Thursday, July 14th.
I set my alarm for 5am and got packed up and rode out of Overton to Valley of Fire State Park which Shayna had recommended. I arrived at the eastern entrance at sunrise and spent three hours driving through the park. I had it pretty much to myself. All the hiking trails are closed during the summer because of extreme heat but I stopped at the lookout spots and wandered around a little bit. It was in the 30’s already by 7. I came around one corner and a bighorn sheep was on the road in front of me! I managed to stop and get my camera out as he climbed the rocks and took a look back at me, amazing sighting! Then I rode out the west exit and reconnected with Interstate 15 to Las Vegas. I thought about stopping there, but it was only 11 am and I really didn’t want to be riding city streets in this heat, so I continued on to Pahrump at the edge of Death Valley. On the way, I came across an area of Joshua trees. I stopped at a trailhead turnoff and got some nice shots of them and of the mountain range I had to cross to get to Pahrump. Interesting that the Joshua trees disappeared on the mountain pass and reappeared as I descended to the valley after. Then it was 50 kms dead straight to the town of Pahrump. I spent an hour in a Starbuck’s, cooling down, finding a hotel and emailing before I rode over to the Saddle West Casino where I booked a room for the night. I checked in at 3 and hung around the casino and the pool cooling off and reading and avoiding the heat. To bed early for another early morning. A total of 252 kms today.
So glad you were not disappointed! Stunning pics.
ReplyDeletefantastic landscape!
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