The Agnew Family aboard the "Dog House"

I decided that I really wanted to see Death Valley while we were here .... I’m sure that there were subliminal messages from all those westerns I watched as a kid. It’s about a 2 hour and 40 minute drive from Las Vegas but it was worth it. As we were nearing the information centre in the park and lunch stop (it was after 1pm) we came to a halt! There was a wagon train ahead of us — yup covered wagons being pulled by teams of horses. People and vehicles lined each side of the road as they watched the wagon train go by. When we were finally allowed to proceed the people remained and started waving and cheering at the traffic — they encouraged the people in the vehicles to wave and honk horns. It turned out that it was 49er Day — a celebration of the 1849 gold rush through Death Valley (one of the people on the 1849 wagon train uttered the statement “good bye death valley” as they left the valley and the name Death Valley stuck). Anyway we managed to park the trucks and borrow the picnic table at a campsite nearby to eat our lunch.

Death Valley is a huge National Park. We managed to see a very small part of it but the part we saw was amazing. Another place to add to my list of “Must Sees”.



The wagon train.


Sand dunes


The sand dunes with the mountains behind them.


This was referred to as a "forest".


The sun was beginning set.


A borax wagon that was pulled by a 20 mule team.


The mountains here are red and green.






The moon is up and the sun is setting.