The alarm clock rang at 4:45am without any mercy. We got up, dog Pepsi was at first confused and then mad! We left right away for our sunrise shoot at Zabriskie Point. It was worth the loss of beauty rest for sure.

Then we rushed to Badwater area, the lowest point in Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level. It is a huge area of salt crusts. Water dissolves old mineral and salt deposits from the sandy soil, then the water evaporates and a beautiful field of salt crusts is the result. The salt is a sure sign that this area was covered by ocean water at one time.

Artist Palette was still on our wish list but the morning light was simply not good for this area.

Back at Furnace Creek Ranch, Restaurants, Hotel and RV Park we had a great breakfast and another swim. Despite the fact that we would miss out on an evening shoot again we left to make it further east to Zion National Park and escape the heat which didn’t even let up during the night.

We made it to beautiful Utah and the Zion National Park. We took a shuttle bus through beautiful sections of the Zion section of the park and decided, New Mexico and Utah are our favourite states so far which we will visit again, hopefully soon.

We were able to get a spot at a public RV Park for the night, the RV Parks within the park were all booked up.