Woke to a lovely cool desert morning so breakfast on the patio with that mountains and desert view to look at.
After a chat to,our neighbours we were off again en route to Death Valley. So much of what we drove through was like Oman, apart from the Joshua Trees.
Death Valley National Park extends well beyond Death Valley itself. We first passed through Pinnaamints Valley, flat and hot and with some sand dunes...
And then into Stovepipe Wells which was the original toursi centre for Death Valley. Now it consists of a general store and a motel, but it's a neat looking place and would have been a good stop over.
Then came the exciting bit! We drove to Furnace Creek, the present heart of Death Valley National Park, with a great visitors centre and exhibition. And from there we headed south into the valley itself. We were already well below sea level at this point...
..but we were heading for Badwater, the lowest place in the North America at -282ft. It's just a car park and a marker, but you are right beside a huge salt flat, which was firm enough to walk on. So, equipped with water and hats we walked out into the 44 degree heat.
Later we were to be right at the top of these hill tops looking down
We then headed back up the 17 miles to Furnace Creek and then turned east again to drive to Zabrinksies Point, a lookout over some more amazing landscapes
And then we drove south to Dantes View, some 6000ft directly above Badwater, where we could look down on the salt flats we had just walked across, and look out across the whole of Death Valley
After that we headed east again, and apart from a petrol stop we drove right into Las Vegas and to our apartment for the next week, just off the famous Las Vegas Boulevard or The Strip as it is called.
