Death Valley, Valentine's Day,  2 spinsters. Coincidence? I prefer to think of it as serendipity.   At about 75 miles outside of the area, we lost all contact with the outside world. No cell phone, no WiFi...it's just us in the desert with professional campers. We had a great drive in but after Kernville, we had nowhere to go but up. 

Death Valley was nothing like either of us pictured. We thought it would be dust, sand dunes and blowing tumbleweed like in the movies. It's a desert but there was only one area we found sand. The annual rainfall is less than 2" but three days before we arrived they were hit with 1.4" of rain and many of the roads and hiking areas were inaccessible.  This actually worked out fine for us because it limited our decisions of where to hike. And, it is all about us isn't it?

We had a magnificent 4 mile hike through the Golden Canyon and out the Gower Gulch Loop. The canyons are huge yellow boulders that twist and turn up and down with a lot of narrow passageways you can try to walk through. I decided it was better to stay on the wide path because I know what I've eaten over the last 40 days and getting stuck in a Death Valley canyon on Valentine's Day would mean Lisa would have to eat alone. And I would miss a meal. That would be sad for both of us.

The next day we hiked like camels in the sand dunes. Ok, maybe it was more like one camel because there are only 4 legs between the two of us. And we move a lot faster than a camel so now that I think about it, we probably weren't like camels at all. Anyway, we got there just as the sun came up so it was still cool out as we blazed our own trail through the dunes. From there we hit a spot in the Valley called badwater. It's the lowest elevation in North America...about 280 feet below sea level. Personally, I think the name should be changed to "nowater" because there wasn't anything there. Well, except for the other professional campers we spent Valentine's Day with. 

We left Death Valley and headed to Zions National Park in Utah. The drive was too long so we stopped in St. George for the night. Another fabulous Best Western for our weary bones. St. George is a great little town with almost perfect weather and a place I would definitely come back and visit. Although, I probably would plan it a little better and come on a day other than Sunday. You see, we entered Mormon country once we crossed the Utah border. And it seems Mormons do not believe anyone should eat on Sundays. All of the decent restaurants are closed. Sure, we're on a budget but we since we eat free breakfasts and have our lunch in the car we look forward to a good dinner. And the Mormons have ruined it for us. But don't be alarmed. This little snafu is not going to make me turn on Donny and Marie or any of the other Osmonds.  I'm just not going to listen to their music on Sundays anymore.