Upon arriving at the Wynn, they rented me a 2 wheel drive escape... I only realized it was 2 wheel drive after driving it to my hotel on Paradise Rd (about 3 miles away from the Wynn)... I drive back, and they scurry around, and eventually end up giving me a Ford Explorer for the same price as the escape.
By the time I settled the rental car, and hit the road, it was only about 2 hours until my luggage was slated to arrive, so I didn't want to venture far... I took a ride down to the Hoover dam, ended up sitting in traffic for an hour at their "security checkpoint" (read: drive past a cop who just waves you on)... Eventually I made it to the dam, drove across into Arizona and snapped a few photos (tough without having a tripod) but I got a few decent shots, nothing spectacular though:
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I headed back to the hotel in Vegas, and waited for my luggage to be delivered, it didn't come, so I just drove down to the airport, found it sitting in a huge pile of bags, and got a United rep to get it for me. I was pretty tired, so I went to bed around 9pm...
On Wednesday I woke up at around 5:30, was on the road by 6:15 headed for Death valley National Park. The drive there isn't a bad one; I took Rt 160 west out of Vegas, connected up with Bell Vista Rd in Pahrump, then took State Rd 190 out of Death Valley Junction straight into the park.
The road into the park is quite beautiful... Here's just a single scenic from Rt 190:
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My first stop in the park was up at Dante's View... It was a 26 mile trip to the viewpoint and back that was well worth it. The viewpoint itself is at about 5500 feet if I remember correctly, and it's no more than half a mile on the map away from the lowest point in North America... This provides for some quite dramatic cliffs. It was freezing cold at the top, I made the mistake of walking about a quarter of a mile away from the car without my hat and gloves and winter jacket-- Here is the view looking down over the salt flats of Death Valley.. If it looks like i'm cold, i am-- it was about 25 degrees out with a stiff wind...
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After descending from Dante's View, I headed to one of the more awesome roads I drove on this trip. It's called 20 Mule Team Road, which is unpaved and winds its way through 20 Mule Team Canyon on the eastern edge of Death Valley National Park. The earth is an odd wrinkled texture here, but it's a brilliantly colored off-white... It's easier to just show some pictures and let them do the talking, plus you get your first glimpse of my rental car:
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After exiting this road, I headed for the inner areas of the park, there is only one hotel within Death Valley, called the Furnace Creek Inn... I can only imagine how hot it gets in the summer with a name like that:
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This is a shot looking towards the valley floor from Furnace Creek Inn...
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I proceeded to the Death valley visitor center to buy my national parks pass, the visitor center is at 190 feet below sea level, and I’m going to guess that thermometer has been maxed out before!
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I drove from there south to Badwater, where the lowest point in the Continental USA is located... The road was flat and downhill, even though I was already below sea level!
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Here I am at the lowest point in North America... Notice the giant tour group all walking to nowhere in the background. I found a nice couple from San Francisco to take this photo for me:
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This next shot is rather interesting, it kind of gives you a bit of perspective to the elevation of this place, if you look closely in the top, I have circled a sign on the cliff that reads "Sea Level"...
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Some Jokester decided that -282 feet just wasn't low enough, he made his own "lowest spot":
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The terrain down here "off the beaten path" is very un-earthly... This is a shot of some of the ground at this level:
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I headed over to the Devil's Golf Course, a very odd area where the salt formations on the ground have become incredibly hard... Any slip up here could easily result in broken bones... All of the formations below are rock hard, I was able to stand on the top of these formations:
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From there I took a ride up to the Artist's Palette, which was rather unimpressed with, although the road that takes you there is an awesome road which seems to slither it's way across the edge of the valley floor:
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I drove up to the Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes and had some lunch (peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a soda)... Stovepipe was cool, but way overcrowded with people. It was nearly impossible to get that "desolate sand dune" shot I wanted to, so I went for the exact opposite effect, check out all the tourists like ants on the sand dunes, I've counted 12 people, most only visible in the high res version of the image, but there are actually 2 people who hiked all the way to the tall dune just left of center in the way back of the image...
