Buenos dÃas and welcome back trippers! It’s the holiday season and 2020 is almost over. We have safely made it home to Tampa and the total mileage count was 17,020! We still have a lot to cover here, and I’ll continue to cover the whole trip. Once we catch the trip up to the end, I’ll do a post or two going over the math of it all. Gas, food, maintenance etc and try and break it down a bit into tangible info to be used for our next time out (possibly as soon as next spring!) But in the meantime…
We last left off as we were approaching Sin City and leaving Utah behind us. I-15 follows the Virgin River as it flows out of Zion National Park and through the Northwest corner of Arizona where it meets up and mingles with the Colorado River in Lake Mead. Our trail parted from the Virgin River around where Arizona gives way to Nevada just north of Virgin Peak, and we arrived in the city of lights just as the sun had set.
We put it into park at a Planet Fitness on Sahara Blvd. about 1.5 miles from Las Vegas Blvd. and got quickly cleaned up and ready for a walk. Neither of us had been to Vegas before, but we had an idea of what to expect. There was a laundry list of things that we both wanted to see and do, but we also didn’t want COVID so decided it would be best if we kept our sightseeing to what we could see outside. It kept spending, gambling and drinking to a total minimum, and it meant we could bring Ali with us to see all the sights and smells.
Open container laws meant I could have my bevy with me while we strolled and legalized recreational Marijuana meant it could be smelled wafting through the air wherever we went. Although, a bit more discreet about our consumption, we did legally purchase some at a dispensary and learned if you go a bit out of town and on the Reservation land, you don’t have to pay the absurdly high tax. Colorado’s was up around 25%!
We had an awesome, fun and fairly pandemic conscious time. The crowd was a bit thicker than I expected, all-things-considered. The inside main-event shows were all cancelled, so we would have to come back anyway to see Penn and Teller.
The hike ended up being a bit far from the south side of the Strip, back to Sahara blvd and back to the van, but we made it and without having to resort to anything too seedy.
Later that night after some impulsive and brief deliberation we decided we would more than likely be making a back-track into a state and region we had already been. Planning a trip around and through Death Valley, I noted that we were pretty reasonably close to Yosemite National Park, and we had missed it as we were passing through Lake Tahoe. The only thing keeping us was time, which we were no longer on constraints with, so decided it would be a fun couple day adventure into the desert and back into the Sierra Nevada Mountains to see one of the prized jewels of the National Park System. Plus, this way we could do a full loop around Death Valley National Park and really allow us a chance to see the whole thing.
We got an early morning start from Vegas and headed north out of town on US 95 towards Amargosa Valley and the Area 51 Gift Shop and Brothel that serves as the only point of interest in a very lonely stretch of highway.
We’ve entered alien country. Just south of the mysterious Groom Lake AFB, the gift shop highlights the variety of myths and stories that are associated with the area along with a basic map of the various testing grounds and air force bases that are scattered between Nevada-375 (Extraterrestrial Highway) and US-95. Weird, alien mysteries aside; A cool thing about the testing area is the amount of craters left behind as evidence plus it was serving as a location for the testing of and filming old bomb footage that some of us grew up seeing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwotdheQCGo
For those Google Earth enthusiasts. Check out:
37°10’36.67″N 116° 2’46.29″W
What you see is Sedan Crater, and as you go south you get an idea of the amount of munitions that used to be tested there.
We all love a bit of the unknown, and I was ready for the unknown when we got out at the Brothel. Sadly though, it was closed due to the pandemic, as were most brothels in the state. So we would have to save being probed for another time.
We got back into the van after snagging some cool alien swag and continued our trip through the north side of Death Valley. Although, I made an error here that could have ended worse. I didn’t fill the tank. A note of caution for anyone headed out of Vegas towards California. There aren’t many service stations or much of anything. I thought surely there were small towns on the map that we would be crossing through, but many of the stations were out of business or simply seasonally closed. We didn’t run out, but it got closer than it had the entire trip. I’ll play it safe from here on out and never go anywhere west of the Mississippi River under half a tank. You don’t know how long until you’ll see another station.
Our trip through Death Valley and back into California took us through a magnificent and huge sandstorm that loomed like a giant beige shadow monster, devouring the land as it blew across the desert. Once inside, visibility was eerily low and tumbleweeds blew about. It was here we had a sighting of a majestically large red coyote. He was crossing the road, and he stopped to have a gander. He was curious and was looking inquisitive, and we slowed down to a crawl to get a good look at him. Grey and red fringed he looked regal with the reddish brown dust blowing about. Wind and dirt seemed to not phase him much. Where he was coming from and where he was headed was a mystery. Aside from the whirlwind of dirt and sand that covered tens of miles in all directions, it was a featureless terrain. Was this everyday life for him?
We didn’t take any pictures or video, it was a single, acute moment we all shared and the memory of him and the hostile landscape will continue to linger long after we left him there.
We finally climbed back into the back-end of California and found ourselves at Lake Mono. A unique feature, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the eastern entry of Yosemite National Park. A stunning teal lake set into dry arid sand. It was a wonder there was a lake there at all considering the surrounding terrain. It was like someone forgot to tell it that the surrounding area was desolate desert. But the snow run-off from the mountains it neighbors keeps it well-fed, even in the dry fall season.
Which we were in. Speaking of it being late fall. It was getting dark and cold quick, the gas tank was on E and a bit tired from the long drive. We angrily paid our expensive gas tab in Lee Vining and went for a rest area on US-395, about 40min from the park entrance. A cold evening with temps below freezing was in-store for us, due to the elevation and late in the season. We had done cold so night prep had become a routine but wearing 2-3 pairs of pants every night to sleep is fun for no-one.
