Almost immediately we ran into road construction that resulted in a 20 minute delay:
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| Waiting for road construction to move forward |
When we were finally allowed to proceed, we (leading the group) messed up and failed to take the required turning, and so detached ourselves from the rest of the group. Business as usual for an Oil Leak! In the end we all visited the same sites in Death Valley, just not in the same order. As it happens, the solitude that came with our detachment from the group made some of the sites all the more impressive to Debbie and myself...
Our first stop was at Zabriskie Point, which overlooks Death Valley. A short walk from the parking lot revealed amazing views of the eroded landscape as it descends to Death Valley. The solitude was overwhelming...
A short drive took us to the 20 Mule Team Road - a dirt road used by the mule teams hauling borax from the Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek to the railhead near Mojave.
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| About to descend a steep incline on the 20 Mule Team Road |
The next site we visited was the Dante Point Overlook of Death Valley. More than 2,000 feet above the valley, the overlook provided some magnificent vistas.
Death Valley from Dante's View 
Joe and Deborah Harding climb for the best possible view
We were fortunate that high cloud kept temperatures just below triple digits today - something our cooling systems could manage (just...). From Dante's Point high above Death Valley we descended to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282ft below sea level.
The hottest place on Earth, though only around 100 degrees today... Our final site in Death Valley was Artist's Palette, where minerals in the rocks provide a wide range of colors to the desolate landscape.
Having explored Death Valley, we drove to Stovepipe Wells where we had lunch at the Toll Road Restaurant.
From there our route to our overnight stop in Lone Pine involved traversing multiple mountain ranges with repeated climbs from sea level to 5000+ feet and then back down again. The California roads were in great shape (unlike our freeways!) and the drive was enjoyable.
In the evening we congregated for pizza in the the gardens of our overnight stay at the Best Western at the end of a great starting day. We were joined by Norm and Deirdre Black, and Mark and Rhonda Hull for the rest of the trip.
Michael Jenkins suffered a series of issues during the day with his new fuel injection system and an alternator bracket failure, but true to the Oil Leak way he was there in the gardens enjoying the company at the end of the day. More adventures tomorrow...
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