I got my bags packed on a roll heading out there and I'm ready to go looking real good

in my passport photo.

Amateur Traveler episode 803. Today the amateur traveler talks about a

chicken strip, a pla and dunes, ghost towns, record-breaking heat, and 20 mule teams as we go to Death Valley National Park in California.

Welcome to the Amateur Traveler. I'm your host Chris Christensen. Let's talk about

Death Valley. I'd like to welcome back to the show Jeff Olfs who's come to talk to us this time about Death Valley. Jeff, welcome back to the show.

Hey Chris, thanks for having me back. I always, you know, use these podcasts to help plan my own trips.

And I'm glad that I can give back and put another pin on your world map.

Well, and Jeff was recently in Death Valley and pitched me that we didn't have a show on that.

And honestly, I had trouble believing that because it is a major U.S. National Park.

It is the largest in the 48 states, but I have only been there one time, so I knew that I wasn't going to do an episode on it.

Jeff, you have been there, is it fair to say more than once?

Yeah, I used to, well at least since 1996 I tried to get there at least once a year.

As people may remember, I retired from the Park Service, so a friend of mine was the

superintendent at Death Valley.

We used to go up there every president, stay weekend,

and stay with her.

And then Joshatry and Death Valley are in the same,

we share a lot of resources.

So I've been up there for some assignments and things like that so and I was just

up for a month ago so I was like hey Death Valley. Excellent well why should someone go to

Death Valley? Well it is so full of history and nature, at least geology speaking.

...