Saturday
The night before leaving is always filled with a gazillion things to do. We know we should go to bed early but there is always one last thing to take care of and, of course, the excitement; so it never happens. When the alarm rings at 4:30am, it feels like we had a nap, not a night’s sleep. Cursing the alarm clock, we grab our stuff and are on our way to the airport; a taxi across town to Port Authority and a bus to Newark. Time-wise, we’re good. Quietly seated in the bus and waiting for the departure, my travel partner (amongst other things) realizes she left her wallet home. Hopefully she has her passport but not a single credit card. Of course it’s too late to go back. On the bright side, it’ll make accounting much easier :D
The plan is to rent a car in Las Vegas and to drive all the way to San Francisco stopping in Death Valley and Yosemite. New-York – Las Vegas is a 5 hour flight but with a 3 hour difference we land 2 hours later local time. Domestic flights are a pain in the US, especially with UNITED. You have to pay for food, entertainment,… the next step is to have paid bathroom I suspect.
Once in Las Vegas, we grab a quick bite in the airport before finally starting the road trip. 1st step is to get the car. Arrived at the rental agency, we get to see the longest line ever! It seems everyone decided to get his/her car from DOLLAR today. A good hour later, we finally hit the road. We stop on the way for some groceries and a lot of water and leave Las Vegas behind.
The landscape around Las Vegas is very dry, we could see it from the plane, but it’s even more impressive from the ground. And the closer we get to Death Valley, the more arid it gets. We lose phone signal before even entering the park (Death Valley is a national park). We buy our entrance ticket at the automatic booth under the scrutiny of a local crow and get ready for our first touristic stop. We still have an hour before sunset which is perfect since we want to enjoy it from Zabriskie Point. Without surprises it’s crowded but this spot clearly deserves its fame. The light turns redder and redder by the minute and highlights the rocky and torture landscape. It’s a paradise for photographers.
Once the show is over, we get back in the car and head to Stovepipe Wells. Inside the park, there are two “villages”; the very touristic Furnace Creek and the more confidential Stovepipe Wells. They are 30 minutes away from each other and even though Furnace creek is more central, it’s too touristy for our taste. It’s only 9pm when we collapse in our hotel room but it has been a long day (not to mention the 3 hours difference)