Part of that plan was to get up and moving really early. I was up at 6:00 am (I have not been setting my alarm, turns out this is when my body wants to get up) and on the road by 6:45. My drive to Death Valley lead me along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevadas, some very high peaks.
Interesting tidbit: Mt. Whitney (14,491 ft) is the highest point in the lower 48 states, and stands only 80 miles from Death Valley (-282 ft'), the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.
I reached Death Valley by about 9:00 am, stopped to take some pictures coming down from the mountains into the valley. I stopped at the ranger station in Stovepipe wells to pay and there happened to be a large thermometer in sitting in the shade. I've included the picture below, please note this was in the shade at 9:30 in the morning. I must say, even though I would immediately start to sweat as soon as I got out of the car, it was managable. I never found the heat overwhelming in Death Valley. I stopped in a few places to take pictures, then headed up towards Scotty's Castle.
Scotty's Castle was a home built by a rich Chicago business man whose name was not Scotty. Scotty was Walter Scott, a con man who became business partners with Johnson (Chicago business dude). Scotty was so charismatic and well known, that everyone refered to it as Scotty's castle, and neither he nor Johnson ever corrected anyone.
I took the one-hour tour of the house/castle which was pretty informative and entertaining. My main goal for being in Death Valley was to try to check out the Racetrack, where you can see tracks behind rocks that move on their own. After the tour I asked the tour guide/ranger if there was any way that I could get up there, as I heard that you need a 4 wheel drive with high clearance. He took a look at Rolly and said he wouldn't recommend it, but there was another spot just outside the park where I could see the same thing. Woohoo.! I talked to him for a while, which was a little disenchanting. Although he seemed very enthusiastic about the stories he told along the tour, turns out he's been doing it for 3.5 years and hates it. He's in the process of getting out of the park service altogether and going to a job where he'll make half as much money, because he hates it that bad. He was a bit of a downer, but gave good advice and knew his stuff.
The new plan to go to the other playa he recommended would take me out of the park in a different spot than I had originally intended. This meant that I missed most of Death Valley, but wasn't heartbroken as it was friggin' hot and I think I'd seen enough. I left the park and headed into Nevada, into very deserty desert. About 10 miles down the road I saw a playa off to the left. Figuring this was the one he was talking about, I parked Rolly and headed off into the desert by foot. It turned out to be a bit further away than it looked, probably about a half mile or so, and I didn't seen any rocks with tracks. Boo! I saw some ominous-looking clouds off in the near distance so I hurried back to Rolly and moved down the road.
I hadn't made it very far when I came across a much larger playa that was right beside the road. This must have been the one Ranger dude was talking about. I parked Rolly and made my way for some largish-looking rocks in the middle. Sure enough, to much immense delight, there were tracks!!! The were really tough to get pictures of, and I was rushing as the storm was approaching rapidly. But hopefully you'll get the gist. I also got some cool shots of some dust devils kicked up by the storm. It was freaking me out pretty bad so I sprinted back to Rolly and got outta dodge.
The highway that I was on led me directly to Las Vegas. It was never my plan to head there, but I never had much of a plan, so there I was, driving down the freeway beside all the major hotels and casinos. They were really cool to see, everything is so grand and elaborate! Maybe someday I'll actually go and hang out there, but it's not really a place I'd feel like visiting alone, so I kept going.
I checked out Lake Mead, the reservoir held behind the Hoover Dam. I had intended to camp at one of the state parks there for the night, but it's friggin' hot and there are a lot of cheap motels around. I drove in to Boulder City, which is on the outskirts of Vegas, and found a very nice cheap motel with AC and free Wi-Fi, so, here I am. The plan for tomorrow is to visit Hoover Dam and take the tour before moving on to Sedona, Arizona.
I had some complications with the posts last night and wasn't able to put any pictures up then, but I got it all straightened out so you can check them out. Also, I put up a couple new panoramics on Flickr.
View of the Sierra Nevadas from my campsite as the sun rose this morning
One of these is Mt. Whitney
Dunes in Death Valley
I accidentally got one of these bad boys in my big toe as I was walking through the parking lot at Scotty's Castle. I would have taken a picture of it in my toe, but it hurt!
That's hot!
Scotty's Castle
Rock with track
Dust devil
Lake Mead
1 comment:
I am glad it is you there an not me, you tell such a great story that I don't think I could see as much by being there, keep up with the stories and beautiful pictures I can hardley wait to see where you go next Love Dad
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