day72

Day 72 (October 31, 2006) - Death Valley N.P.

We are done with LV, we leave the KOA without a second thought. Since we will need to drive a lot over the next few days, Petr suggest we should stack up on groceries and we head straight to Costco, just a few miles from us. Gallons of water, bread, cheese, salad and fruit (and cold cuts for my carnivore husband) should suffice for a while. We are heading to Death Valley N.P. and to California.

Since we had been here 3 years prior, this time we will simply drive through it with 2 planned stops on the way: Zabriskie Point, because of the incredible dunes and in homage to the Italian director M. Antonioni (go rent the movie by the same name if you haven't seen it!) and the Visitor Center. We have never seen the northern portion of this park, Scotty's Castle, but it would take us away from our itinerary so this time as well we need to pass. The temperature today, at 2:00pm is 91ºF. Not bad at the end of October. We will be exiting the park to the west, which is new to us. The way to Stovepipe Wells is quite scenic: we drop to -100ft below sea level, then within 7 miles are at 5000ft, then go down again to sea level and start climbing through a series of switchbacks to cross the Sierra Nevada.

While I am writing this, the sun has set and we are driving the last 40 miles for today. We will get up early tomorrow to drive to Sequoia and Kings Canyon N.P.