Death Valley to Las Vegas

Lone Pine to Las Vegas

Death Valley to Las Vegas

We departed Lone Pine first thing the next morning; we actually got away at 8:30 AM, a half hour earlier than our normal 9 AM. We really didn’t know what to expect on our drive thru Death Valley National Park other than it was over 200 miles to Las Vegas and it would be about 100 degrees in the lower elevations. 

Neither of us was too keen on hiking in the desert, so we had already decided this was going to be a drive by tour. All of the feature stops require some walking to a view point and we’re thinking, it’s a desert, we can see all we want from the big window in the bus as we cruised along.

17 miles of continuous downhill

One thing we didn’t expect was another mountain pass; this summit was over 5000 feet in elevation. The real surprise was the decline on the other side of the mountain, seventeen miles of 4 and 6 degree downhill. The downward road angle was continuous with no leveling out or short uphill ridges. After the first few miles there were very few curves, it was a straight shot down the road to the valley floor. 

Death Valley

The terrain changed several times as we descended to the lowest level of the United States. Statistically -282 feet, the lowest level we experienced was -190 feet. Ironically just 84 miles from here is the highest point in the lower 48. Mount Whitney is 14505 feet above sea level.

Soon we were set up in the Las Vegas RV Resort, the next day Sunday, our new voltage convertor arrived and I quickly installed it. Tomorrow we register for the reunion at the Orleans casina/hotel.