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We have mentioned 'The Bucket List' a few times on this trip. We all know that the bucket list has degrees of "need to do". On this trip Dealey Plaza in Dallas and Pike's Peak were MUST tick destinations. Today, however, we ticked one of the things that has been on our list for a while but was one we wouldn't have minded missing out on.
In 2009 we toured the USA on our red Triumph Sprint ST (fondly known as The Pommie Ducati). We had planned on riding through Death Valley but the weather was so hot we decided not to. Today, in our air-conditioned blue Toyota Yaris we decided Death Valley was back on the agenda.
We checked out of Bally/Paris about 9am and headed out of Vegas. Who knows if we will ever return, we never say never! The road out of town was very quiet - everyone must have been sleeping in. Our GPS was set for west through Pahrump not far from the California border. We soon came across the sign that told us we were now in Death Valley National Park.
At first we wondered what the big deal was but as we closed in on Furnace Creek we got a better idea of this area. We stopped at Zabriske Point and followed a crowd of people up a winding path to a lookout. The views were spectacular and the information boards told us that the area was once the site of Borax mining. Not long after leaving the lookout we came across a sign that told us that the elevation was Sea Level. From that sign on it was all down hill with minus 76m below sea level the lowest point we reached; how did we know I hear you ask? We had set one of the GPS settings to show us elevation - aren't we clever?
We stopped at The Furnace Creek Visitor's Centre and paid our National Park fee and read some of the information about Death Valley. The lowest point in Death Valley is at Badwater Basin which is 86m below sea level and is the lowest point in North America. Death Valley is officially the hottest place on Earth. It holds the world record for hottest air temperature at 57 degrees Celsius - thankfully today was only 35 degrees Celsius at its hottest. Death Valley is also the driest place in the USA, an average of less than 5 cm of rain per year with some years having no rain at all.
Now that we had a better understanding of what the fuss was about we got back in the car and headed toward Stovepipe Wells. We got a cold drink and checked out the store (the first one we had seen since leaving Vegas). Our next stop was Panamint, but we didn't stop as the only thing going on there was a large tent set up for a wedding and we didn't want to crash it!
We finally set the GPS for Ridgecrest a town on the edge of the desert, our destination for the night. First however we came to the town of Trona - if this town pulled down every abandoned building it would probably classify as a ghost town.
Ridgecrest, thankfully is much better maintained and we have a great room at the Quality Inn in town.
The landscape today was definitely desert. The mountains on either side of the road were stoney and rugged but very beautiful at the same time. We saw cactus, sand-dunes, rocky peaks and I'm sure we saw a few tumble-weeds. Some of the mountains had ominous names such as The Funeral Ranges but others were called The Rainbow Ranges.
Death Valley is a place we will possibley not get back to but we are very glad to have visited.
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