Next up? USA Road Trip to Scorching Death Valley
I wonder if we are the only ones who takes a photo of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. As we leave Las Vegas? Probably not. We were not the only ones there, in fact we had to join a queue to have our picture taken!! Anyway, we woke up relatively early, knowing we had a 5+ hour drive ahead of us.
Anyway, this is a continuation of the series USA Road Trip 2013. During which, wespent 2 weeks travelling from Phoenix to LA, via Vegas, Yosemite and SF.
We packed up, dumped our bags in the car and had one last wander around the hotel. After picking up coffee and a huge donut to keep us going for, we hit the road. After our stop at the Vegas sign, and a fill up on gas we were off. Current temperature 96 degrees. By the end of the day it would turn out to be a positively chilly 96 degrees!!
USA Road Trip to Scorching Death Valley.
Our first stop, 2 hours or so down the road, was at the Welcome to Death Valley sign (we did it on the way in, not on the way out!!). After paying our park fee of $20, we set off to the Furnace Creek visitor centre, but on the way stopped at a place called Dantes View. The views were spectacular, as you can see from the pictures below, with Badwater Basin, below us, stretching out for miles.
We walked out as far as we could considering the heat, and was grateful for the air con in Norman when we returned to the car.
After we had cooled down, we headed back down to the visitors centre in the aptly named Furnace Creek. A furnace it was, with the temperature recorded today at 119. However, we experienced our hottest temperature on our upcoming drive out to Badwater Basin, where it hit 122!! Chilly compared to the record 134 they have experienced…
We stopped at another place called Zabriskie Point, where although the temperatures were touching 120, there was a breeze. Only trouble was, the breeze was hot. You know when you open the oven and get hit by that blast of hot oven air? That’s what it reminded us of.
The sights
During this USA Road Trip to Scorching Death Valley we saw all the main views, Badwater Basin, Devils Golf Course, Artists Drive, which leads to Artists Pallette, and plenty more while driving. It got to 6pm, and we still had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, so after one last loo stop, we headed out of Death Valley, towards Lone Pine, on the edge of Yosemite, for our stop over. More info, take a look here, https://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm.
Arriving at 8pm, we dumped outer bags, had a quick bite in a local place called Mt Whitney, before we got shut eye for our next driving day. Loving this trip, so much seen and loads more to see, with Yosemite Nat Park (or another park if the fire dictates), Napa, San Francisco, Pacific Coast Highway, LA, Hollywood…the list goes on!!
Nite……
