April 7  Vegas to Death Valley

We started the day with some more walking.  First to see the birds at The Flamingo and walk through the casino.  Even at 8AM there are people gambling.

An interesting couple at the Flamingo's aviary.

Next we headed to the Paris Casino for breakfast, since Bryan and Julie recommended it.  But they had 3 different restaurants and by the time we found out which one they liked, we had been in line at Cafe St. Louis for a while so opted to stay there. This is inside the casino, as each casino has not only the gaming area but many shops, restaurants, shows, etc. all inside one complex.

 Had good breakfast omelet with asparagus, and scrambled egg dish.  With newfound energy (ha ha) Beth played the slots on the way out through the casino and won $35 in just 15 minutes or so.  Paid for our nice breakfast!

The streets were still pretty busy, though not like last night.  We heard lots of different languages.

Bade farewell to sin city.  It was fun to see, though we barely scratched the surface as we passed dozens of other casinos and read of dozens of shows, not to mention the whole downtown area that we did not see.  Interesting, but just not our thing I guess.

We decided to check out Red Rock Canyon since it is in the general direction of Dealth Valley, our next destination.   It is run by Bureau of Land Management folks and they have a nice visitor's center.   Lots of folks taking a break from the casinos, so we did a driving sightseeing loop and stopped for a few short walks. Temperatures not bad in high 70's.  There are tortoises, wild burros and wild horses in the area but they kept out of sight this day.

Interesting textures. 

Note that Spring is March 1-March 31!

From here we headed west.  Very very windy and lots of dust welcomed us to California.

Occasional dirt devils spiral across the desert, and we step up using lip gloss and moisturizer which we've been using regularly since Arizona.  Very sparsely populated, as you would expect.

We enter Death Valley National Park and are again thankful for those Senior Park Passes.  It is extremely windy.  We climb up a windy road to Dante's Point which is more than 5000' above the valley floor with up to 15% grades! The wind gusts are so strong up here that they actually move the camera and me!  We hear later that there were 45-50mph gusts.  The view is amazing!  What looks like water down in the valley is actually salt flats and mineral deposits.

We make our way back down the mountain and head for Furnace Creek and the Visitor's Center which is -19feet below sea level.

We check-in and talk with a ranger a bit,  and check out the nearby campground which is basically a big gravel parking lot with a bathhouse.  We set out for Badwater, the lowest spot in the US at -282 feet below sea level.

On the return, we stop at an area called Artist's Palette which has a nice variety of pink, green, gold, red, brown rock.  Unfortunately many clouds have moved in, so the warm afternoon sunlight is mostly gone.  We climb a trail and practically are blown away again, as were these two folks.

For as harsh as the climate is, there are still quite a few plants that have adapted, like this desert holly.  It's leaves reflect sunlight so it looks silvery and the leaves turn perpendicular to the sun.

 This plant had small lantern-like flowers and grew in the shade in a canyon.

We stop at Golden Canyon and hike in to Red Cathedral, then head back to the campsite, with a stop at Furnace Creek Ranch, a small resort near the visitor's center, where we purchase showers.  Unfortunately the men's room has some issues but Greg does manage a bird bath and a shave.
Dinner and bed.