From Nevada through Death Valley back to California

Thursday, October 26th, 2023, day 26

After two quiet days of golf, we had planned our route for today. We did that too. Today we drove about 450 km from the Arizona/Nevada border through Las Vegas to Death Valley. Here the landscape was once again spectacular. Even before Death Valley, there was a western town that was completely deserted, with no residents, but the houses in preserved condition, a real ghost town.

Then we drove downhill for a very long time, from a height of 1800 m to the valley at -76 m. 76 m BELOW sea level ‼️ the landscape had a white surface, salt crusts. We also visited borax mines, because mining borax was an important industry here around 1880. Bizarre rock formations, endlessly long and straight country roads, white salt crusts, parched ground, steeply down on one side and steeply up on the other side.

Why it's called Death Valley❓Probably because there is zero internet, because on the other hand there are living beings.

For example, we saw tarantulas (quite large hairy spiders), and quite a few of them ran across the street. Unfortunately we didn't see any snakes; they retreat underground because it is wetter there.

We're back in California this evening, spending the night in our motorhome on the side of a country road.