Death Valley: Day 4

After sleeping pretty well, we were awakened by two F-15s that flew right overhead!  I had heard that in this area, the F-15s do a lot of overflights, but I didn't think we'd actually see any.  Nonetheless, that's how we got woken up.  Fortunately, the timing was good.  It was a beautiful and calm morning.  But the sun was already beating down on us.  So, I got up and the first thing I did was go to set up the brand new pop-up tent.  This was where I planned to spend my entire day: sitting in the shade, slowly drying out, sipping water, and reading my book.

Emma packed bubbles to blow

Well, only a short time after I got the tent set up, the wind started to blow.  And it didn't stop until sunset.  I really hadn't planned on this.  A slight breeze would have been OK, but this was gusty and kind of strong.  So I set out the guy-lines and pounded in stakes and eventually re-positioned where the car was parked in an attempt to break up some of the wind.

The Eureka Dunes Campsite that we stayed at (above and below)

In the end, the wind was tolerable and none of the tents or belongings blew away.  We had breakfast and I sat down to enjoy the day.  Zephyr and Zoe surprisingly toddled off to go climb the dunes by themselves.  Surprising because even though I could see them the whole time, it's not like this is a small dune.  Awesome that they showed an interest, because this dune was the reason we came all this way in the first place!  Anyway, they climbed all the way to the top before coming back.

I spent the whole day reading and relaxing and tapping stakes back into the ground.  The F15s returned several more times.  Eureka Valley is perfect for them because the valley come to an end at the dunes and the planes are able to fly up the valley, around the dunes, and then back down the valley.  That's how big the dunes are!

So much wind and sand and sun!

Towards sunset, I decided that if I was going to climb the dunes myself, I better get going, so I did.  I couldn't convince Emma to go, so I set off by myself.  It was windy and the angle of the sun was slow and there was blowing sand like crazy so the pictures of my look more miserable than I really was.  Anyway, I got to the top of the dunes after a bit - it was more scary than I thought it would because of the wind and the fact that the dropoffs were pretty steep and I don't like heights.

The Eureka Dunes (above) are nearly entirely surrounded by the Last Chance Mountain Range (below)

Once back in camp and after I got the sand out of my hair, we had another campfire and dinner followed by watching "Anger Management" which Emma had downloaded to her phone.  Then it was off to bed!

getting ready to watch the evening movie (above) and have dinner (below)