We decided to have just a bit of a sleep in since it is going to be a long day. We made sure to have a hearty breakfast before saying goodbye to Las Vegas and starting the second part of our California Road Trip. Liam decided to join us in the car today. Before actually leaving Las Vegas, we stopped in at Albertsons to get provisions. There is not much in Death Valley National Park and so we wanted to make sure we had lots and lots of water and snacks. Also there is basically no cell phone service in the park.
During our planning, we decided on five must see locations with the first one being Dantes View. It is a breathtaking viewpoint that is over 5000 feet above Death Valley. Actually parts of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was filmed there.
The three of us arrived there and were surprised that Dave, Cathy and Michael were not there since they were ahead of us. All of a sudden, we got a couple of texts from Cathy explaining that they had stopped to help at a rollover car accident. Lucky for the two guys that Dave is a volunteer fire fighter and was able to take control of the situation until help arrived.
We left Dantes View and headed to our second must see location Zabriskie Point. It is a vista of golden coloured badlands. It is a quarter of a mile walk up a paved path to the actual viewpoint. The only person who made it to the top was Cathy. We made a quick pit stop at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to get the America the Beautiful National Park Pass.
Next up was Badwater Basin a surreal landscape of vast salt flats. It is also the lowest point in North America at two hundred and eighty two feet below sea level. If you look up on the cliffs of Black Mountain, you will see a sign high above indicating where sea level is. We were here for only a few minutes because the temperature was 114°F.
We decided to skip the Artists Drive and head directly to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. I had all of these grand plans that we would head out to the dunes and explore. By the time we got there, we were all tired and so we just took a few photos and decided it was time to head to the hotel. The drive to the Creekside Inn ($202.34 USD) in Bishop, California took us two and half hours and we arrived just before 10:00pm.
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