Day: January 29, 2020

We cleaned up and left pretty early. It’s super windy here today. We took our Death Valley picture on the way out. We drove in late and had a bit of a family meltdown…

Back in Nevada…Off to Vegas we go…

How to share about Vegas…it was only 2 days ago, but already hard to remember exactly what we did…good thing I have pictures to look at. We did the customary drive up and down the strip when we arrived so we could get a better lay of the land.

We decided to stay at Caesars Palace…well because we do have some major fans of Percy Jackson living among us 🙂 Of course parking for the RV is not quite available everywhere so we had to park at the Rio less than a mile from the strip.

Vera was not happy about us telling her we were not only going to Vegas but we were going to stay a night there as well. She hates smokers and gamblers so she was determined to not like it. Also, after driving down the strip she was bummed that Isabella and Edwin picked Caesars to stay at. “Out of all the hotels, that one looks the most boring…” after we drove down the strip.

I think one of one of the best parts was when we first walked into the hotel. And looked up. And I think this was especially good because the girls were cranky about having to walk to Caesars palace instead of being dropped off. It also had us enter the side entrance right at the Fountain of the Gods.

Isabella of course enjoyed pointing every Greek reference around.

We had a great room (actually we decided to splurge on 2 rooms, I think this is the 1st time we’ve done that with the kids) with a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the Bellagio fountains, nicely done Edwin.

Our plan was to stay in Vegas one night and see a show. So many shows to pick from…everyone was fine with anything and after reading different reviews we decided not to see a cirque de Soleil since they come to the SF and we picked Blue Man Group. They were across the board the “best family show”….

We had tickets for 7 at the Luxor almost 2 miles from Caesars. Edwin wanted to gamble a bit and the girls and I were hungry so decided to go check out the buffet while Edwin went downstairs for a bit. The highlight of the buffet always seems to be the dessert table and the girls had fun playing judges on cupcake wars.

Then we met back up with Edwin and walked the strip down to the Luxor.

How is it Vera can walk miles in the woods, but here at mile 1 her feet start hurting?? Maybe it’s the awesome full support converse shoe choice?

Blue Man Group 💙 Fun. Entertaining. Girls enjoyed most of it. Although somehow didn’t live up to all the reviews as a must-see show that’s only in Vegas. They do have you dress yourself in some flair.

The walk back down the strip was more fun than the walk up because we had time to spare and explore.

Gotta get the pennies…

Another pretty Chinese New Year dragon

We liked the crystals in the Cosmopolitan.

Vera even inched out piggy back ride from Isabella for part of the way back

Did I mention we have an awesome hotel room with amazing views of the Bellagio fountains?? So we watched that for a bit while we got the girls to bed and Edwin and I went downstairs for a bit.

Morning time.

We biked for a whole 2 minutes to the visitor center because we didn’t realize the visitor center was connected to the campground.

We were at the visitor center and learned a little bit about Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley only became a national park in 1994, but is the largest national park by square miles in the lower 48 (one in Alaska is larger.)

It is also the hottest, driest, and lowest of all the national parks. It holds the record for highest temperature on Earth at a recorded 134 degrees in the shade. It rains less than 2” a year (desert means it get less than 10” a year)

Badwater Basin at -286 feet below sea level and is the lowest place on the entire continent.

There are 2 major valleys in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley and Panamint Valley.

There are 3 major mountain ranges to the West of Death Valley National Park, Sierra Nevada, Argus, and the Panamint range, lies directly to the west. The Black range is directly to the east.

Death Valley National Park was NOT formed by river erosion. It is part of the “basin and range” formation like Great Basin National Park in Nevada. The earth went through a period of expansion and uplift. There are vertical fault lines in the continental plates and the large blocks of land in between the faults would tilt up on one end and down the other similar to a seesaw. Badwater Basin is the “bottom of the seesaw” and the Panamint mountains to the west are the “upslope of the seesaw” of the same block of land between the faults. The Black Range directly to the East are the “upside of the seesaw”, the beginning of another fault block. These geological forces continue today and during an earthquake Death Valley continue today and Badwater Basin can and most likely will continue to drop in elevation during the next earthquake.

Mountain “ranges” are formed. The “in the beginning valleys” collect sediment from the surrounding mountains and “fill up” and “flatten” the valleys into “basins”. Hence…Basin & Range.

The towering Panamint range of over 11,000 peaks are a stark contrast to the lowest point of Badwater Basin directly at its base. The tallest mountain in N. America, Mount Whitney lies not far from here at the edge of Sequoia National Park and is an example of the greatest topographic change in a short area.

We went to the sand dunes first. We brought our saucers from Tahoe but they weren’t working. I remember renting saucers at white sands national monument years ago and it was super fun. Nobody was in the mood to walk out to the further steeper talker dunes to test it out more. So we we were satisfied snowboarding on them, rolling down the hill, and having a little rest in the sunshine.

Badwater Basin s the lowest point in North America at 282’ below sea level. It is among the largest salt flats in the world stretching over 40 miles. There are 3 things needed for a salt plain. 1. A basin 2. High evaporation rate 3. Source of salt.

To have land below sea level an extremely dry environment is necessary. In wet climates water collects in the lowest areas and flows out to the sea. A dry climate evaporates the water leaving behind salt flats. Sea level is the average elevation of the worlds ocean surface and is the standard from which all elevations are measured. Regardless of tides, sea level remains the same. (Fun fact: the Caribbean is higher in elevation than the Pacific)

Edwin was a good sport and was the large Panamint mountain range.

Death Valley National Park has very clear examples of an “alluvial fan”. “An alluvial fan is a triangle-shaped deposit of gravel, sand, and even smaller pieces of sediment, such as silt.”

We stopped by the “devils golf course” on the way back to camp and we hung out at camp. No one was up for any big walks today. The girls did junior ranger books, rode bikes, Edwin and I made dinner, and we had a fire and watched the stars. It is a great night sky here and the moon is a small crescent.