The following day was a quick drive back up the highway and before we knew it, we were in Tioga Pass. 50ft shy of 10k in elevation, it gives an amazing view of the Sierra high country. What was a nice contrast to the hours of desert to the east, was rolling steel boulders set against glacial lakes and towering conifers. Yosemite valley shared a theme with Zion in its sheer cliff faces and tall waterfalls. The granite gray gave it a distinctly different character than its crimson counterpart and despite the double Yosemite falls being dry during our fall visit, the impressiveness of the park was ultimately worth the back-track to me.
We spent a couple of days driving through Yosemite and doing a couple of the day hikes based out of the bottom of the valley. Before too long, we were back in the van and descending back down into the valley of death from whence we had come. The trip back was going to be broken up a bit more, so we had that to look forward to.
We had passed on actually going into Death Valley National Park until our return trip, assuming sheer maddening boredom would take hold having just done the pass through fairly recently, breaking it into a couple day trip would give it a bit of leisure. What I didn’t know was we were stumbling into a very underrated, bizarre and uniquely featured part of the country that had a varied history reflecting the harsh setting in which it was part of.
Coming back from Yosemite, we originally tried to cut through the valley and enter near Scotty’s Castle. Scotty’s Castle is a two-story Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style villa built in the 1920s. The road through was closed to a flash flood the previous year, it had been washed away. So we were in for a bit of a detour to get into the Beatty Nevada entrance. But we didn’t waste the trip to that side, and found a salt flat to get out and hang out for the afternoon.
We eventually made it into the valley itself, and we were not disappointed. Not the featureless landscape I had expected! Rocks that looked like they were scooped out of a marbled ice-cream tub, a variety of colors and pallets on display in a dazzling and flamboyant manner. An area literally called Artists Palette had a variety of hues from different minerals. Greens, oranges, blues, purples and pinks were all visible. It is truly amazing what rocks can do if you give enough time. We learned about the intensive heat and what used to be an area for Borax mining. The owner, once the mines weren’t as profitable, felt the land was still something special and pushed to had it made into a park. It was made protected land and eventually into a national park in 1994.
We had an amazing day kicking around Bad Water Basin, Artists Palette and some small day hikes that were available. It was nice to be back in the warm again (although grateful we didn’t have to do Death Valley in all its 120 degree glory). Our goal that evening was to make it back to the Area 51 gift shop, as they also had a rest area as well. Maybe we would get to see some UFOs that night! We stopped at the ghost town Rhyolite as well. It’s not easy having a community in the middle of nothing!
Well, the Area 51 rest area on US-95 near Amargosa Valley was the goal that evening, but we got a little distracted. On the south side of the highway we saw rising in the distance some very large sand dune hills. We saw a side-road turn off, saw that it was Bureau of Land Management land (Read: Free Parking) and decided to go on a side adventure before the sun set.
It was a dirt road and being in a heavy camper gave me some immediate concerns. But why stress bad ideas when you can just live in the moment! We continued along the 5 mile or so dirt road closer and closer to the sand dunes. A very rough ride wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for but its what we got.
Our belongings rattled about like a cocktail shaker being prepped for a martini. The frame shook, the pots and pans comically smashed into each other giving us an entire percussion section, and the cabinets rattled almost to their freedom of being attached to any solid frame. Finally, we arrived at a flat, level, area that appeared to be a parking lot, but with no pavement. It was just flat leveled off sand with some fire-pits. What a good spot to stay! The highway is only about 5 miles back. We made it this far without issues, we should be able to return to the highway as well if we went back the exact way we came…
But the Sand-dune hills were still a couple miles off. Seems like a long hike from here if we stop. The trail continues! I think the van will fit… Oh boy, this sand got real deep and soft, perhaps we should turn around… Uh’oh… I think we’re stuck…
After a bit of panic and some attempted ‘rocking’ us back and forth to attempt to dislodge from the sand it was time to cede that the dunes ate us, the van was simply too heavy to have taken that far in and its traction and ability to ‘dig-out’ were nonexistent. The sun had set at this point. So there we were, in the middle of the desert, far from the highway, stuck in the sand, and it was dark. A little bit of frustration was the first thing to pop up. I knew better, this was a silly error to make. It wasn’t a disaster though. We did have a special RV-travelers insurance for these exact kind of scenarios. We had enough water and food. It would simply be a matter of waiting the several hours for them to find us. Provided we could even get a call out. Oh shit, no reception? Well that sucks.
On the bright side, I saw some campfire lights in the distance, perhaps some other nomads hanging out in the middle of the Nevada desert would give us a hand? Well, after a brief run in with the owner’s 5 Belgian malinois (Security/police dog breed) we had a brief exchange and for the low price of smoking and sharing some stories with him and his significant other, they would gladly come help dig us out.
So we were saved and made some new friends in the process. We had a wonderful evening and following day playing in the sand before we slowly made our way back to Vegas. We did end up spending another evening at the Area 51 rest-stop… Sadly, no probing to be had or funny lights to be seen.
We emerged back in Vegas after our Death Valley adventure, but we didn’t stay long or do much else in the city. We just had a couple of things to see on our way to Arizona. Lake Mead and Hoover Dam were the extent of it. Security was a bit tight, and they had to search us for explosives before we could drive over the dam. Thankfully we didn’t have any currently so, we had a chance to see the giant feat of engineering.
Lake Mead was bigger than I thought and didn’t realize people’s pension for boating. There seemed to be boats everywhere! We crossed the Dam and into Arizona. We weren’t done with the wild-west yet, we still had a while to go.
Join us next time for the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Snow in Show-Low and our trip through New Mexico, including a trip into the womb of the earth!