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I drove from there to an old abandoned mine complex, called the "keane wonder mine"... This was a cool place at the end of a dirt road... Apparently it was an old gold mine built in 1903, and in use for almost 2 decades... Here's a shot of some of the abandoned equipment they had there:
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I took a few random pics on my way out of the park, here they are:
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I stopped at an old "ghost town", which was a bit commercialized, as the "ghost buildings" were on a paved road... but it gave a cool effect nonetheless:
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On my way back to Vegas, I saw some awesome sand dunes I wanted to drive to, I found a road there and just drove out on the sand... this is a shot taken as I approached the dune, I didn't get too close to the dune as I was afraid of getting stuck, even this road was relatively loose sand:
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Sunset on the road was a pretty cool sight, I took this shot on State Road 95 in Nevada looking back towards the mountains bordering Death Valley:
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When I was nearing Las Vegas I saw what looked like a cool road that went up into the mountains, I decided to take a drive on it... It was Rt 156 off of Rt 95 northwest of Las Vegas... a pretty cool road as I really got to see the change with elevation. At the valley floor I was at 2000 feet, it was about 50 degrees and the vegetation was just your standard small shrubs that you see in the desert. About halfway up there were Joshua trees everywhere, and at the top there were full blown forests with snow and it was about 25 degrees... Here's a shot from the top of the road at about 7500 feet of elevation:
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I picked up Amie and Eric and Susan at the airport once I got back to Vegas, they all slept at my hotel that night.
In the morning (the 28th) we stopped for some breakfast at the hotel, I then dropped the other 3 off at the Aladdin Hotel to pick up their car as they were off to the Grand Canyon. I had been to the canyon last year, and decided to "go it alone" and see Bryce and Zion which I hadn't been to in a number of years.
I headed off on I-15 north through Nevada, on an incredibly windy day-- I saw 3 big rigs rolled over due to wind:
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I then entered Arizona for the coolest stretch of any interstate I’ve ever been on. I-15 in Arizona is a feat of engineering, as it winds its way though some of the roughest mountain terrain imaginable...
I Got to Zion mid-morning, and checked into my hotel (Quality Inn & RV park)... I took off from there into the park. Here is a shot of the road entering Springdale, Utah:
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And a shot of the first really scenic area in Zion:
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The road in the park was paved using many of the materials available, and with all the reddish rocks, the roads show it-- Another picture of Zion Valley:
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I stopped along the way and did the Zion Canyon Overlook Trail, which is about a 3/4 mile hike to an amazing overlook... I set the tripod up here to take a picture of myself:
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I then took some more time to take a detailed picture of the canyon, adjusting for all the different lighting conditions, this was the result:
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heading East on the Zion Park road, the conditions began worsening, to the point where I was skidding around many corners, making for some rather stressful driving:
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I ended up turning around most of the way through the park, and headed carefully back into the valley... I took a few shots at Sunset looking up at the mountains from the valley floor:
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For dinner I was sick of my standard peanut butter and jelly meal, so I went to the pioneer restaurant in Springdale, Utah and did the always shameful "table for 1" routine... It was a good burger though!
The next morning (the 29th) I woke up early and made the icy trek through the park again on my way to Bryce National Park. I saw some interesting things along the way that you just don't see everyday... This guy apparently just didn't have enough horsepower in his pickup truck, so he just added more:
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He was driving down the road at a snail's pace with the horses tied onto the bumper!
The road to Bryce ended up being a bit snowier than I expected... but it was passable:
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Bryce has some amazing view points, but it's tough to remember which photos are taken from which viewpoint, So I’ll just spare you the explanation and show you the shots:
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On the way out I stopped in the Red Canyon, which is an awesome place on State Road 12 in southern Utah-- Here are a few shots of that:
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I decided that instead of backtracking through Zion, I’d take a side road called State Road 14... The Utah DOT said it was a 4wd or chains restriction, I had 4 wheel drive and did it with not much difficulty...
Here are a few pics from the road
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I drove straight back to Vegas from there:
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I stayed at the Treasure Island hotel for the nights of the 29th, 30th and 31st of December, New years in Vegas was a blast, but-- "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"-- so I’ll just give you a few pictures:
The view from our room (Looking North-West-ish):
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The folks across the hall were kind enough to let me take this pic looking south from their window:
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A few other random photos from Vegas:
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I flew home on the afternoon of New Years Day 2007, my flight from Vegas to Chicago was delayed due to a broken pilot's seat, I ended up barely making my connection in Chicago, but I made it home in one piece, and my luggage was delivered to my apartment a day later. Another really fun trip!
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