Day 4 (20 July 2016) - Las Vegas to Death Valley

Introduction

Leaving Las Vegas was hard after three days of unwinding at the venetian and the baking at the pool. The trip to the Grand Canyon has us both familiarised with the car and so the read road journey began in earnest. The drive out to death valley is a well laid out drive. Our route is shown below:

Dante's View

Our first stop was Dante's View the drive to Dante's View was close to four hours but punctuated by very interesting scenery. It is largely desert landscape reminiscent of the moon. Dante's View is view point looking down to the floor of Death Valley below. The photos show the view down from Dante's Peak looking down into Death Valley.

The above photograph is on a stop approaching death valley - it was an information point where we stopped off. Interestingly we picked up a lot of useful information from the stop including a detailed map.

The two pictures above are the view down from Dante's View down into Badwater basic (the lowest point in the US). There are pictures below of the Badwater Basin.

Its difficult for anything to survive but despite the conditions of over 40C heat. There are still plants and small signs of life.

From Dante's View we moved down the road to Zabriske Point. This is largely piles of mineral deposits (borax) that used to be mined using mules. The areas takes on a fantastic look and the colours change around sunset. While we were there by chance it is no worth disrupting your itinerary for.

The area has the 20 mule canyon. All these are trails that you can attempt. Be aware that it is super hot. So be prepared.

Zabriske Point

Badwater Area (devil's golf course)

Once you drive on from Zabriskie Point you approach a fork in the road for the Badwater area. The Badwater basin is the lowest point in the US and possibly the hottest point largely because the hills surrounding the basic form a cauldron of heat concentration.

The center of the badwater basic is about 20 miles from the fork in the road across Death Valley. You can walk to the salt flats  on the basin and its quite an interesting walk but the heat is a real killer and be ready with a lot of water or exhaustion.

Artiste Drive.

Once of the things worth doing is the Artiste's Drive, this is a 9 mile loop through the Badwater area. The road twists and turns goes through dips and rises and is an exciting drive. The drive is a one way road so you can drive through the dips without fear.

One of the more interesting stop along the drive is the Artists palette which are rocks / sand with a variety if different colours largely caused by the mineral deposits. The variety of colours form the artist's pallette.

General Advice for Death Valley

• Make sure you have enough water with you. You will need 4-8 bottles of water per person. If they are cooled it will keep your body temperature down
• Wear a hat, for the follic'ally challenged you definitely need to wear a hat. In my case I tend to soak the hat from inside and then wear it
• There are lots of warning about the sign of heat stroke make sure you read and adhere to it
• Temperatures in Death Valley are in the region of 120F (50C) as norm
• Keep a map - there is very little phone reception in the region. We met a couple without a map and we gave them our tourist map (we took a spare from the information point)