Our Remarkable Holiday to the USA. Part 4

Compare and Contrast.

As Vegas disappeared in the distance behind us, we moved off along Highway 160 towards Pahrump, (that's what the town is called!), where we would pick up Highway 190 into Death Valley.

The hustle and bustle of Vegas, turned into the stark, rugged, barren wasteland of the desert.

The enormity of the place is almost beyond description.

Death Valley, is an area of natural extremes, it is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. However, travel 76 miles west and you get to Mount Whitney, which is the highest point of the contiguous States with a height of 14,505 feet.

So you can go, in a very short time from blistering desert heat, 46° when we were there, to a mountain ski resort! Although, there was no snow, apart from a couple of small pockets near the summit.

If you want to get an idea of the vast area and the rugged landscape just look at some satellite images of the area, it is outstanding.

We stopped off at Furnace Creek, very apt name for it considering the heat, luckily there was an air conditioned shop, so we stayed inside for as long as we could.

From Furnace Creek, we headed west along Highway 190 until we joined the 395 which would take us up and out of the valley to Mammoth Lakes and the Mammoth Mountain Inn which would be our stop for the night.

The Mammoth Mountain Inn is just like a typical Austrian / Bavarian ski lodge, including the bar (Yodlers), which is where we ate that night. It had a wonderful atmosphere, with a roaring log fire and the food was really good too.

 

In the morning we set off again, this time descending into Yosemite National Park.

Again this was to be a day of outstanding natural beauty, with stops at idyllic, picture postcard locations.

Again, if you want to see how outstanding Yosemite is, Google it or take a look at some of the photo’s, totally amazing, totally breathtaking, and totally awesome.

I can’t really put into words the sights that presented themselves to us, after each twist and turn of the long winding roads, another unbelievable sight came into view.

Of all the days of our tour, these two were the quietest.

No jokes in this part of the Blog!

These were amazing days and something I would love to do again, you really have to see it to, believe the amazing contrasts.


PART 5