Death Valley National Park, California -

I had always wanted to visit this place but in the last 3 visits to California in past years just never made it. This time we made the time to reach this remote National Park that straddles California and Nevada. There are few towns near the park and so we bought our food in advance and were forced to stay inside the park at one of the park owned accommodations which are basic and expensive but that's what you call a monopoly and you can't do much about it. The park is huge and in fact the largest National Park in the mainland USA. On our main day here we spent over 6 hours just driving through it en route to Las Vegas. The temperatures were warm in the day but cold at night. Most visitors come between October and March as summer is unbearably hot at around 40-50 degrees. The scenery was amazing and the highlights were Zabriskie Point (a famous movie is named after it) and Dante's View.

This will be our last National Park and what a highlight they have all been. We visited 18 of the 48 and certainly got our money's worth by buying the $50 US annual pass back in June. Regular admission is otherwise about $10-20 US per vehicle per day. The parks are extremely well run and the children have enjoyed them as much as we have including doing the activity packs the rangers give them.