Blogs from Death Valley National Park, California, United States, North America - page 10

Traversée du desert et des sites naturels existants sur la cote Ouest...... read more

Our last day in the states for a while.. we're at a library somewhere in southern california, we've been to 11 states, and tonight we're dropping off the car in Yuma... then we'll try to get down to mexico somehow, JIPPY! no pics this time, can't plug in any disc here, so we'll put in plenty later. anyway, we're still alive, almost froze to death the other night, but now we're both getting pink and nice in the 40C sun... This is an TOP FIVE american road-loving-things list: 1. Signs. Plenty of signs. plenty of unneccisary signs, and never one when you really need one. 2. Cars. everybody has to have atleast 3 cars, and for the native americans, everybody HAS TO HAVE 10 cars. 3. VERY thin coffee... almost like hot water that someones kinda ... read more

After waking at Matt and Crystal's in LA to aforementioned pancakes (and Jenny being lovingly woken by Mia the dog sneezing in her face...more fun than an alarm clock!) it took a while to leave the tentacles of Los Angles behind. First there was the obligatory trip to Rodeo drive, where we felt appallingly undergroomed, but then decided we were just stars going incognito - then we contended with the freeways stretching out in every direction, with more and more suburbs and developments - but we managed it at last, and made it through the rows of identical lego houses and into the Mojave desert. The scenery was stunning yet again, amazing and beautifully coloured rock formations pushing up out of the dry scrub and dirt. As we traversed the desert the sprawling hills were like ... read more

It's time to leave this mad place and head north west to Yosemite, however we didn't make it! We had decided to drive through Death Valley, the lowest point in the States, something like -200 metres below sea level. The valley is long and dry with a large salt flat in the middle and was indeed very warm even for winter. Unfortunately we found out that we couldnt drive through the north of the valley, and also that all the mountain passes across Yosemite were closed, oh dear. So instead of spending the rest of the night driving, we followed the long diversion south and stayed in Bakersfield for the night.... read more

Today we headed into Death Valley from Beatty. Death Valley is a long expanse of scorched earth, big rock formations, sand dunes, and salt planes all surrounded by a long strip of mountain ranges on each side. It is one of the hottest places on earth and has the second hottest recorded temperature in the world: 57 degrees C in July 1913. In July the average high temperate is 46 degrees Celsius and in January is 18 degrees C. The reason why the valley gets so hot is to do with the geography. For a start it is extremely dry, as the moisture in the air moving towards the valley precipates completely by the time it gets there as it travels over a number of mountains. The second reason is that being surrounded by mountains, the ... read more

Planning for our trip...that is what we have been doing lately. We have made so many changes to our itinerary already, and are still trying to figure out airfare. We want our trip to remain spontanious, but also want to spend as little money as possible on tickets and transportation. As I am writing this, I am actually sitting in an i-net cafe nestled right at the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. My husband is climbing Mt. Whitney, the tallest Mt. in the contiguous United States! He stared this morning at 3am, and hopes to be done by 3pm. There is snow up there though, which could slow him down (I made him rent some cramp-ons yesterday...just to ease my mind). So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to set up our travel blog instead of ... read more