Day 5 (21 July 2016) - Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells Village to Yosemite National Park

Introduction

We ended our Death Valley trip at Stovepipe Wells Village with a night swim. This was an amazingly cooling experience swimming under the stars. Stovepipe is limited in size and right in the middle of Death Valley. The plan for day five was to end up in Yosemite National Park. Before the drive we covered the sand dunes near the Stovepipe Well Village.

Mesquite Sand Dunes

The Mesquite Sand Dunes are about one mile from Stovepipe Wells Village. we had to back track on ourselves as we should have covered these the previous day. The sand dunes look spectacular but are a deceptively long distance away. We did not walk all the way there given the long day ahead. The scenery is spectacular as you can see from the picture below. 

Getting to Yosemeti

The drive was a long one. While the map says four hours it inevitably takes longer with breaks, traffic and general road conditions. We planned to stop off at a few places

Our route was through the Panamint Mountains which lift you out of Death Valley and toward the Inyo National Forest. The route over the Panamint Mountains is an amazing drive, its scenic with deep curves in the road with long period where the road inclines are never ending. These are followed by break burning downhills. The drive is well worth the experience with the vast majority of the route out of Death Valley on barren steep hills and the descent toward the Inyo National Forest noticeably dropping the temperatures. As you get further away from Death Valley you notice the Inyo National Forest peaks still have sprinkles of snow. The temperature here is much more bearable and distinctly lacks the burn of the Death Valley sun. The picture below give you a sample of the drive up and out of Death Valley.

Drive to Yosemite : Mammoth Lakes and the Devil's Post Pile Monument.

The road out of Death Valley terminates where it meets the 395. You take the 395 north which leads you all the way up to the top (north east corner) of Yosemite. But we took a detour to the Mammoth Lakes to drive the lakes and see the devil's post pile monument. Access to the monument is from Mammoth Lakes where you park your car and then buy tickets to the park where a bus system takes you around the point in the park. We arrived late (after 4) but there are cable cars operate to take you to the top the surrounding peaks. These a ski lifts which in the summer double as tourist attractions.

Pictures below are from the Devil's Post Pile monument.

 Take the detour if you have plenty of time in the region. There are a bunch of interesting lakes and views that are worth taking. Getting you the Devil's post pile is a couple of hours effort waiting for buses and the short hike needed to get to the rocks.

Yosemite Valley

We reached Yosemite late at night so it was pretty much straight to sleep.