 [SPEAKER_00]: and yet to this day, no one has ever seen or recorded them moving. 31:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Scientists believe that when the surface of the desert freezes, it is the wind that is driving them forward. 31:30 [SPEAKER_00]: I highly encourage you to look up images. 31:33 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really unique and really bizarre. 31:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Contrary to what you might expect, sand dunes are rare in Death Valley. 31:40 [SPEAKER_00]: But where you do find them, there is at times a singing sound coming out of them. 31:45 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a deep bass sound similar to that of an Australian 31:49 [SPEAKER_00]: It results from layers of sand, sliding down the dunes, creating deep, resounding friction. 31:56 [SPEAKER_00]: This is actual audio. 32:05 [SPEAKER_04]: The sound you're hearing is actually coming from within the dunes themselves. 32:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Another unique feature of Death Valley is what is known as the Devil's Golf Course, and when I heard about it, I was genuinely looking forward to playing some golf, but it's not an actual course, it's a gigantic field of rock salt, with a texture like coral or jagged volcano crock. 32:35 [SPEAKER_00]: It's full of holes that look like huge divots or golf holes, but the name actually comes from a 1930s guidebook that refer to the surface as something, quote, only the devil could play golf on. 32:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Lastly, there are fish in Death Valley, specifically a species of fish found nowhere else in the world. 32:56 [SPEAKER_00]: As the placard in the park reads, quote, 33:04 [SPEAKER_00]: In summer, where nutrients are abundant, pupfish eggs hatch. 33:09 [SPEAKER_00]: There may be as many as 5 to 600 pupfish here. 33:12 [SPEAKER_00]: In winter, the population dropped to 200 or fewer. 33:16 [SPEAKER_00]: At least while we were there, these pupfish look like tiny translucent minos, darting back and forth, chasing each other through the water. 33:24 [SPEAKER_00]: It was also said on another placard that this playful puppy-like behavior is where this fish got its name. 33:30 [SPEAKER_00]: but not everyone has been interested in these amazing geological and biological features. 33:36 [SPEAKER_00]: In his one-star review, Alex G. complained, words that come to mind, bleak, desolate, absolutely devoid of any trees or shade, visited here and laid a bro in still, hot as Satan's hot tub. 33:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Felt like a canyon-sized hot air balloon was on from 10 a.m. to 6 at night, driving through its surreal almost like a desert planet. 33:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Only living things I saw were ants of flies. 34:01 [SPEAKER_00]: If this sounds intriguing, then by all means go, the name says it all. 34:06 [SPEAKER_00]: anti-H has a similar beef. 34:08 [SPEAKER_00]: On a fan of finding nothing in the middle of nowhere, it's like visiting a giant litter box. 34:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Stayed in the area for work. 34:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Four days there and found nothing new. 34:17 [SPEAKER_00]: After about the first 10 minutes, the quote resort was a joke. 34:21 [SPEAKER_00]: How they get away with calling themselves a resort and charging an additional resort fee over their extortion rate is beyond me. 34:29 [SPEAKER_00]: I have stayed at an inner city motel 6th that would have been an upgrade to their dingy stinky rooms. 34:35 [SPEAKER_00]: No restaurants after about 7pm and no bar service after 9pm. 34:40 [SPEAKER_00]: There is always a $2 mini bag of chips, and $13.6 pack of the gas station. 34:46 [SPEAKER_00]: I spend a lot of time outdoors camping, hiking, hunting, and traveling for work I would never return here on purpose. 34:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Edmundee piled on. 34:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Death Valley is a desert crapple, my word not his, like looking at dirt and hot weather, this place is for you. 35:02 [SPEAKER_00]: And finally this review from David S. No one died while we were here. 35:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Very misleading name. 35:09 [SPEAKER_00]: It should be lower, too much sand, all the stars at night made it harder to see the little dipper. 35:15 [SPEAKER_00]: In the next episode we'll be heading to the Lake Mead Recreation area. 35:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for joining.
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