Day 13—Las Vegas, Nevada to Lone Pine, California

Last night we drove into Las Vegas and saw the lights. But it was pretty hot, so we didn’t stay too long. We are often really tired at the end of a day, so our nights have been early. Today we ended up on the high desert of the eastern Sierra Nevada’s in California. We started near Las Vegas, drove up to Death Valley, through Death Valley, and down into the eastern Sierras. Death Valley was amazing, but HOT HOT HOT!


(It was so hot we had to stuff ice in our pockets! Again! I crushed up some ice and put it in my helmet in a zip lock. But from crushing it there was a small hole in the bag and as we rode the ice began to melt in my helmet and down my right side into my ear. It was a weird feeling, like my head was leaking.
~devin)

The desert in the valley was amazing and totally different from the other Nevada deserts. But even riding, we were way too hot. It was like we were in an oven! The hottest part was at the lowest point, somewhere 250 feet BELOW sea level.

We started to climb, and quickly the air got cooler. We ended up above 5,000 feet above sea level, and the change in elevation was incredible. There were sand dunes in the middle of valleys, even up at the high elevations. The road was curvy and definitely fun!

After coming out of Death Valley, we stopped at Lone Pine Film history museum in Lone Pine, a location where tons of old westerns have been made in the Alabama Hills. We stayed behind the Alabama Hills in the Lone Pine State Campground at the base of Mt. Whitney, one of the highest peaks in the US. The Hills were amazing, with round rocks piled in weird formations. To the east were the mountains of Death Valley, and to the west were the Sierras. It was an incredible view, and in the evening, there was a thunderstorm over the eastern mountains which lit up the sky. This was one of my favourite campsites and views.

-Lauren

What an amazing ride, Death valley is a must see! as you can see we are still wearing all our gear. We took out the warm layers but its still hot! We got to this one look out, stopped the bike and immediately start to strip, at the same time a tour bus pulls up and people begin to pile out of their perfectly air conditioned bus to see two white Canadians wip off their cloths as fast as possible. We got a few looks, and a tan, well I got a tan.

~Devin