Today began in Pahrump, Nevada. We actually entered CA again twice today!
In Pahrump we enjoyed another continental breakfast with lots of options that made everyone happy. We were happy to leave Pahrump though. Emma and I kept saying "Pahrump-pa-pa-pump" like the drummer boy...we made sure no locals heard us!
On our way to Death Valley! I'll do my best to recap without a map (well, just brought up a google one...) because Sean just went to yet another casino. They're local so why not? We entered in on 190 heading to Furnace Creek. We stopped at Zabriskie Point to look around first, did a small hike of about 1/2 mile. It was already about 100 degrees there. Headed in to Furnace Creek to the visitor center where we got the park pass for the windshield (we got a National Parks annual pass at The Grand Canyon to use pretty much everywhere...it's awesome!). Enjoyed some air conditioning and made some PB and nutella sandwiches and then headed out with a cooler full of water.
We backtracked a little to go down Artist Drive to do the Artist palette loop. It was beautiful! All different colors littered the mountain sides! Amazing! Schuyler didn't like when Sean was interpreting the science behind it - trying to figure out what compounds/minerals were there to cause the colors. He felt that took away from the beauty, which I find funny because he likes science so much! Both kids were pretty hot by this point and were wilting quickly. And we all thought I would have the worst time of it! Wrong! I totally sucked it up, man!
Then we headed back up 190 and the Beatty cutoff road to take us back in to Nevada and the ghost town of Rhyolyte. We met a charming man there running the museum who carves wooden flutes! I desperately wanted one but they were much much too expensive. They had a sound quality that amazed me, with a tone that was almost sadness. Not only do I covet other people's houses...
We walked a bit in Rhyolyte (It was only 98.5 degrees there) to see the ghost town. Literally a ghost town. Most of the buildings have come down, all in various stages of falling down. The exception is the house made of glass bottles. That was awesome! I wish we had been there when someone could give us a tour of it!
At this point I asked Emma what her thoughts were. This is what she said: "I'd like to live simply like this, without all the politics and big words, but also without this heat." Well said, my child.
Then all the way back down 374 and past Stovepipe Wells Village. Stopped for the sand dunes. They were awesome. It was 115 degrees here and we hiked out on to the dunes (me being extremely cautious of snakes!). Emma ended up needing a lift because the sand was literally burning her. They were impressive! Just big dunes with dust devils randomly in the middle of the salt flats and steep mountains. And SO HOT! You cannot actually fathom 115 degrees until you actually feel it. That's in the shade! The sun makes it even hotter. The placard there said the animals face 200 degrees, so that's likely the temp of the sand (and why it literally burned our feet). Crazy!
Took 190 back out of Death Valley (so we literally went in, out, and across!) which was also a little treacherous at times, but beautiful. I can't even explain the beauty here, you just have to come and see for yourself, feel it, see it, smell it. Well, don't breath deeply near the rest areas because those were portapotties in the hot sun...but otherwise...!
After leaving Death Valley we headed out to Lone Pine for some supper as we were famished (a running theme on this trip, apparently). Carls Jr. was there and sounded good. They provided a comment card on the table so Emma decided we'd better fill that out. So I had her do it and she proceeded to interview us on our experience and our food. It was pretty comical. On the road again, hotel reservations in Bishop, CA.
But first, a wild fire on the highway! Sitting on 295 just shy of Big Pine, with the van turned off in a long line of traffic - Big Pine was under a voluntary evacuation after last September a wild fire swept through here and took several homes with it. Fortunately we only waited about 1/2 hour on the highway before CHP let us through one lane at a time. It was mostly contained, but through there it's mountains on both sides of the highway with not much in between, and the fire had consumed much of the west side of the highway, jumped the southbound land, ate up a good part of the median, and had also jumped the northbound lane in two spots. Tons of fire trucks and ambulances present, they were still hosing things down as we went through, and our van got sprayed in the process. That was a little surreal..and scary to be so close. Grateful we made reservations though because when we got here there were no vacancies, due to a class reunion and the voluntary evacuation. We're in Bishop, about 1/2 hour north of the fire so we are safe here, and if anything did happen we'd have plenty of time to be warned and evacuate.
We are all pretty grateful to be heading home. It's been a long, exhausting trip. Tomorrow it's just Yosemite and homeward bound! We might get in late, but at least we know the roads and we know what's there to meet us!
We met a guy traveling with his family from France who had just done pretty much the same trip we just did, heading into SF so we gave him some ideas of where to go. Pretty funny! He said next time we should talk to a travel agent in France because they know all the coolest places to go in America. Too funny!
Total miles today : again forgot to look, but when we got gas in Lone Pine we had gone 243 miles today.
Too much water, diet coke, tea, juice boxes to even fathom a tally.
A jar of Jif and a jar of Nutella bit the dust though.
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