Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park is the hottest, driest and lowest place in US and during summer temperature can reach 35-50C (100-120F), so you must be prepared. Park administration recommends drink at least 4 liters (1 gallon) of water. It is up to you how much you drink, but in your car you should have some water for emergency. It is quite remote place and don’t expect huge crowd of visitors, except some more popular places like Badwater or Devil’s Golf Course. It can take hours till you see another car. I bought 10 liters water container just in case.

Also fill up your fuel tank before going into park. Some years ago it was couple gas stations in the park at Stovepipe Wells Village and Furnance Creek. But now only the one at Furnance Creek is working.

The last thing you should do before going to Death Valley – check for road closures. During my visit Artists Drive, Twenty Mule Team Canyon and Titus Canyon roads were closed, at Zabriskie point were road works and was no stopping allowed, so I was forced adjust my itinerary accordingly.

Death Valley NP is 350km (220 miles) or 3.5 hour drive away from Bakersfield. From Death Valley to Las Vegas is another 220km (140 miles) or 2.5 hour drive. Expect to be in Vegas at late night as it easy to spend all day in the Death Valley and wait for sunset to watch how colors of surrounding mountains are changing.

What to do and to see it depends on situation in the park. As I mentioned earlier some places were inaccessible during my visit, but here are some interesting places:

• Ubehebe Crater – it erupted more than 300 years ago.

• Scotty’s Castle – Spanish-style mansion in the green oasis of Grapevine Canyon.

• Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes – 30 meters (100 feet) dunes rising near Stovepipe Wells village.

• Salt Creek – this salt water is home to a rare pupfish.
• Titus Canyon – one of the largest and most scenically diverse canyons in the park. Small part of this drive can be accessed by regular car from West side.
• Artist’s Drive – 14 km (9 miles) scenic loop drive through colorful volcanic formations.
• Natural Bridge – 800 meters (0.5 mile) hike to massive rock span across canyon.

• Badwater – lowest point in North America. It is 86 meters (282 feet) below sea level.

• Devil’s Golf Course – incredible formations of rock salt.
• Dante’s view – one of best places to see Badwater basin from the top of 1.7 km (5500 feet) peak.
• Twenty Mule Team Canyon – 4 km (2.5 mile) one way loop drive through badlands.

• Zabriskie Point – colored badlands. Good place to stop during sunset before heading to Las Vegas

All these places are accessible by regular vehicle. Check Death Valley NP website for additional places if you drive high clearance car, but for day visitor it will be more than enough.

Las Vegas

The last stop for today is Las Vegas. You know how it is said: “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”? 

Just head to the Strip as all entertainment is located there.  Most popular free attractions on the Strip are:

• The volcano at “The Mirage”
• The water fountains at “Bellagio”
• The Sirens of TI night show at Treasure Island (daily at 5:30pm (fall/winter only), 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm, 11:30pm (spring/summer only)
• The Fall of Atlantis and Festival Fountain at Caesars Palace (every hour on the hour Sun – Thu,  10am – 11pm,  Fri and Sat,  10am – midnight) .

Check what shows are during your visit and don’t lose all your money at casino

The post US West in a week. Day 3. Death Valley and Las Vegas appeared first on Vi Travel Tips.

Yosemite National Park is located ~300 km (190 miles) east of San Francisco and it takes about 4 hours to get there, so it is better get up as early as possible. Actually it applies to any day of this itinerary. Sorry, there is no time to sleep during this week J

The entrance fee to Yosemite NP is $20 per car and includes all occupants of the car. Permit is valid for unlimited entries to the park for 7 days. Because during this week it will be visited at least 4 national parks the best deal is to buy Annual Pass. It cost $80 for all National parks and you can buy it before your trip online.

Yosemite National Park is huge. The area of the park is ~3100 square km (~1200 square miles) with over 1200 kilometers (750 miles) of trail. Yosemite Valley is the best place to go for day visitor. Surrounded by up to 1.5 km (5,000 feet) rocks the valley itself is very flat and it is possible to take some short hikes without proper hiking boots.

Some short hikes to choose:

• Bridalveil Fall – 800 meters (0.5 miles) round-trip, 20 minutes
• Lower Yosemite Fall – 1.6 km (1 mile) loop. 30 minutes
• Cook’s Meadow Loop – 1.6 km (1 mile) loop. 30 minutes
• Mirror Lake/Meadow – 3.2 km (2 miles) round-trip, 1 hour
• Vernal Fall footbridge – 2.6 km ( 1.6 miles) round-trip, 1.5 hours

May is the best month to watch water falls then snow melts in the mountains. You won’t see so much water in August as you can see in above photo.

Next stop is at Sequoia National Park (entry fee is $20 if you didn’t buy Annual Pass). Park is 300 km (190 miles) and 4 hours driving away from Yosemite Valley, but you must to see those giant trees and largest is the General Sherman Tree. The tree is 84 meters (275 feet) height and estimated 2300-2700 years old and is called the largest living thing on the Earth.

The tunnel log located not far from the General Sherman Tree will let you feel even more how big these trees are as you can drive with your car through that tunnel.

It will be later evening by the time you reach this tunnel and the close by Mono Rock is the best place for sunset viewing – with sun going down in the west and moon rising above Great Western Divide in the east .

A view is fantastic and at least during my visit it wasn’t many people there at night so maybe you can enjoy that view only by yourselves.

Sun goes down and it is time to look for overnight stay. Bakersfield is largest town on the way. There are plenty of motels there, so I think it is best place to spend a night before heading to Death Valley tomorrow.

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