Road Trip Part 2 / Death Valley - Las Vegas - Mojave - Route 66 - Joshua Tree

And off to Vegas again. As we wanted to drive through Death Valley and everyone warned us to do so if we did not want our tires to melt, we decided to do it overnight, which meant quite a bit of driving - and we were pretty thankful we did that. At first there was the change from 10000 feet (around 3000 metres) to below 0 in just one day. Then there was the heat. It was around midnight when we drove past the valley, but we still had 42 degrees. I do not want to experience the daytime temperatures!

We were rewarded for our overnight drive with a great view of the illuminated Vegas skyline and by a friendly receptionist, who gave us our 35-dollar-hotel-room (mid week in Vegas ;)) at 7 a.m. Pay one night and you always get two. And in the end it was even free because it came with a 10-dollar-gaming voucher that I turned into 40 at the Black Jack table. My second time in Vegas was not really exciting, so I spend a lot of time trying to get good pictures of the strip and even better pictures of the Bellagio fountains.

The next day, we went to the desert again - this time Mojave National Park, after this, we drove a short while on the legendary Route 66 and then went to Joshua Tree National Park. See the pictures for a nice overview.

Our roadside place to sleep was in a residential area close to Leucadia Beach and after probably the longest time I had ever been behind the wheel in just one day, I had a nice beer on the steps of a Baywatch-esque lifeguard's stand and watched the waves roll in.

Preview to New York

The Luxor...Stargate says "Hi"

Bellagio Fountains

On the Strip

And on the road

Solitude...only the internet can help

Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree in HDR

Down in the Valley