To try and beat the heat today, I left my motel room at 4:45AM. The plan was this would put me at the entrance of Death Valley about sunrise or a little after. The temperature is about 80 degrees not too bad. I do a quick check of the radar and there is this large area of rain moving towards me and my destination. It looks like I will miss most of it so I take off. After all, I'm in the desert, how much can it rain?
I arrive at the entrance and it is still mostly dark. I take my photo and move on.
I am treated to a great lighting show as I continue. Soon the wind and rain arrives. It rains pretty good for 10 minutes. I don't put on rain gear figuring a little moisture now will help cool me later. There are a few spots where the water washes sand/rocks across the road. The roads are wet, I proceed with caution. The descent continues - 4,000 feet to below sea level. As I descend, the temperature rises. However, with the storm and rain, the temperatures are very moderate. The rain stops, the daylight slowly begins to appear. I meet a snowplow in Death Valley; well it is a big truck with a snow blade on it just like a snowplow, but I think the driver is looking for debris that the rain had washed onto the road. It turns out this was the perfect time to visit Death Valley. The temperature was never above 95 degrees. The forecast for later in the day 120+.
I drive out to Bad Water Basin (17 miles one way from the main road). This is the only place in Death Valley that naturally has water. The story is that the water is so bad (salty) that an early explorer's donkey would not even drink it so he named the place Bad Water and it stuck. This is thee lowest place in North America - 283 feet BELOW sea level. They have a sign hung on the side of the mountain at sea level; strange to look up to sea level.
I also do a loop called Artist Drive; the colors of the rocks are amazing. I didn't not expect to see all these colors in Death Valley.
I depart Death Valley and leave California behind for this trip. I head towards Las Vegas and stay north of the city. It is 10:00AM and it is already 100 degrees. How long can I last today? At one point I really get concerned about the temperature. I am watching the read-out on my dash – the temperature just keeps going up. 110, 115, 120, finally 124. I think everything is going to melt down. Suddenly I realize the read-out is not the temperature but actually a mileage counter. Silly me. I change it to the REAL temperature and it is only 104. I feel cooler already. This is the first time I thought 104 was cool! The temperature from about 10:00AM until 2:00PM varies between 100 and 104.
Outside of Las Vegas I did see both unmanned/drone military planes flying as well as 2 fighter jets taking off. Pretty cool.
As I cross Nevada, I go through Area 51 which is known for ET
(Extra Terrestrial) and UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) activity. It is time to stop
for gas. I see these two business side by side. I
decide to stop for some out of this world entertainment! Just kidding.
I also really liked having the CamelBak. It definitely helped keep me cooler and
better hydrated. Too much so
actually. I found out I had to reduce the
amount I drank otherwise I was stopping every 100 miles or so to empty one tank
(bladder) long before the other tank (fuel) needed filling.
Next I leave Nevada for the last time on this trip. I then cross the northwest corner of
Arizona. I think it is less than 50
miles and now I am in Utah.
Around 2:00PM the temperatures start to moderate and
fluctuate. They range from 70 to 100 the
rest of the afternoon depending on altitude and cloud cover.
In Utah, I do a quick drive by many of the National Parks.
Zion (which I actually drove through), Bryce (which is still my favorite!), Grand Staircase - Escalante, and Capital Reef. I did not
stop and take many pictures in these parks as I did that on my trip last
year. If you want to see photos, you can
see my blog from last year at Rettigtrip2014.blogspot.com. I know many will be disappointed that I did not spend
time in each of these wonderful parks. As this trip is about the west coast, AND I
am only passing through due to limited time, AND the fact that I have recently
visited these parks, AND today was about heat management AND putting on miles
to get back home; decisions and trade-offs need to be made.
Here are a few photos from each place:
Bryce:
Grand Staircase:
Capital Reef:
I am spending the night at a campground in Capital Reef National
Park. My tent is under an apricot tree (another first) and I have a great view
of the red rocks in this Park.
Here is my route for the day. I drove in 4 different states today. On this trip do far I have driven 11 states
(in order): Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon,
Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.
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