Death Valley/Las Vegas Trip Log, September 2001

We had planned a Hawaii vacation in mid-September to celebrate our engagement. Russell's parents had also planned a month-long vacation in the United States which we were all looking forward to. Unfortunately both plans had to be cancelled due to the September 11th attack on America. Russell's parents were going to see the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas and since they couldn't make it, we decided to go in their place. We had wanted to camp in the Death Valley when we drove from the East Coast, but the trailer on the car just made it impossible. This was an opportunity for us to make that wish come true. Death Valley is about a 2-hr drive from Las Vegas. Our plan was to camp in the Death Valley for 3 nights, then stay at the Luxor in Las Vegas for the 4th night. The Luxor has a distinctive paramid-shaped architecture with a light-beam on the top shooting straight up into the sky. It is also where the Blue Man Group is performing.

We took off around 10:30am, expecting the trip to take about 8 hours. We encountered a bit of traffic jam leaving San Jose, but other than that it was 75mph most of the way. We pulled over in Kettleman City for lunch and were pleasantly surprised to find vegetarian meals available at a road-side diner. Russ and I both took notice of a poster in the restaurant that read: "God has blessed America, that is why we are number one!". Hmm, does this imply that God has cursed all the countries that aren't doing so well?

Death Valley covers a tremendously large area with frequent change in altitude. We were hoping to drive all the way into the center of it and stay in the Furnace Creek campground. By the time we reached the border of the park, it was already dusk. So instead we stayed at Pananmint Springs for the night. There were very few campers so we were able to pick and choose the tent site. We set up tent, had a quick dinner (Russ is the default chef on all camping trips, me no want to deal with burner), took a shower and head to bed. The night was very hot. It took at least an hour for the desert to cool down enough for me to fall asleep. It was also very noisy since the campground was right next to the road and across from the camp's restaurant. The shower really sucked too. I wouldn't recommend staying there.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and set out for the center of the park. It was around 9am and already the heat was unbearable. Prior to the trip Russ had insisted that we bring a 7-gallon water container with us. It turned out to be a real necessity. We had a water bottle in the car which constantly had to be refilled. It took us about an hour to get to Furnace Creek. Having a car is a necessity to visit the Death Valley. All the "attractions" are miles apart and the heat makes walking/hiking extremely dangerous. The constant change in elevation also makes it hard on the car. No doubt that's one of the reasons why the gas station in Furnace Creek charges $2.39/gallon for unleaded gasoline! We spent about an hour in the air-conditioned visitor center and its museum. The museum was really interesting and educational. Eventhough I've only spent a few hours in the Death Valley, I'd come to appreciate its majesty and its harsh habitat. To find out that people had actually walked through this valley 150-some years ago and surviving it was just incredible to say the least. These people were commoners with small children and wagons, and very little knowledge of the geography to go on. I can not imagine what they must've felt looking at the same terrain I was looking at and still able to hold out hope that they would get out of it alive. I was in awe reading some of the stories of the early pioneers. I'm glad that their hardship was not in vain and that it's been remembered through the Death Valley museum.

We stopped at the Harmony Borax Works, a mining facility for the mineral Borax. From there we could see shelters nearby where the laborers stayed. The shelters were very small when you consider how many men had to stay there in that kind of heat. The laborers were Chinese recruited from San Francisco. They scraped the borax off the salt flats and carried it by wagon to the refinery. They received $1.30 per day, less lodging and the cost of food they bought at the company store. While they stayed at cramped shelters, the supervisors stayed at what's now the Furnace Creek Ranch. I guess the Chinese-Americans were responsible for more than building the railroad! Not that they've gotten credits for that either.

We spent the rest of the day driving along mostly paved road to various interesting sites. Badwater is probably the most popular tourist site in the park. It's actually NOT the lowest point in the U.S. At 280ft below sea level, it's two feet above the lowest point which is 282ft below sea level. The lowest point is roughly a 3 mile hike from its nearest road (according to the map given to us). Neither of us was in the mood to hike 3 miles in mid-day with temperature near 100 degrees. So Badwater was just fine by us. The best part of the day was when we went up to Dante's View to get a panoramic view of the Valley. At 5475ft we got the entire view of the dried lake bed with no obstacles in the way. One thing I appreciated was that there was no protective fences at the viewpoint. Somehow it made me feel closer to the natural beauty I saw below me.

Another interesting thing that we did was climbing a rock nested in an area called the Twenty Mule Team Canyon. It wasn't a particularly big rock, but it stood high enough among its peers to give us a nice view of its neighborhood. On top of the rock was a small pile of stones put together by people who had climbed it, so we added one more to it. From the rock we could see several caves left behind by past miners. It was really quiet, during the whole time we were there only one car drove by. When we got back to our car we were both covered in dust and dying from thirst.

After Dante's View we headed back to Furnace Creek. We had contemplated staying at one of the hotels there. Russ barely got any sleep the night before because of the heat and the hotels were all air-conditioned. Eventually we decided that we would drive to another part of the park and stay at a campsite at a higher elevation. The Wildrose campsite is located at about 6000ft elevation and is drastically cooler than the other campsites. The downside is that it has no shower facility and we both needed a good wash badly. Fortunately it's about a 45min drive to the campground we stayed at the night before so we could drive there for the showers.

We set up our tent, had a wonderful dinner (we're both starved), got the showers we badly needed and went to sleep. We had planned to camp in Death Valley for 3 nights, but decided to cut it short and head for Las Vegas a day early. The Death Valley is interesting, but we both felt that we've see pretty much all that we could. I'm certain that there's more to see if we had a four-wheel drive vehicle to carry us.

To get out of the Death Valley and head toward Las Vegas, we had to go through a number of sites that we didn't visit the day before. We spent most of the morning exploring them on our way out of the park. None of them was as interesting as the places we visited the day before. There were a number of roads we could've taken to go to Las Vegas, we took the one that goes through Beatty, Nevada. A few miles before Beatty we came upon the "Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility". I've never heard of it myself, but Russ just about hyperventilated when he saw the sign. Unfortunately the place was closed on Mondays so we couldn't get in. It would've been a very interesting place to visit. Later we stopped at a ghost town called Rhyolite for about 10 minutes. It wasn't very interesting at all, just a bunch of broken-down buildings. The only interesting thing there was an abandoned casino which was fenced up completely.

We got to Las Vegas a little before 3pm. The check-in at Luxor was fairly quick. It was obvious that there wasn't alot of people visiting the area at that time. We got a great rate at $69/night (we're quoted at $199 two weeks before). The hotel room was really good. It was clean, spacious and nicely decorated. The only downside was the thin walls. We could hear our next door neighbors coughing and talking at a normal volume. We stayed at one of the Tower rooms rather than the Paramid ones because it had a deep bathtub (the Paramid rooms had no tub at all). We have a pretty shitty bathtub at home so this was a nice bonus. We spent the remaining time in Vegas walking around the nearby casinos and shops and relaxing in the room.

I wanted to write something about the Blue Man Group, but there's really no way for me to describe it adequately. All I can say is that it was an excellent show that was stimulating to the visual and hearing senses as well as my funny bones. The ticket price is pretty stiff (approximately $80 a pop), but I think seeing it once is really worth it. This is the kind of show that people don't really dress up for - especially if you're sitting in one of the first 5 rows (hint, hint).

The Blue Man Group marked a nice ending to our mini-vacation. The drive home was pretty boring so I'll skip it. I have to say that I sure was happy to be back home where it's actually nice to stand under the sun for more than 5 min.