Blogs from Death Valley National Park, California, United States, North America - page 9

Death Valley today. It was hot, hot, hot. About 37 degrees in the middle of a salt pan desert and not a bit of shade. It sits about 90 metres below sea level and is hot and dry. They average about 1 1/2inches of rain a year. And people still want to live around here. Not for us.... read more

Sunday 3rd August The next day I thought by running at 7am the heat wouldn't be too bad. After running 2miles I was exhausted and out of water, which was not good and had to walk back feeling very thirsty and realising how harsh the desert conditions really are. Back at the ranch I cooled down with a dip in the pool which we had to ourselves. Even Gra was swimming every 10 mins as the heat outside rose rapidly. By 12 midday we had to retreat to the air conditioned car. However, before we left the ranch I went to get a picture of what I thought was just a pretend ranch, but was actually a mock town with wild west shows, shops, train rides and even a petting zoo with animals from a Canadian ... read more

The wind will not stop. Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by ... read more

After seeing the layout of Hoover Dam last night we knew we wanted to take an early tour and get ahead of the crowds. We were there by 7:30 am (it opens at 9:00am). There was plenty of parking! Nevada is the warmest place we’ve been on the trip. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was hot. We took our time and walked the top of the dam (next to the road) down to the tour site (at least a half mile). Homeland Security operates road inspection stations in both states. RV’s are always stopped. They did a quick once over of CT and waved us through. I’m sure the chaos inside CT does not fit a terrorist profile. Another highway is being built to bypass the top of the dam.. They expect to be completed ... read more

The initial plan, thwarted by weather, would have seen Day 2 of the ride running South from SE Oregon, through Nevada into Death Valley. Instead, from Red Bluff, California, the route to Death Valley would be SE via Reno and along the Western diagonal of the Nevada border. This is where the high wind warning was in effect for severe crosswinds. Instead the plan was to run south to Bakersfield, then over the South shoulder of the Sierras and NE to Death Valley. The long way around. I-5 and Hwy 99 run basically parallel down the length of California. A navigation error occured when I chose 99 over I-5 south of Stockton. Thinking it would be more interesting seeing more towns and the bread-basket of America, instead I found the main artery for truck traffic in ... read more