Arriving Death Valley

Tuesday, January 17

Oatie

Since I didn't get to bring the little burro home with me, I added another pet to our traveling zoo.  It's name is, of course, Oatie (as in Oatman).  I understand that my granddaughter was appalled that I wanted to bring the little burro home with me.

Back on the Road

 We treated ourselves to breakfast at IHOP this morning, which was right down the road from the campground, then broke camp and hit the road just past 9:30 a.m.  We hit Las Vegas about ll:15 and skirted it to the west side, not even stopping (can you believe that!).  It was 45 degrees.  On the highway to Pahrump, we came upon a small herd of mountain sheep right next to the road (no picture).  We drove through the area where the Red Rock burro herd lives, but we didn't see any of those.  There was a little snow on the mountainsides here.  This was a pretty drive.

From Laughlin to Pahrump was about 3 hours.  We arrived in Pahrump about noon, fueled up, and stopped on the Home Depot parking lot for lunch.

We went from Pahrump to Beatty, then crossed over into California and arrived at Death Valley National Park about mid-afternoon.  We stopped at the kiosk at picked up literature, then descended down, and down, and even down further, from 3300 ft. elevation in Beatty to below sea level.  We could see what looked like a lake or river in the distance, but it turned out to be the salt flats.

We camped at Stovepipe Wells Village campground, a little below sea level, with mountains all around.  We were in a campground with full hook-ups, which was just on strip of 14 sites.  Behind us was the National Park campground, but it didn't have RV hook-ups, which we needed. 

David grew up hearing stories about Scotty's Castle from his father, who never got to see it, so tomorrow's agenda is Scotty's Castle.