Adler's Fall 2013 Northwest: November 27, 2013 Death Valley, CA

November 27, 2013 Death Valley, CA

This was a day that we were truly inspired! We went back to Golden Canyon to hike the Gower Gulch Loop Trail. We had just started when we approached a foursome, and they had a service dog with them. We assumed the elderly lady with the dog had a stroke at one time, as it was obvious to us, that she needed assistance. We didn’t go much further and we met a twosome. They appeared to be father and son to me, and we stopped to talk to them. We watched them as they walked toward us, and the elderly man had his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, and it stayed there, all the while we talked to them. We assumed that the elderly man was legally blind. Both of these people loved what they were doing, and we left them thinking that tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we definitely have so much to be thankful for. God bless them, for pushing themselves to do things that they so much enjoy. We took pictures of both ‘sets of people’ and I’ll post them on the blog tonight. The loop hike offered much in terrain change and beauty! Pictures just don’t show how gorgeous it is out there. It was strenuous early on, but once we reached the top, it was all downhill from there! We met so many different people on the trail…..a young newlywed couple from Brazil, a young family of four, and the two boys, about nine and eleven years old didn’t want to do the loop hike. We encouraged them to do it, as we could see the parents really wanted to go. They ended up going, and we had fun with them. I know those boys will be proud that they made the whole loop. We met another couple from Washington State and we stopped and talked to them for quite a while. She was born in Luck, WI and they winter in AZ. You just realize that there are so many nice people that you encounter in your life. We drove to Dante’s View, which overlooks a good portion of Death Valley, and we stopped at Zabriskie Point, which is the peak that we saw from below when we hiked the Gower Gulch Loop. We ranked this day a TEN! Tomorrow we leave for Pahrump, NV and hope to have turkey dinner in the casino there. It’s been a great stay in Death Valley, and we feel we saw and did a lot here, in the four days that we were here. I know we’ll be back. We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving Day, and hope your travels are safe ones!