dare2go

Death Valley to Las Vegas


Continuation from < Page 1 < !

I am constantly amazed at some of the countryside we pass through - sometimes it seems that every few miles the landscape completely changes and that around every bend there is another vista that brings out some sort of exclamation from one of us. I can't begin to describe it adequately, and I really hope that at least some of our photos will give you an idea of the absolute splendour we are experiencing on a daily basis.
Yesterday we arrived in Death Valley and the oohs and aahs have continued! The drive is up and down again - up to 5000+ feet and down to 2000 feet and then perhaps up again and then down again. We drove to the foot of Wildrose Peak where there are some well-preserved charcoal kilns. These were built in 1877 to turn pinyon pine logs into charcoal to be used by 2 silver mines which were 25 miles away. They stand approximately 25 feet tall and 30 feet in diameter and are most impressive. They look like they have just been constructed - I think it has something to do with the climate here. We stayed at the Wildrose campground and once again enjoyed the peace and quiet of a campsite without any of the modern conveniences. They provide one pit toilet and a few taps with water safe for drinking. And at each site there is a table and a fire pit. All the campsites here seem to come with a table and a fire pit, which is useful for eating outside in this weather and also useful for the Americans love of fires when they go camping. We both had a shower outside in the afternoon. Our camper has an outside shower which connects to the hot water system, so it wasn't too primitive. And we took turns to hold up a screen of sorts for privacy. Luckily, the campground was not very populated at the time!
This morning we drove some more up and down and then stopped to walk into the Mosaic Canyon. It was stunning, with walls of polished marble! The canyon is so narrow in places that you have to walk single file. Juergen walked further up where the riverbed was considerably wider. I wouldn't like to get caught in that place if the water started to flow! In the early afternoon we arrived in Furnace Creek - 192 feet below sea level - and I know why it has that name. At the moment (4.30pm) it is 33° outside and 37° inside our camper. They tell us that in a couple of weeks it will be much hotter (maybe then it will be hotter than it was in the Riverland in January!) - I think we got here just in time. Unfortunately this campground has a few larger caravans and campers, some of which have noisy generators going to run their air conditioners. But they have to turn them off at 7.00 pm so I'm hoping for a quiet night. In a while when it gets a bit cooler we will go and look at a few things close to here before it gets dark.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006, Red Rock Canyon, Nevada
On Saturday evening we did indeed have a look at a couple of amazing sights that were really at their best at sunset. First we drove to Zabriskie Point and walked up to a lookout which gave a view over a maze of wildly eroded hills - they call it badlands, I'm not sure why. The colours are amazing.
We then drove on through a section called The Artist's Drive. This is a 9 mile loop which brings one very close to multi-coloured volcanic and sedimentary hills. Once again, the setting sun produced some of the most incredible colours I've ever seen in nature.
After a restless night (some fat dork decided to sleep in his Honda sedan next to our campsite and when he decided it was too hot, he started his car so that he could run his air conditioner... and this a couple of hours after we had gone to sleep. I don't know what he was going to do in the morning when he'd run out of fuel! Juergen saved him from that problem by waking him up and asking him to turn it off - he moved on.), we drove north to an historic site called Scotty's Castle. We stopped on the way at Salt Creek to look for pupfish. These fish are prehistoric and survive in dry mud in a dormant state until it rains. I'd seen a documentary on them some time ago and it was quite exciting to find some water still in the creek and to see them swimming along, particularly the masses of baby fish.
On arrival at Scotty's castle we joined a tour of the interior of the house and also the cellars. The house cost 2.25 million dollars back in the 1920's and had some amazing innovations like a water driven powerplant, piped evaporative air-conditioning and heating, plus solar hot water. It is a Spanish style mansion and has some very impressive tile work, a lot of the tiles being imported from Spain. We spent the night at a fairly deserted campsite nearby which was somewhat spoiled by a pedantic park ranger who confessed to having spent 25 years in the military - so I guess he was used to telling people what to do and not listening to reason!!! And twice in the middle of the night we were woken by coyotes howling in their particular way right next to our camper. This was the first time either of us had witnessed this, it was quite eerie right in the middle of the desert.
Yesterday we drove from the north almost the whole way through the park to exit it in the south en route to Las Vegas. On the way we passed the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere - at 284 feet below sea level, it certainly doesn't reach the depths of the Dead Sea! It is an area of vast salt flats, which may hold some water after heavy rain. Juergen commented that it looked just like Lake Eyre (Australia's lowest point) - which I haven't seen.
We were planning to drive only as far as Tecopa Hot Springs, which are about 30 miles outside the park, but when we arrived in the afternoon heat at about 3.00 pm we decided that the campgrounds didn't look very inviting, since they lacked any reasonable shade, and it wasn't really the weather for hot springs! We drove on to a rather forgettable place called Pahrump and looked for an RV park. We found several, but none of them were taking truck campers - you had to have a huge coach style RV to get into their resorts! Other than these not very inviting resorts, this town seemed to offer only gambling, prostitution, and fireworks stalls - and all of this quite blatantly on huge billboards. We decided to drive on!
We then decided to drive towards Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and look for somewhere to stay. This area is just outside Las Vegas, and the canyon really is RED - just like home! Juergen had commented just a few days ago that he found the red of Australia more impressive than the colours here. Have a look at the photos and judge for yourselves. Just when we thought we would have to keep going to Las Vegas we found a sign to this campground, which is actually one of the best laid-out grounds we have been in. They have kept the sites a decent distance from each other and even provide specific areas for tents in each site, that have been levelled. It is surrounded by hills and last night we could see the lights of Vegas shining above them in the east. So today we will head down into the melee, and experience what this city has to offer. (After 6 nights straight in campgrounds providing a toilet only, and having showers outside or in our tiny bathroom, I am looking forward to a long, hot shower with room to move around!) Juergen has been Las Vegas before and says that he didn't really like it, but it was an experience. Well we don't always have to love our experiences, but if they are interesting, then I think it is worthwhile.