January 28th, 2011:

Death Valley has become some sort of annual pilgrimage for Daniel and I, where we run amok in the day doing boys’ stuff and sit around drinking beer at night. Good times.

This year, we brought the ladies with us, and we all got to run amok together! Woot!

Most of our driving was on dirt roads, where we left trails of dust churning behind us. At one point, we inadvertently dusted a silver Sebring convertible that was passing in the opposite direction. Ooops. [Sanja, we sure hope you weren’t adventuring in Death Valley a week ago. Were you?]

Mmmm…. beer brats roasting on an open fire…. (sort of)

We climbed the huge Eureka Sand Dunes. This is a view from the top. Notice how ridiculously tiny everything looks from way up here – using that dirt road as a reference point.

Last year, Daniel and I had hiked up the dunes, and, on a whim, slid down on a beef jerkey wrapper (the bag type from Costco). This year, I was more prepared with a snow sledding disk. Videographic evidence follows (now it may not look like I was going all that fast, but I promise you: I was hauling ass and covered in sand):

We poked around at Scotty’s Castle, an ostentatious property in the middle of Death Valley, then settled down to a mellow picnic lunch before heading off for Daniel & Scherrie’s epic engagement shoot.

Pikachu, our earnest travel buddy, takes a break after our hike to Darwin Falls, a modest perennial waterfall in Death Valley – quite a surprise for one of the hottest, driest places on earth.