Death Valley and below sea level

---

From mountains to deserts we drove for miles encountering salt lakes with volcanoe sulphurs steaming from the lake and weird landscapes with fossilised trees and strange rock formations dotted along the shore line. The backdrop behind was of high mountains with snow capped peaks and a cloudless sky. Every twist and turn of the road gave way to yet another vast expanse of water of mountain range towering above our heads as we navigated ourselves south towards Death valley National Park. The winds were dangerously hgh and the ay before the road had been closed so we were lucky to be able to drive through the passes. We wondered about staying at Lone Pine for the night but decided it looked too lonesome and rather a one man town so we decided to drive into the park and chance our luck on finding accomodation at Stove pipe Wells Hotel right in the middle of the park. we had a good three hours of light eft so literally drove into the sunset!
Never did 50 miles seem so long, the road twisted and rolled on forever, into one crator and then up the otherside and then down another! The rock colours changed as the sun set and at times looked like they were on fire. The colours mixed together looked like an artists paint palette and cast shadows and shapes on the rocks. It was a beautiful drive and most memorable. Strange to think we were driving lower and lower below sea level.
StovePipe Wells was a welcome sight and fortunately they had rooms they even had a pool....bizarre really when you were in the middle of the desert. Needless to say the boys were not long getting in and cooling down, I even had a dip!
After a hearty breakfast and a large application of suncream we set off for the sand dunes and the middle of no where! The boys enjoyed some dune jumping and we were fascinated with the dried sand beds with obscure tortoise shell patterns laid out in the sand.
From here we drove on further and followed the dried lake road along side rich coloured rocks of red and orange and ddp bronze. The lake snaked o for miles and gave the impression o being covered in a dusting of snow. We walked out for about 1/2 a mile stepping over crisp deposits of salt made in ever decreasing circles. We still managed to go even lower too. the fourth lowest point on earth below sea level.
From lows to highs, we drove up to Dantes View and could se for miles as the lake stretched out in front of us. Then on the otherside the snow capped mountains of Telescope Peaks towered high above the valley. The hot and the cold very strange.
Time was on our side so headed for Las vegas and managed to drive our way out of the Valley in plenty of time to reach Vegas in the day light, which was just aswell as we did not have a clueas to where we were going inorder to find our hotel amidst four lanes of traffic Seb was fantastic and managed brilliantly. Who needs SAT NAV?
So with the night a head we settled into our Motel 6 room and rested before walking the strip............ Not sure where I found the energy...? Still more later.

---