Joshua Trees along Nevada highway 164 west of Searchlight
We were up fairly early this morning, had a quick shower in the public campground shower, and it was very cold as we walked back to the trailer with wet hair. We saw why when we were disconnecting the water to leave, as there was ice on the water hose, so it was below freezing this morning.
We had a good trip across the Mohave Desert, through Needles, then north to Searchlight. The GPS wanted us to keep going north to Las Vegas; however we didn’t want to go that way so instead drove across state highway 164 towards Nipton, where it joins with I15 (the main freeway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles). We were glad we went this way, as there were many large Joshua trees along the small state road, and it was not at all busy. I15 is a different story, as it has 3 lanes in each direction going up (and generally down) all the mountain ranges that you cross.
At Baker we turned north from the freeway, and drove to Death Valley. It was a pretty drive through the Mojave Desert, with a lot of barren rugged rocky mountains, and white badland hills. We arrived here in mid-afternoon, got our trailer set up after filling it with water. That took a long time as the connection to the park water hose leaked, and I couldn’t get it very tight. There was a large puddle of water on the ground, so it looks like we were not the first campers to have trouble.
Moonrise in Death Valley
Our altitude here in the park is about 60 meters below sea level. We are on Pacific Standard Time, which meant a very early sunset, just around 4:30. We haven’t bothered to change our watches, as we will revert back to Mountain Time when we leave on Sunday and enter Nevada.