Death Valley

After Zion, we drove down to Vegas to spend the night. We spent it at a standard overnight hotel, I think a Holiday Inn Express. For Vegas it was weird. No poker machines, no flashing lights, no casino. From our window we could see the strip which felt like some weird distopian environment, was quite odd.

The next morning we headed off towards Death Valley. The GPS routed us back through Vegas because it obviously loved the place. We got out of there eventually, heading west on the 95. Past Creech Air Force Base where I got to watch a drone take off, so I can cross that off the list.

We pulled in at the Area 51 Alien Centre, which I thought was just a servo. And the front is. The back is a brothel, which begs the question what do people who go to the Area 51 Alien Centre expect when they pay for sex? There were some very odd questions in my head when we were there.

We then headed south and down into Death Valley. I don't know why I wanted to go to Death Valley, I'm the first to admit, there is not a lot there and it was very warm. Just like being out at site over Summer. Altitude was not a problem though which was nice.

For those who didn't know. Death Valley is the lowest place on earth above sea water. It's actually about 85m below sea level. At Badwater (the lowest place) there is a sign up on a cliff showing you where sea level is. So any water that gets in there, can't flow away. This isn't usually a problem because there isn't a lot of water anyway. It also holds the record for the hottest place on the planet - 56.7C in 1913 (134F for those on the odd temperature scale)

Years ago, there was a surprising amount of industry there. Lots of weird minerals collect in the salt, so there were multiple borax mines where folks would scrape off the crystals, take them back to the plant where they'd be boiled, treated and crystals would be allowed to form and that would be the borax. As an indication ow hot it got, over summer they'd stop processing because the water wouldn't cool enough to let the borax crystalise out.

Naturally, being so inhospitable, it has a golf course and a resort. I honestly question why you would want to go there. It has a lot of trails, each trail has a warning sign telling you to carry extra water and be finished by 10am. It's just not a friendly place.

Was a nice spot to visit and some spectacular views on the way out as well.