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.

Leaving Yosemite

On Thursday night we woke up to beeping at 4 AM. It quickly became evident that our house batteries had discharged. All RV’s have a kind of battery charger called a voltage convertor. Ours had gone belly up, probably a couple days ago. It then took a day or two to discharge the two batteries.

I connected the automotive battery charger that I keep in the motorhome to the house battery bank. It put enough current into the system to stop the beeping from all the voltage starved devices, I then sat up in the wee hours for about an hour to give the system a charge before I turned the furnace and refrigerator back online. Finally at about 6 AM I lay back down and went back to sleep for about an hour.

At our normal 7 AM we rolled out of bed, I told Millie that we were leaving the mountains this morning, but she already knew that. I didn’t want to spend another cold night here with our temporary fix to the 12 volt system. We had no cell service, no internet, no RV parts available within a hundred miles or more.

Groveland to Lone Pine

 I decided the best course of action would be to continue with our original plan of leaving Yosemite thru the Tioga Pass and heading toward Las Vegas. The days plan called for a 250 mile ride, half that driving thru the park and the other half driving down Hwy 395.

On Hwy 120 thru Yosemite

The park portion was a windy two lane road thru evergreen forest covered rock mountain. We didn’t really know what to expect on the southern road, but were pleasantly surprised by the scenic valley route between two large mountain ranges.

Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine California

About mid afternoon we arrived at Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine California. After setting up for the night I ordered the needed voltage convertor and had it sent to our Las Vegas destination. I also called the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort and made sure it was OK for us to arrive a day early.

View of the Sierra Nevada mountains from Boulder Creek RV Park

I spent the rest of the evening working on the blog. I gave the long rambling manuscript I had written at Yosemite a quick proofread. I decided to post it without pictures and called it “Much ado about nothing”.

Yosemite National Park

El Capitan, probably the most well known of Yosemite's mountains

Yosemite National Park

Three quarter of a million acres, let me tell you, that’s a lot of rocks and pine trees.  All that wilderness and the majority of the 4-5 million visitors who come to Yosemite each year go to one area, the Yosemite Valley.

Hwy 120 heading east towards Tioga Pass

The valley is home to all the big picture photo spots, The soaring cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome, the towering bridalveil falls, the visitors center with its museum, movies, restaurants, parking lots and walking trails to all the afore mentioned amenities. 

Millie under the dead stump of an ancient Sequoia tree

That leaves 95% of the park as largely untouched wilderness and me envious of the young adventure minded youth who walk in the footsteps of photographer Ansel Adam, naturalist John Muir, or even president Teddy Roosevelt who toured the land with Muir in 1903.

The mountain Half Dome is covered by my fat head

I must confess that Millie and I joined the throngs of tourists who drove or were bused into the valley; we took the obligatory pictures in front of the notable land marks and then got in our truck and drove out. The next day however, we did visit one of the Giant Sequoia groves which required some mountaineering. Visiting the Tuolumne Grove requires a one mile hike with a drop in elevation of 500 foot. It sure seemed like a lot more than that, especially on the climb back up. 

Treking thru the Sequoia grove

On another day we back tracked out of the park to a town we passed through on our arrival. Groveland is about 20 miles west of the park entrance and seemed like an interesting settlement when we passed thru. On our return it wasn’t all that much to see or do, we did have a nice meal at a local restaurant and believe it or not, Millie found a thrift shop!

Downtown Groveland California