Death Valley

  Death Valley National Park, California, United States
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

July 9, from Bishop to Death Valley

Sunny 30°C/86°F-35°C/95°F in the morning and 53°C/128°F in the afternoon

We slept poorly! Frans was awake from 03.30 and I finished sleeping at 04.00. So we killed time by playing Nintendo, reading, watch television, till 05.45, a good time to call my brother. At his place it was 14.45 in the afternoon, so he was very awake too! Afterwards our morning routine and at 06.30 we walked in at Denny's. The biggest advantage of Denny's is, is that it is open 24 hours a day, so they always have a nice breakfast to serve and that is very pleasant when you're already awake for some time. Today I didn't think of calories or diets: pan cakes! Frans, who never thinks of any diet or whatsoever orders French toast with Bacon. After we left Denny's we stopped briefly at Starbucks for a WCM-to-go as we went further south.

Alabama Hills

We followed highway 395 to Lone Pine were we took a road to the right, direction mt Whitney. Before we made the trip up to the mountain, we just made another small trip to the right, concerning an unpaved road, through an area called Alabama Hills. This is a particular capricious piece rock landscape, really beautiful. There are a number of arches among one which as a result of looking through you should be able to see mt. Whitney. But first you have to take a walking route to this arch and at the moment we were there, this route which is not short and very sandy was also bading in the full sun. It was already 38°C/100°F and we know when to stop! That was at the beginning of the walking path to the arch, so we turned around, drove out the Alabama Hills and went on to drive up the mountain; on to Mt. Whitney.

Whitney falls

At the top of the road called Whitney Portal we first buy a coffee at a little store of course. Near that store there is also a water, a kind of very little lake, filled with trout. Some people were fishing here, but that is of course no performance or good sport, with so much fish that can't go anywhere. Crossing the parking lot we came to a lovely waterfall. We tested it on temperature and it is very, very, very cold. But the air temperature here is very pleasant. We were told that 6 bears are living in the area, but we never saw one track of any of them. We stayed for an hour and then slowly returned down the mountain. The panoramas are again splendid. At half past eleven we continued on the 395, again further direction south.

When we pass Owens Lake on the right-hand side, we finally leave the 395. The word Lake is a bit strongly put, because most of the water is gone, leaving only salt behind. We drive on the 190 into Death Valley till the junction with the 136. Instead of driving further into Death Valley, we went North for only a few miles to a place called Keeler. At Keeler we turned right to continue on an unpaved road. We already drove unpaved roads before, like this morning at Alabama Hills without problems, so we didn't expect problems here. We wanted to drive into the mountains to Cerro Gordo to visit the same named ghost town. For clarity: unpaved! But this is much more unpaved as we expected. After 10 miles we apologize to our car, expressed our admiration for its performance but released it from a very hard drive by returning to the main road. It is really a nice route to drive but only by 4x4's !

At the bottom of the mountain we took the 190, Death Valley in to Stovepipe Wells were our hotel for the night is located. Meanwhile the outside air temperature is 53°C/128°F. As we got out of the car, we had the feeling that we were ambushed by a hundred blowdryers at maximum capacity. So we flee into our hotel room to cool down and also trying to catch up with some sleep we didn't enjoy last night. At half past five we took a brave attempt to run to the shop which was really nearby. This run took about less than 5 minutes, but we barely survived! You can feel the sun burn on all skin which isn't protected by clothes. At six o'clock we take the short route (2 minutes) to the saloon. This is a very nice bar with a jukebox and a pool table where we drink some wine while waiting 'till we can have dinner. At half past six we walk through a little corridor in the building and enter the restaurant where we both have a delicious steak. We've eaten these in a bit of high speed because we really want to see the sunset at the nearby Sand Dunes. At a quarter past seven we arrive at the Sand Dunes, which are only a few minutes drive from Stovepipe Wells.

Sand Dunes

We made our way through the sand to reach the dunes and this is, although it is extremely hot, very rewarding. Splendid colors and a superb sunset. The temperature has meanwhile fallen a bit to 50°C/122°F therefore it is still very warm! We took our time to enjoy this moment.
Back at the hotel we decided to cool down in the swimming pool. Strangely that a swimming pool with a temperature like a comfortable bath suddenly feels cool.... Unfortunately the cool feeling doesn't stay as we walked back to our room, because it is still 50 C outside, but the room is nicely cold, so after a shower we take our wine and fall in a welldeserved deep sleep.

Sunset in Death Valley

Today we have driven 190 miles with the car.