Wake in Death Valley. The dryest place in the western hemisphere. It rained. What a mess. Jed is a sight to behold with his cut and bruised face. Saw that we had camped within sight of the sand dunes, but once we got underway I was too stubborn to stop again right away, so I drove right past. Probably should have stopped.

We found our way to Salt Creek, which was definitely worth the stop. We spent a couple of hours walking the mile or so into and back along the wooden walkway. Maybe this would look ordinary somewhere else, but it’s special in the middle of the desert. And it has the famous Death Valley pupfish!

From Salt Creek (which was about a mile back on corrugated dirt road) we headed to Furnace Creek for petrol, lunch and souvenirs. Ava and I went in to the visitor center to pay for our National Parks pass and had a quick squiz at the museum. Then on south, headed for Badwater (the lowest point - Stovepipe Wells was at sea level, Furnace Creek about 100-200 feet below), but Gloria (Garmin, our GPS system) seemed to be insistent that the fastest way to wherever we were going (Flagstaff/Grand Canyon, or Utah/Bryce Canyon) was out via Death Valley Junction instead, so we decided to do the Artist’s Palette loop and head back out that way.

While still headed south we stopped while a coyote (I almost said dingo) crossed and re-crossed the road in front of us. I took three great photos, which after the coyote had wandered off I realized had somehow been over exposed to the point of being useless. Still haven’t figured out how, since the camera was set to P mode, and the next photos came up ok.

After we turned left to take the Artist’s Palette loop, I stopped to take a useless 300 yard hike up a hill where lots of people were setting a bad example by doing the same thing. Turned out for your efforts you saw exactly the same thing you could see from the road. It was exercise, for both adults and kids, but it wasted valuable time.
After Artist’s Palette (the drive was quite dramatic given the rock formations and colours, the dramatic dips in the road, and the canyons it followed), we stopped to give the kids a run at Golden Canyon, which was worthwhile. Then hit the road for Vegas and the Hoover dam. The drive out of Death Valley was scenic, most of the way to Parhump, which wasn’t. Ditto the drive to Vegas, and Vegas which wasn’t. Stopped in road works for about 15 minutes south of the strip in Vegas before realizing Gloria could tell us how to detour around it, and headed for the Dam while the kids slept.

The Dam was another traffic jam and somewhat disappointing - not very wide and you couldn’t find a place to see how deep. The canyon beyond it was very dramatic.

Back to Vegas for supper at Carl’s Jr - we planned to drive on while the kids slept, then give them their food when they woke up, but of course they woke up when we stopped. So we called around trying to find accommodation and it turned out the big casino next door and just about everywhere else in Vegas (and 60 miles on the road) was fully booked. After passing (probably not wisely) on the second phone call on a $169 suite at a Holiday Inn, we had to make another half dozen or more calls to find a Super 8 Motel next to Nellis Air Force Base that would take us for $89.