I had heard of Death Valley several times but never been there. Its the hottest place in the world and also houses the lowest point in America. The name itself is intriguing. We decided to drive down from Lake Tahoe to Death valley and check it out!
We drove south along 395 and it was snowing miserably - the distance was about 240miles.We had made no prior plans and consequently had no motel reservations. The hope was that its death valley - who goes to death valley for christmas? Our goal was to park ourselves as close to Death Valley as possible, hopefully inside death valley for the night so that we could maximize our stay there.
We crossed Lone Pine at around 8:30 P.M but deicded to look for Motel further down along 136 if we could find one in Keleer. However, true to its name Death Valley had absolutely nothing but pitch darkness and by 9:30 P.M we decided to turn around and park ourselves in Lone Pine. There was a all you can eat Pizza corner in Lone Pine and we helped ourselves generously after the long tiresome drive.
Lone Pine is a quaint town and the fact that it had rained the previous night made inhaling the air quite refreshing. Unsure of what to expect in death valley we decided to have a heavy breakfast comprising burgers.
We headed off south and then along 136 to catch 190. 136 is an amazing lonely road that passes by the Dry Lake Owens into the hills. 
There is only dried shurbs all around and it indeed starts to feel like you are about to enter death valley. 
There were also several burrows, probably made by some Rodents.
As we drove into 190 over the mountains, the scenery became mystical with low clouds floating over the mountains.
It was an absolutely gorgeous scenery. We stopped on the way to get some intersting pictures.
On 190 there was a nice spread of Joshua trees. Absolutely amazing tall cactus trees. Even taller that Ram on Dantu's shoulders.
After having some fun photos - 
theres Dantu lifting the car, and Ram the mountain, in the area we proceeded towards Stovepipe wells, located at the heart of Death valley.
By the time we reached the entrance of the Death Valley, there was quite a lot of snow. There are Ram and Dantu having a snow fight. The white snow around with sprinled dried shrubs was simply amazing.
The most amazing part of visiting death valley was that by the time we descended into the valley crossed Stovepipe wells and reached Furnace Creek, all the snow had dissapeared and a deseart had appeared. Nowhere else have I drived from snow capped mountains into a deseart within a span of 80 miles!
There are high dunes on which you can slide. We spent almost two whole hours in the dunes climbing over them and sliding.
It was 1:00 P.M by the time we reached Furnace creek and we are absolutely famished. There was a nice place to have lunch here and we have some veggie burgers. After lunch we proceeded to drive up north along the Scotty's Castle road towards the Ubehebe Crater.
Along the way we saw a stray Coyote. 
This was the first time I ever saw a Coyote. The Coyote was not only fearless of us but also seemed to be soliciting food.
By 3:00 P.M we reached the Ubehebe crater which means "a great baskek in the rock". The crater was formed when a stream of water suddenly came in touch with hot magma, leading to a explosion of steam in the ground. The wind here is extremely strong and can potentially blow you away. We wanted to descend into the carater but had no time since we had more to see.
We started back towards the Badwater basin which is lowest point in mainland USA.
Visiting badwater basin is perhaps the most out of the earth experience you can have on earth. The place looks a different planet.
The entire place is made of salt crystals formed by evaporated water. These salt crystals form curious hexagonal patterns in the ground. There is Dantu trying to pluck a heaxgon out of the ground.
The entire place looked like large ocean of Salt. The sunsets from this place are quite surreal. By the time we left Badwater, it was dark and we had spent the entire funfilled day at Death Valley. The long weekend had ended and it was time to get back to work.
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