On Friday, December 29th, my family woke up at 5:30 A.M. and immediately started loading the car. We knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us, so we wanted to get an early of a start as possible. We were going on a vacation to Death Valley National Park for the New Year’s weekend. We left at about 7:00 A.M. and began driving.

 We traveled via the route highlighted above for approximately 1 hour before we stopped in Palmdale for a rest stop and breakfast. There we went to McDonald's and ordered coffee and biscuits, and we went to Krispy Kreme for half a dozen donuts. I ate a donut and a biscuit during the next hour of driving. We drove for a couple more hours before we stopped at the Ranch House Cafe in Olancha, California. We ate an early lunch because we knew we were not going to see another restaurant till at least 3:00 P.M. There, I ate a skillet and it tasted pretty good. From there, we drove for another 45 minutes or so till we stopped at our first point: Father Crowly Vista Point. From there, we could see volcanic ash that had come from a volcano, and I found it pretty cool.

Following that, we drove for 15 minutes more before we realized we missed what was supposed to be our second stop: Darwin Falls. We thought about going back but then decided against it because we doubted the fall would have much if any water in it. We drove for another hour or so till we got to the Stovepipe Wells where we went to get our pass permit. After that, we went to Mosaic Canyon, but the 2.2-mile drive on gravel was brutal because we did not have a 4-wheel drive. We got there around 2:30 and it was a small hike with nice views of many different rock formations.

When we finished the Mosaic Canyon, it was about 3:30 and we only had 1 more place to go to on our list: Devil's Cornfield. There wasn't much there, just a lot of underbrush that looked like dead corn stocks, so I'm guessing that's how it got its name.
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Now that we were down on our list, we started driving to Shady Lady Bed & Breakfast, the place we were staying for the night. It was about an hour away from Death Valley, and it still was the closest hotel we could find that was not booked. We drove till about 4:30 when we came across Beatty, the closest town to Death Valley. From there, we had to eat dinner but we did not have many choices, only Denny's and Subway. Since it was still early and none of us were hungry, we took Subway to go and decided we were going to eat it at our hotel. We drove for about 35 more minutes before we came across the place, and it was truly in the middle of nowhere. It was 1/4th of a mile away from the highway, and the closest neighbor lived more than 1 mile away. We were met with a guy who called himself the owner's son and let us in. He said that the owner was shopping and would be back in about 30 minutes, so we took the opportunity to eat our subway. When he came, he and his daughter checked us in and showed us into our room, a nice place.When we got into our room, I started by checking all my texts and going to play my games for a little, and then my family and I played Imploding Kittens for about 2 hours. When we finished, it was about 9:00 and I played a little bit more on my phone, and then I slept at 10:00.

The next day, I woke up at about 6:45 and got up and took a shower. After taking a shower and playing a little on my phone, my family and I went out to go get some breakfast. I ate scrambled eggs, toast with jam, sausage, and bacon. It tasted great! Immediately after we finished breakfast, we left and drove for 2 hours till we got to Dante's Ridge, which I thought was my favorite point because when you looked down from the ridge(it was over 5000 ft up) you could see all the people and cars, but they looked liked tiny dots.

 After that, we went to the 20-mule canyon, which was basically a really cool canyon in which there was a narrow path that got you on top of a small hill. Although I didn't go all the way, it still looked pretty cool from my vantage point about 100 ft above the place where we started.Then, we went to Zabriskie Point, and by that time it was about 12:00. We were all hungry so we made the turkey sandwich with the supplies we had brought. After that, we looked at Zabriskie Point and the view was phenomenal because you could see all the way across the valley.After that, we went from being almost a mile above sea level to 280 feet under it: the Badwater Basin. This was basically a dried up salt lake, and it had so much salt that when I took a picture to send to a friend, they actually thought that the salt was snow.

After that, we went to Devil's Golf Course which was just a place with salt roughs everywhere and a place where it would be hell to play golf at.To finish the day, right after the sun was setting we went to artists palette and there were some beautiful views of multicolored rocks.We drove back to Beatty where we decided to eat at Denny's. I had a sandwich and then we went back to the hotel. Once again, we played some more Imploding Kittens, and then I played on my phone. Finally, we went to sleep.

On Sunday, we got up at like 7:00 A.M. and I showered and then went to go eat breakfast. I had an omelet instead of the scrambled eggs, and everything else stayed the same. It was one of the best omelets I ever tasted, and I was stuffed after eating it. We started on our drive to borax works, which was just an abandoned mining facility. It had a really cool looking wagon that towered above us and was pulled by a 20-mule team. After that, we went to the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail where we learned about the fish that actually live in the hottest place in the world. It was a short hike with lots of picture spots and great views.

After the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail, we went to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center where we decided where to go next. We decided to go to the golden canyon hike, which was a long hike that had 4 different routes to go. We went to the shortest one and ended up on top of a large rock that allowed you to see the whole trail we just walked. Following that, we decided we wanted to actually see the sunset at Artist's Palette, so we went there again and we saw a beautiful sunset. After that, we drove to Denny's to eat, where I had a burger. Then, we went to eat Ice Cream at Eddy's World, and then we went back to Shady Lady Bed And Breakfast. We played some more Imploding Kittens, I played some more on my phone and then I went to sleep.

On Monday, the day we were heading home, and also New Years' Day, we got up at 7:15 and quickly took our showers. We all wanted to get home, but we still had some sightseeing to do. We ate at around 8:00(I had another Omelet) and then we packed up all our stuff. We left the hotel by 9:30 A.M. and started driving. We went to Rhyolite Ghost Town first, and it was an old gold mining town. It had a jail, and a crumbling school, and a lot more and it was really cool to see a place that was over 100 years old. Then we drove for a couple more hours before stopping at Keane Wonder Mine. We hiked for about 2 hours before realizing that there was a very long hike left, and it was a colossal waste of our time. We did see the mine, but not from inside, unfortunately. Since none of us were that hungry, we skipped lunch and started the long drive home. We arrived home at about 7:00, and after the 4 day trip, we were all exhausted. I really enjoyed it and it gave my eyes a rest from all the stress I've been giving them over winter break.