22 Thursday

We were up at 7.00, had breakfast, then travelled down through Big Pine and stopped at Lone Pine information center. Lone Pine is the town that is really the western entrance to Death Valley National Park. The weather was extremely hot and the sky was a vivid blue with not a cloud to be seen. We passed through Panamint Springs and onto Stovepipe Wells, right in the heart of Death Valley. Explored another Souvenir shop and drove down the road a little way where we stopped the car and walked over to the sand dunes which are one of the attractions of this particular area. Brendan was intent on finding a snake or some other critter but all he found was a lizard. The temperature by this time was in the high 30s so we could only spend about 20 minutes or so out of the air conditioned car. Next stop was Furnace Creek information center which had many displays of the area and was really like a museum. We decided to buy some food from the nearby store/souvenir shop and we sat on a stone wall in the shade and had some lunch. Extremely hot but bearable. Our next stop was Badwater which is the lowest point in the US – 291 feet below sea level. It is called Badwater because of the stagnant water which has the most revolting smell. Lots of tourists here. A big expanse of salt flats and a flat calm lake surrounded by high hills made this place feel quite eerie. We walked out into the salt flats until we reached the lake – a 20 minute walk then high-tailed it back for the airconditioned car. The temperature was just about unbearable. Our last stop in Death Valley was Zubriskie Point – a fabulous view of the surrounding hills. The rest of the day was all car travel through desert then semi desert and we finally made it to Barstow which is a town catering to people travelling the Interstate 5 (I5). We got some good, cheap accommodation here which included a cooked breakfast.