Day 16 - Death Valley to Boulder City

Another great scenery day! Death Valley is the hottest, driest and lowest National Park in the U.S. Rob wisely had us on the bikes at 6am (all a bit bleary eyed, we must admit) before sunrise to both beat the heat as much as possible and to see the sunrise at the Mesquite Sand Dunes in Death Valley.

  

 We walked around the dunes in the morning light and looked at the various footprints and vegetation.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you name the creatures that made these foot prints?

 

 

 

 

There are white deposits in the dune valleys that we later learned are likely talc. It felt soap-like.

Around 8am we headed back to fuel up, check out of the hotel and visit the visitor's center. The guy who runs the gift shop never showed so no Death Valley t-shirts for us.

Onward, we headed towards Artist's Drive, which is a very curvy and hilly scenic drive through the rock formations.

By 9am it was already 90 degrees. We drove awhile towards Badwater which is the lowest point in the U.S. at about 280 feet below sea level. The salt flat went out as far as the eye could see to the mountain range. 

 

 

 

Onward again, Rob discovered the reservoir cover to his brake fluid, which also held his Go-Pro and GPS mount, was coming loose due to the heavily rutted road. He held on to it for 20 minutes, while driving, until he could find a safe area to pull off the road and tighten the screws. Easier said than done as most pull offs in the park are cambered gravel, not at all conducive to three heavy motorcycles pulling trailers.

Our next destination was lunch, and it took us about two hours to finish riding through the park and cross over into Nevada. The elevation increased just as we were getting really hot, so it was a thankful relief.

We're wondering why California has NO welcome signs at the state lines. Do they not want visitors? Clearly, not a friendly state.

Lunch was in Pahrump, Nevada, which had Welcome signs all over. It was a much larger town than we had seen in awhile. Lunch was at Mom's Diner, which was decorated with all sorts of random stuff. At lunch, Rob texted with our friend, Diane, who previously lived in VA and rode with us on our SCRC rides. She lives north of Phoenix now. She and Rob coordinated the trip timing so she could ride with us later today, stay overnight, and ride into Grand Canyon with us tomorrow. Our plan was to meet her at Red Rock Canyon. Mike suggested we take a detour there on the way to Vegas.

Also, we discovered this morning that Hoover Dam has been closed since Thursday due to an elevator malfunction! So no Hoover Dam tours for us. Maybe we can do a drive by tomorrow.

We got to Red Rock Canyon early and did one loop around the scenic drive. Along the way we saw the Scooter Tour! About ten people were riding Vespas with a chase van behind them. They were all smiling.

Diane was waiting for us when we finished. We walked through the visitor's center and then rode the scenic loop again with her and stopped for group photos. The canyon colors were gorgeous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

After the drive, we all rode into Las Vegas.

 

 

Tom and Mike split off to stay overnight with Julie and Hui Bok so they could catch their early morning flights home. We sadly had to say goodbye to these great ladies who were such fun companions on our adventure.

Rob, Diane and Michele drove the remainder of the strip, which was crazy and hot, and made our way to Boulder City to our historic Boulder Dam Hotel. We had a nice dinner at The Dillinger less than a block away, relaxed and caught up with Diane.

Tomorrow we have a big itinerary on our way to Cortez, Colorado!