Our second day in Vegas, we had to escape the casino’s and went looking for some more nature. In the morning, we drove half an hour to Red Rock Canyon. It’s very hard to believe that only a few miles from The Strip, you can go hiking amidst colorful mountains.
After a short break at our swimming pool (which had a slide going through a shark aquarium – Vegas, baby!) and an insanely cheap lunch buffet, we filled our water containers and headed to Death Valley National Park. We had to drive about 1,5 hour (which is OK according to our new American road trip standards) and we gradually saw our thermometer go up… and up… and up… until it reached 121° Fahrenheit (49.5° C). Why would someone voluntarily go to a sauna like park nicknamed Death Valley? Because it’s out of worldly beautiful!
We arrived there at about 5 pm (yep, and still almost 50° C in the shade), just in time for the golden hours and sunset.
Devil’s Golfcourse:
Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere at 87.5 meters below sea level:
Artist’s Pallette:
Zabriskie Point:
While watching the sunset, we suddenly found us surrounded by Belgians… there were practically no other nationalities there. I guess Death Valley must be on sale in Belgium? Or are only Belgians (incl. us) crazy enough to visit Death Valley in August? It was a very weird experience to be watching a sunset in the hottest desert in America, surrounded by Flemish and French babble (some of them were talking about us – we used our American accents to listen in for a while – I know, naughty!). And of course, Ward recognized one of the Belgians as our former Brussels landlord. Our return to Belgium suddenly felt very close…
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