We resisted the lure of the Las Vegas "Strip". Even after all these weeks together, 24 hours a day, we still didn't feel the need for a quickie divorce & we had no spare money to gamble - our monster gas-guzzler has seen to that. So we skirted around the city, through the suburban sprawl. We were amazed at the number of housing estates (little boxes!) that are being built. No doubt the hazy layer of pollution floating above the city will grow accordingly. Escaping up & over the Spring mountains, we ignored the further enticements on offer in Pahrump (casinos, massage parlours, brothels, live shows......) to drive up & over more mountains to reach California.
Our 1st stop was Death Valley where we lingered for 3 days. Another amazing wilderness! We had been living at altitudes of 6 - 8,000 feet for several weeks but suddenly, on the floor of Death Valley we were down to 200 feet below sea level. In theory the walking should have become easier but the temperatures were now up in the 80s, so it was still a bit of an effort. Quite good excuses, don't you think? Great place names here - Bad Water, Devil's Golf Course, Furnace Creek & Stovepipe Wells.
The landscape was wonderfully varied : salt flats, 700 feet sand dunes (we managed to climb a 100 feet dune), marble canyons, volcanic craters, layers of rocks tilted at absurd angles & mountains up to 11,000 feet high stretching on either side the whole length of the valley. And it wasn't just the ground that was spectacular - the night skies were magnificent. Thousands of stars glittered in every direction & the Milky Way stretched down to the horizon before us. Just to add to the atmosphere the howling & yapping of coyotes echoed in the mountains around us. To cap it all, we were awestruck to see a hugeB1 Stealth Bomber circling silently & eerily just above our heads. It was all truly surreal. We loved it!
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