The holidays are so mentally draining so I needed to visit nature. After making a quick stop to check out Trona Pinnacles, we headed to our main destination, Death Valley.

Death Valley is known to be on record the hottest place on Earth. January was a perfect time to visit this national park in my opinion. The weather was perfect. It was 67 degrees, sunny sky, and no wind.

The possibility of a lake that rarely makes an appearance?! I was getting so excited but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. California got so much rain the week of Christmas and New Years but I never thought it would be enough for water to linger. How wrong I was. Badland Basin left me speechless.

Never in my life I ever thought I would witness such a scene. Something out of a video game or in my dreams. I wasn’t planning on removing my shoes but then I thought, “When am I ever going to experience this again?”

It was breathtaking. A core memory was created that day. I wanted to cry on how beautiful it looked. I just stood there taking everything in; the smell, the sight, the feeling of my feet in the water. It was bliss.

As much as I wanted to stay to witness the sunset, we had to leave to check out the sand dunes before it got dark. By the time we arrived, it was chilly so we didn’t stick around for long. It was still alright to check out. The dunes reminded me of White Sands, New Mexico.

As I drove back to the Airbnb, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of stars in the sky. Never have I seen so many. I had to pull over at a rest stop to fully see the sky. Suddenly all my worries, doubts, and fears meant nothing. The universe is endless and I’m just a small peck of it all.

I tried taking a picture of the night sky but I couldn’t work the settings on my phone to get a good picture. I was a little bummed out but I got over it. My memory isn’t good but moments like these stay forever.

Death Valley was something else. Everyone loved it. The day was better than I expected. I would like to go back and camp a night there. I don think it would be anytime soon since I already have future trips planned out but you never know. I tend to be spontaneous at times.