Death Valley & arrived Las Vegas

Hello everyone,

We got up at 5.30am in 3 degree Yosemite, packed up in the dark and checked out. Then we set off as the sun was rising. We could see the beautiful views along the way that we missed on Saturday night when we drove in.

We drove for a few hours and then stopped in Bakersfield. Along the way we cringed at some of the lame freeway ads and radio ads. Every second billboard on the freeway seems to be a personal injury lawyer. One on the radio advertised an upcoming festival and said they had a jumping castle for the kids and a shooting range for the adults. ‘Murica!

We bought a sandwich to take on the road in Bakersfield as well as a (not very good) coffee and some (delicious) cookies. As we continued along, the contrast in landscapes couldn’t have been more enormous. We started the day in the cold forest surrounded by tall, lush trees and snow covered mountain peaks. Before long the landscape became a desert with wildflowers up on the hills and the temperature rose to 30 degrees. We saw salt lakes and train lines with huge freight trains trundling along. We’ve been really surprised at the absence of rest stops and toilets along the freeways here so far. At home they’re every few kilometres. Eventually here we had to stop by the road to go to the toilet and get changed. Not ideal but what else could we do?!

Shortly before arriving in Death Valley we passed through possibly the most depressing town we’ve ever seen, called Trona. It looked like a zombie apocalypse had swept through. All the buildings were boarded up and falling down except for about five churches and a few houses. It was in the middle of nowhere and was really creepy!! Upon a Google search it looks like it used to be a town housing mine workers which had a population of 7000, and then the mine closed. So there you go!

Eventually after ascending and descending a mountain range we reached Death Valley and paid for our national park permit. From this point on the roads improved and there were toilets aplenty, as the national park service manages this area. We went from sea level, to 4000 feet above sea level to 100 feet below it, our ears popped a lot today! Apparently the park is the lowest in North America, and also one of the hottest places on Earth.

We drove through the valley and stopped briefly at Golden Canyon, Badwater Basin and Artist’s Palette. All the visits were very short as the wind was disgusting. It smacked hot air and dust right in your face. It’s easy to see how the park got its name. We got out to walk a little at the Artist’s Palette area and it was vile, so we conceded defeat and mostly looked at it from the car. The landscape was really impressive. Dad tells me that when we visited here in 2005 there was a rare “super bloom” event and there were wildflowers everywhere. We saw a few today but not nearly that many. One of the early photos on this post shows some orange wildflowers on some hills.

We then drove on, entering the state of Nevada and reaching Las Vegas 1.5 hours later. Rob wanted a photo at the “welcome to fabulous Las Vegas” sign, so we stopped. You should have seen the queue! Instead of waiting in it, we walked to the side and got a photo. I’m astounded people would waste all that time for a silly photo.

We drove to our hotel, Excalibur. It’s a giant castle. There was a lot of traffic around due to an ice hockey game being on here tonight. We found a carpark and headed inside to check in. The lady gave us a discount on parking and we are pretty sure she upgraded our room and waived a resort fee we were meant to pay. I had written on each booking for this trip that this was our honeymoon. Gotta beat inflation whatever way you can at the moment haha! Anyway, we have a view of the Luxor and city lights, and two king beds and lots of space.

We had dinner in the casino food court as we were tired. Amongst the endless burger and fried chicken places, we found an Asian style place that did noodles, various chicken and beef and VEGETABLES - a rare find over here! We've learned quickly to share meals and drinks here as even the smaller sized meals are huge. You'll see in the photo of Rob at the end he is drinking a "small" soda - plenty for us both! It saves us a bit of money and fills us up anyway. We then shared a cinnabon for dessert which was delicious.

Before heading back to the room, we went to a show booking desk and Rob asked about 'Blue Man Group'. The lady started telling us a deal too good to be true before telling us "all we had to do" was spend two hours at a time share place tomorrow. No, thank you! We went back to our room and bought our own tickets online instead.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox

PS: Photos are now up for today and the last two days now that we have wifi.