The name says it all really. The landscape slowly gets more and more desolate the nearer to the Valley and the temperature gets hotter and hotter. Our first little jaunt out of the car was at Mosaic Canyon. On arrival we were told that hiking was not advised due to the extreme heat. We were only going a little way into the canyon so we put our big hats on, took lots of water and were only going for 10 mins. When we first got out, we thought this isn’t too bad as the heat was dry, not the humid heat we are used to in Queensland. The temp was about 110 degrees Fahrenheit which is 43.3 degrees Celsius. After about 5 mins (half way) we both had this burning in our chests and by the time we got back to the car we were struggling. But it was worth it getting to walk through the narrow marble walls.
This was on the drive in
The sign in question and below is Mosaic Canyon 
Back in the air conditioned comfort of our car we drove through the sand dunes and then on to Badwater which is the lowest point in America, at 280ft under sea level. Pretty amazing. 
The dunes in the bottom picture literally looked like piles of gold dust. I don’t know if it was the light or maybe the sand really was a gold colour but it sure was breathtaking 
The drive out to Badwater. We have driven so many miles of straight roads recently. You especially notice it because we had been previously driving through so many ranges. Below is us standing in the Badwater 280ft below sea level.
Next stop was Devil’s Golf Course. Just miles and miles of Salt flats. Both of us couldn’t figure out why it was a Devil’s golf course so of course Mr Google helped us out – apparently in a parks broucher in the 30’s it said only the devil could play golf here due to the surface being so lumpy from the salt formations.
We then drove through Artist’s Drive, where the rock formations are layered in different sediment colors. It was truly beautiful and I don’t think the photos do it justice.
By this stage the temperature had hit 117 degrees Fahrenheit. The place is so uninhabitable. As you can see with the campsite picture not that many people choose to camp! The temperature even at night only gets down to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 32 degrees Celsius. Needless to say we passed on the camping!
Even though after our first walk outside we didn’t spend more than 5 mins out of the car each time. I was starting to struggle in the heat. It was weird as I had on a big hat, long sleeve shirt and there were some girls with no hat and tank tops. Tim thinks it was our walk that did it as he was also not feeling great. But we recovered pretty well after our first icy cold beer at the pub in Beatty where we were staying the night.S