Southwest Road Trip - Red Rock Canyon

The last day of our trip allowed us some time to visit Red Rock Canyon just outside Las Vegas while we waited for our late night flight.  It was quite spectacular in spite of the fact that we were saturated with vistas of red rocks over the last 12 days.  We drove around the park to see the different rock formations and the many desert plants which showed up well in the golden light of the setting sun.

Calico Hills at the beginning of the drive

You see here the white limestone sitting atop the sandstone.  Apparently the limestone is older than the jurassic sandstone but has been thrust upwards by compressional forces in the Earth's crust.  It ended up protecting the weaker sandstone underneath. 

It would have been much more interesting if there had been a tour of the canyon led by a geologist - there were so many different kinds of rocks in the park.  

A panorama of the south end with different kinds of rocky outcrops

Vast expanses of desert plants cover the areas between the rocky outcrops.

Yet another kind of rock here looking like gnarled knots.  If you blow this up, you could see rock climbers in the shadow of that big rock half way up.  This place must be a rock-climber's paradise.

The setting sun brought out the beautiful bands of colours on the hills

Golden light on the desert plants

The last sunset image from the Southwest

Las Vegas looked amazing from this distance...

This wraps up my posts from the Southwest Road Trip.  Thank you for coming along with me.

Southwest Road Trip - Death Valley 2

Day 2 started out very windy so the Mesquite Dunes hike turned out to be a short one.  It was hard enough walking on the sand, the wind did not help. The dunes were also quite flat because of the wind.  We did not venture out too far into the dunes but it was still quite an experience amidst the vastness of it all.

Mesquite Dunes

Dramatic clouds as we left Mesquite Dunes

We did a short hike in the Golden Canyon - it was a spectacular trail with lots of different geologic formations.  Apparently there is a pamphlet at the trailhead  that you could get to show what to look out for on the hike - we missed it.  As the Artists' Drive is very close to the Golden Canyon, we decided to do another drive through while we were in the neighbourhood.  But we didn't check our itinerary - we should have gone on the very easy trail to see the Natural Bridge, also in the neighbourhood.

Entrance to the Golden Canyon

Amazing rock faces and geologic formations

Red Cathedral in the distance.  We did not go all the way into the canyon but it seems that you could hike up to Zabriskie Point from here, a 6 mile hike that's likely to be very scenic.  

All kinds of geologic history here.  See how the rocks are different even in these few random photos.

The Twenty Mule Team drive took us through colourful badlands but it is one way and quite narrow with steep curvy dips.  I was glad we were in a 4x4.  This area is supposed to be the setting for Star Wars VI - Return of the Jedi - I can see why it would be suitable.

Some steep climbs and dips

We drove up to Dante's View hoping to catch the sunset there but it was too windy - it was almost impossible to hold a camera still.  But the view was spectacular.  Zabriskie Point would have been an alternative for sunset but we were tired and had a dinner date at the reputedly excellent restaurant at the Inn.  This usually happens near the end of a road trip - bodies and minds were oversaturated and tired.  The dinner though was excellent and a suitable wrap up of our Death Valley venture.

Dante's View

No sunset to wrap up the post, but here is a night view of the Inn and an underground tunnel from the parking lot to the Inn through their wine cellar - how's that for ambiance!

 

The Inn at Furnace Creek - a historic hotel built in 1927  - check out its floor below

The terracotta floor 

And an underground tunnel to boot!

Southwest Road Trip - Death Valley

I visited Death Valley for the first time in 1979 driving in from the coast on our way to Las Vegas.  We didn't book a hotel and didn't bargain for the remoteness of the desert - ours the only car on the road.  We drove for miles watching our gas gauge, and finally to our relief, reached Stove Pipe Wells just after dark.  Gas tank was empty, gas station was closed, hotel was fully booked - we ended up spending the night in our car parked at the gas station.  It was thankfully an uneventful night with nothing more serious than stiff necks as a result.  It was a memorable trip indeed even though I don't remember much else about the scenery.  This second visit has actually been researched and has an itinerary for the two days we would be spending in the park, including sights and timing - clearly a sign of age! or maybe it was the ease of planning with the internet.  This included what to do before we even got to the park.

It was a little over two hours from Las Vegas to Death Valley but we were warned to get gas before we get to the park as prices were rumoured to be $9 a gallon inside!  We stopped at Pahrump for gas and lunch at a great place (Terriyaki Madness) that let us pick our own protein and veggies combo, and of course the sauce - not the usual hamburger joint or greasy fried foods off the highway.

Our first stop was at Zabriskie Point, an iconic vista which affords a view of the surrounding badlands below and the Panamint mountains beyond.  It's supposed to be spectacular at sunrise and sunset and we were hoping to do sunset here the following day but we were too tired by then so had to forego. - in any case, it's spectacular any time of the day.  See for yourself.

The iconic Manly Beacon on the left

To give you a sense of scale - see that human standing there?

The next item on our itinerary was a golden hour visit to the Artists' Palette.  We did the Artists' Drive during the golden hour as prescribed.  It was such a stunning drive we did it again the following day so you will see an exceptional number of images from those two drives.  There were two main viewpoints on the Artists' Drive, at the beginning and near the middle of the 9 mile long drive.

This is at the beginning of the drive - you can already see the different colours on the rocks

A short climb takes you up to this viewpoint.  A family actually celebrated a birthday here with birthday cake and candles!

The drive...

This is the vista near the middle of the drive

Badwater Basin is a 20 minute drive from the Artists' Drive and we barely made it for sunset.  It is the lowest point in North America at 282 ft. below sea level.

             The sea level sign above the parking lot

The salt flats at Badwater - the hexagonal honeycomb shapes caused by repeated freeze-thaw and evaporation cycles.  It was a beautiful end to a day already packed with stunning sights.