From Death Valley to Las Vegas

To beat the heat in Death Valley, we decide to get up very early in the morning. So we set our alarm clock for 4am to leave at 5. We still have about 1 hour and a half before we can reach the Valley.

This is a little picture of the motel where we stayed, near the entrance of the park in Olancha.

The early morning drive is beautiful. We see all shades of red, orange and yellow as the sun is slowly coming up.

By 6.30 we reach Death Valley. It is already 98 F (36 C). The first stop is around the Sand Dunes.

Death Valley is full of natural resources and precious metals. Early on, many tried to set up mining operations to find gold. Not always very successful. One very successful operation that took place for a while was to extract Borax, or sodium borate. It is a component of many detergents, cosmetics. The operation was done by the 20 Mule Team which also became known as a brand of soap later on.

We visit an area called Zabriskie Point that is somewhat famous because of various movies or culture references. In any case, it’s quite a sight.

Death Valley is filled with areas where you see different colors due to the different minerals that are present in the ground. This particular one is called Artist Point.

After driving South for a while, we reach an area called Badwater Basin which is the lowest point in North America.

Eventually we reached the end of the Valley and the eastern entrance to the park. If you look close, you will see that we are all pretty crushed by the heat. It’s 43 celsius (110F)

We reach Shoshone where we make a quick stop for food and gas. Evidently others were not so lucky! We also visit a small museum telling the history of the area.