It is brutally hot in our Death Valley campsite, but when the sun goes down, it's (almost!) bearable. Almost. We prepare to bed down for the night. This campground (glorified parking lot) is not as peaceful as we've experienced the past few nights in Joshua Tree and the Mojave Preserve. On our right, we have the French contingent who roll in after dark, chatting above a comfortable level and then deciding to blare their dance music.
But they are not to be the problem, we soon discover. It is our group of bicyclists on the left who return from a night ride just as we are settling in to watch the shooting stars and sweat the night away in our tent. They proceed to talk loudly, plan their entire trip, organize their food and gear, clank their dishes, jump start their car and blow up their crinkly mattresses. It doesn't help that the campsite (being right in the valley) has little vegetation or anything else to absorb the sound — it's a bowling alley of noise amplification.
Finally, sometime after 1:00 a.m? 2:00 a.m?, they are quiet and we are able to drift off, only to have them back up at 4:00 a.m. for an early morning ride, banging about, talking and making coffee (not to mention our favorite biker that decided to set up his/her bedroll about 2 feet from the DOOR OF OUR TENT!!!!!)
It just doesn't make sense to us — if they know (which they clearly did) what their schedule is going to be why would they not situate themselves where they wouldn't be so disruptive to those around them? There were many many other sites to choose from — yet no, they had to roll right in beside us!
Add the noise to the heat, it does not make for a restful night, which is too bad, because it is rare that it is warm enough and dew-less enough that we can leave the fly off our tent and gaze up at the night sky.
The temperature, we estimate only goes down to the mid nineties in the night. By early morning sunrise, it is already hot. Wanting to take advantage of the beautiful light, we pack up and head directly to the Mesquite Flat sand dunes.
Traipsing across the sand like a couple of weary nomads, we spy all sorts of animal tracks and yes, take full advantage of that beautiful morning light.
We breakfast up at the Emigrant campground (another bowling alley/parking lot site) and then descend below sea level towards Badwater.
Our hiking ambitions get the best of us and we are lured into a mile walk up the tantalizingly named Golden Canyon towards Red Cathedral.
The walk is shadeless and meltingly hot. It's not all that glamorous either and we return feeling as though we've wasted precious electrolytes.
Descending further below sea level, we drive the colorful "artists palette" and make our final Death Valley stop — the Badwater salt flats.
Low sodium, it is not. It is pretty cool standing on all that white salt (well, unfortunately not the kind of cool we'd probably have welcomed by that point!!)
Back we head to bustling Baker where we spy a coyote dashing across the road. With his tongue out and darting along on those spindly legs, it's a wonder how it makes do with that fur coat in the Easy Bake oven of the valley.
Our night stop finds us in Bakersfied at the Crystal Palaces Best Western —right beside the famous Crystal Palaces country music hall. No music for us though as we are beyond beat (by the sleepless night and the heat). We grab dinner at the delicious Orchid Thai restaurant and then hit the sack.
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