We made our way to the Death Valley leaving our home in Vegas behind. We sort of went the long way but it turned out to be a better option as we got the best views of the area.
The GPS has taken us off the beaten track a few times and it has taken us through places that we would never have seen so that has been pretty interesting.
From the top of the hills looking down to the Valley floor it looks likes a lake but when you get down to the Valley floor there is no water there at all.
We made our way to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and got maps and watched a video about the area. The Death Valley is a 3 Million acre National Park. We made our way to Badwater Basin which is the lowest point in the USA, 85.5 Meters below sea level. Beside this they have a huge cliff and on it they have a sign that shws the sea level and it looks so high up. We then went to a spot called the Devils golf course because the ground was so lumpy (I think they are salt rocks). We went down a road called the "Artist Palette" which shows all the different pastel colours of an artists palette on the rock formations - It was pretty cool. We stopped and had a bit of a picnic lunch at a rest area but we packed up when we looked down at our feet and there were all these red ants, much bigger than at home. We didn't want these crawling up our legs and there were warning signs everywhere not to feed the coyotes. (We are out of there once we read that and in the car with the doors locked!)
There is so much to do and see there, you really need a 4 wheel drive to go to some of the spots off the trails. Somehow I don't think our little car could have coped with any offroading. At the moment it looks like it has been factory lowered at the back with the weight in there.
When we had seen enough we made our way out of the area to find a place to stay. After a couple of hours we made our way to a small town called "Lone Pine". This little town had beautiful mountain views of the snow and was a very authentic town. The town has shops and hotels that look like old school America, stained wooden buildings and verandahs, The kind of thing you would only see on TV.
The next day we were on our way to the Yosemite National Park but it was the Friday of a long weekend (Memorial weekend) and I couldn't find any available accommodation so we didn't really know what we were going to do till we got there. We carried on and would decide once we got closer.
When we got close to the turn off we could see snow in the hills and couldn't believe it with the temperatures we had been getting over the past weeks. Then we hit really bad weather, sleet and snow. It was a bit exciting as it was the first wet weather we had experienced since we arrived in the country. I had to stop and put new window wipers on the car as they were all perished and torn from the hot sun.
We gased up and made our way through the Tioga Pass, (We were on the wrong side of the park so had to take this road to get across to Yosemite, it was about 50 miles). We got about 10 miles into it and came across the Toll booth for the National park, as I paid the attendant the money snow was falling heavy through the window. I was a bit worried about making it through in our car but the attendant didn't say anything about it so I thought it was just normal.
Driving through this road was such a great sight, we came across ice and snow covered lakes, beautiful forrest and mountain areas and snow everywhere. There are spots along the road where you can pull over and take photos. People must have thought I was strange standing there in shorts and a tee shirt. At one part there we were driving along and the snow was scraping the underneath of the car it was so thick and there where no tyre marks on the road. When we got to the end of the pass, the road was blocked off not allowing any traffic through and we saw a snow plough on its way to clear the road. We made our way out of the park and with the weather so bad and the amount of traffic entering the area we decided to come back after the long weekend when the weather would be better and less people around. We did not fancy getting trapped in the National Park in the snow.
On Tuesday we made our way to Yosemite again with the weather fine but cloudy. We stopped off on the way taking photos until we reached the Village/Visitor centre. We ordered a home made pizza at one of the eateries for lunch there and again we were reminded of their crazy portion sizes. We were starving so we got a large one to share between us and the pizza was so big we only just ate half of it and left the rest of it, we felt bad doing it but it was just massive.
We walked around the village and waterfall area, spectacular sites. This place would have to be one of the most beautiful and natural places in the world.
We took a different road out of the park so that we could stop and look at the Gaint Sequoia trees at Mariposa Grove. Some of these tress are hundred of years old. They are huge. We did a bit of a walk and saw a few of the special trees. There was one there that has been fallen for over 300 years. It was a shame as some of them had been damaged in fires caused by humans.
In the end there are 4 different ways into the park and we went through all of them and they all have something unique to them. Yosemite would definitely be somewhere where we would like to go back and stay inside the park so you can truly appreciate all it's beauty. El Capitan was pretty awesome too!
Well that's all for now.
Jason & Rosie
