Tuesday, 26 August 2008
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Summer road trip 2008 - Nevada desert and Death Valley
Summer Road trip 2008 to Northwest USA and Canada
Trip duration: 15 days (May 9th to 23rd)
Total distance: 9000km/5560miles
Day 7 - Nevada Desert & Death Valley
Day 7 afternoon, I traveled west from Zion National Park in Utah, across the Nevada Deserts towards Las Vegas.
Dry, arid, HOT.
A field of toothpick for giant creatures... Isn't it strange how humans made a forest of electricity poles with dead trees out in the middle of the desert?
This was as close to Vegas as I got. I drove on the north Vegas highway by-pass and went right around it. Along the way (starting from southern Utah) there were so many signs telling me to go visit Vegas. But, I'm weird, so I didn't. I was excited by the prospect of going to Death Valley instead!
Bye bye, Vegas, tempt me later.
Past Vegas I headed northwest along the foothills. There were road signs around this area saying "Hitch hiking is illegal, federal prisons near-by" or something scary like that. Awesome, it reminds me of the phrase "Sin city" and the fact that the USA have the highest per-capita prisoner rates.
How, extremely, boring. I wish I could go 200mph here xD
My GPS got totally lost, she wanted me to go on some unpaved gravel road into Death Valley.
Entering Death Valley National Park. For those who didn't know, Death Valley is the lowest, driest, and hottest valley in the USA. It is 282 ft below sea level and holds the 2nd hottest ever recorded temperature in the world.
Being so extra dry, it also means the air is crystal clear. Lovely.
Battered. It reminds me of old dried up cowboys with their extra wrinkly faces.
If that little plant had a choice, would it want to be born here or by the coast where living is so much easier?
This is a view of the Valley itself. The entrance of the park from the east is about 4000 ft above sea level. So it's a continuous drop of about 4000 ft. Interestingly, every 500 ft I dropped the temperature went up by about 1C.
It was starting to get so hot that, not only was I sweating, but the liquid of my eyeballs started evaporating...
Just to show that I was there :P Looking at this picture reminds me of the burning air inside my lungs...
This MINI's been to +42C and -40C. Go MINI go :D Snow, dirt, highways, mountains, deserts. I <3 you.
The plants were barely living. The world was still, quiet. The only movements were the shadows creeping ever longer, awaiting the sunset.
The hottest recorded temperature in my MINI Cooper, ever :D It is not even close to the Death Valley record of 56.7C, however.
It gives me a renewed appreciation for all the explorers who found out new places and transverse such difficult terrains. This place is called Death Valley for a reason. It really is rather easy to die here as a human.
Even the plants themselves seem only like shells, waiting for the once-a-year rain. Life for them seems to be mostly sleep with a big orgy party in between.
It was so hot I could smell the asphalt. I drove the car rather slowly, although it didn't show signs of overheating, the engine did sound slightly strained.
Sunset over Death Valley
It was fun, watching the huge shadow of the mountain engulf the whole valley in a couple minutes.
It was also fun feeling my eyes water and feeling the moisture boiling off every pore of my skin.
I chased the sunset to the west
The end of a day I won't soon forget
The moon quietly swoons
Over motionless sand dunes
Death watched over by silvery moon
Life, merely temporary...
We'll all fade soon
Motionless sand dunes
I exited the valley through the west exit, which climbs about 7000 ft in a few miles. An absolutely fun experience as the road rose and dipped so much that I almost caught air a couple times in the MINI :D The road then winded over the Panamint mountain range. Awesome fun at night xD Vroom Vroom.
A moonlit shot over the Panamint Valley and mountain ranges
And that concludes day 7. Up next, CALIFORNIA! Sequoia National Forest, Monterey, San Francisco
Go back to previous road trip entries....
Day 1: Montana
Day 2: West Yellowstone
Day 3: Yellowstone National Park 1
Day 3: Yellowstone National Park 2
Day 4: Yellowstone/Salt Lake City
Day 5: Salt Lake City
Day 5: Arches National Park
Day 5: Canyonlands National Park
Day 6: Capitol Reefs National Park
Day 6: Bryce Canyon National Park
Day 7: Cedar Breaks National Monument / Zion National Park
Day 7: Nevada desert and Death Valley
Day 8: Central California and Giant Sequoia National Monument
Day 8: Monterey California sunset
Day 9: San Francisco Sunrise panoramas and wallpaper
Day 9: San Francisco downtown Part 1 of 2
Day 9: San Francisco downtown Part 2 of 2
Day 10: Alcatraz, San Francisco
Day 11: California Coastal Redwoods
Day 11: Northern California Coasts
Day 12: Oregon and Washington
Day 12: Wayne's house
Day 13: Pike Place Market, Seattle
Day 13: Vancouver sunset and night shots
Day 14: Interior BC and Squilax Hostel
Day 15: Suqilax Hostel and Alberta
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Comments (21)
Great Post. Awesome pics! I've spent time in most of those locales, but that was pre-wife & pre-kids, LOL. Cheers.
very nice photos (:
though you shouldn't show your car license plate..
@azn_x_strike - I don't see what the big deal is, you can see all the car's license plates on the road anyway. What are you gonna do with it :P
I'm less afraid of strangers on the net than someone outside my house with a knife or a gun.....
I love the stark contrast of the the sand dunes' smoothness against the rough background. there's something so unreal, so creamy, so oasis-like about it. mm-hmmm.
@absurdlyHANdaft - yeah, that's my favorite picture as well from this set :)
@XtremePsionic - but those strangers on the net can become the people outside your house with guns and knives... ;o
Awesome photos... I'm not sure that I could cope with temperatures that high. But these were lovely photos, especially the sand dune one
WOW!
Did you take photos at the sky with long exposure? The stars are so bright and clear!!!
@new_paul - 20 seconds for the first one and 10 seconds for the 2nd one.
@XtremePsionic - A very nice experience. I have seen a sky full of stars once in inner Mongolia. The sky is so clear that the "galaxy" is sometimes appearing, I guess my eyes were normal and didn't have illusion at that time. It is so beautiful but I don't have great cameras to mark it down :(
ugh, I HATE heat. I'd rather freeze to death. Dante puts the worst sinners in ice and freezes them as punishment, but I think burning is much much worse.
@jzrocker - having been to -40F and +40C I must say freezing seems less painful too xD
re azn_x_strike's comment - strangers online can become lovers...wahahahaha
nway, i liked the dusty+dusky theme of this set. esp the blush of the sky. i usually dun like rocks but these pics were cool =)
esp the ones with the moon in them. looks like it was taken from another planet!
@flashlivesforever_29 - we gotta go back there some day. Fly down to Vegas, there's so much to see AROUND that area :D Of course, we'll have to see Vegas too, hehe.
nice!
i wish to have this kind of road trip too
Death Valley (真的沒有改錯名), so dry, hot, dead ...
But what an exposure to the extreme temperature, rise and drop of roads, expansive view of lands and skies (hope you have lots of water with you!)
I love the moon shots, I'm a fan of the moon
I grew up not far from Death Valley in a little town called Tonopah. There are days (many of them) that I miss this area.
@History_Nut - it's interesting, it's a little hot for my taste, but the openess and the barren landscape made me realize a bit more how fragile we are in terms of what environment we could survive in.
This is coming from a Canadian living in -40 weather in the winter, haha :D
How long did you live in that area for?
@XtremePsionic - I lived there or in the vicinity from the age of 7 until I left at 28.