Friday, May 22, 2009

Day 35: Las Vegas NV to Death Valley CA

Thursday, May 21
Las Vegas, NV to Death Valley, CA
Odometer Begin: 112,624
Miles traveled: 156
Time spent traveling: 2 hours
Other: Feet below sea level today; 282
Wx: sunny high 90s to 111 F.
States traveled: NV, CA

Early wake up again. 6 am after going to bed at 12:30 am! We left Las Vegas and made our way to Death Valley National Park. To say it was a hot day is an understatement! The Badwater salt flats is 282 feet below sea level and usually is the hottest place on earth. It did not disappoint at a whopping 111 degrees! Our plan was to do a little hiking, not much, 4 miles but it was too hot so we drove around and looked at the colors and then drove to the other side of the valley to go up in elevation and down in temperature to Thorndike Campground. It is a free campground at about 7900 feet above sea level. It was much cooler and even chilly at night. Amazing place.
Death Valley

2 comments:

  1. Oooo. Death Valley's cooool... The torquoise-colored rock throws it into crazy-land. I wanna come. Hey, who used the charcoal kilns?

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  2. If I remember correctly they made the charcoal and then trucked it over to the silver mines to use it in smelting. The kilns were only used for a short time but have been restored twice as historic artifacts.

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