86 (D-45) [Day 11] Death Valley

86 (D-44) Back to nature. On the morning of our 11th day, we'll get on the bus again, leaving Sin City to go to Death Valley National Park, 130 miles (209 km) northwest of Las Vegas. We leave Nevada and return to California to visit this national park. It will take about 2 - 2.5 hours* to get to Death Valley...if we don't get lost....



Four superlatives: hottest, driest, lowest, largest.


Hottest: In July of 1913, Death Valley recorded five consecutive days of 129 degrees (53.9° C) or above. On July 10th, it got up to 134°F (57°C) at what is now Furnace Creek Ranch. This world record was held for nine years. It won't be 57° when we get there, but I'm sure we'll feel the heat as soon as we get off the bus! Average temperatures in May = 99° F (37°C) - 71.2° (22°C)

Driest: In 1929, no rain was recorded in Death Valley. From 1931 through 1934, a 40-month period, only 0.64 inches (1.63 cm) of rain fell. Death Valley gets less than 2 inches (5.8 cm) of rain a year.

Lowest: Badwater Basin, in Death Valley National Park, is the lowest place in North America and one of the lowest places in the world at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. The Dead Sea, between Israel and Jordon, is the lowest at 1371 feet (418 m) below sea level.

Largest: Death Valley National Park, created by the California Desert Protection Act of 1994, encompasses 3,372,402 acres (6692.6 m²), making it the largest national park in the lower 48 states. It is 140 miles (225 km) long.

More information:

Springtime is the most popular time to visit Death Valley.

Death Valley is home to more than 1000 species of plants and more than 50 of those are endemics, found nowhere else in the world. We'll get to see many flowers in May.

Take a quick look at the Visitor's Guide in English. It's long. If you are interested, you can read in French or other languages you know:

http://www.nps.gov/deva/parknews/upload/Visitor%20Guide%202010.pdf

http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/upload/French%20-%20General%20Info.pdf http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/upload/Italian%20-%20General%20Info.pdf http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/upload/Spanish%20-%20General%20Info.pdf http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/upload/German%20-%20General%20Info.pdf

Jane

--* Americans measure distance in "driving time".

--Sin City = One of the nicknames for Las Vegas. Did you find the others?

--How did Death Valley get its name?

--"GET" is everywhere in English!!!http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/get Too much to learn! Try to learn in the context of these sentences here. How would you translate "get" in each of the sentences in this post?