Up early again we set off for Death Valley in anticipation of high temperatures! We stocked up on water and made sure we had lots of food! Its a very extreme place to experience with desert, canyons and not a lot of life other than tourists passing through. We were starting to feel the heat very early on and each time we ventured out of the car we’d soon be back inside! At one stage we had to turn the air con off so as to prevent the engine from over heating – a sign on the road told us to do this! Five of us and lots of bags, not a lot of room so in the heat it only got worse!

We hiked through the Mosaic Canyon which was really interesting and at times we were in the shade too as we walked through the narrow, smooth canyon formations. The lads improvised by using their shorts as hats to keep cool but they didn’t look very cool. Moving on from the mosaics we lunched at Stovepipe Wells (Mark and Russ decided to buy some hats here), paid for our park pass ($20 per car) and ventured onwards to find the pupfish at Salt Creek. We didn’t see any pupfish, but we did find water, although you really wouldn’t want to drink it! There are only two roads through Death Valley and we drove out to perhaps the most famous point through Furnace Creek, which recorded the hottest temperature in North America at around 134F (56 degrees C!!!). It wasn’t quite so hot when we were there peaking at around 102 F, but down at Badwater this was the hottest air temperature and sun all of us had ever experienced, plus to make it worse the salt just reflected the sun straight back at us! Still it was an experience worth having. In two days we’d gone from Yosemite to Death Valley, two completely contrasting landscapes and climates, from seeing snow on the road side to being in the dry hot desert.

Later that night we were entering our 3rd contrasting place in a row. Las Vegas.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)