It’s nice and toasty warm in Death Valley! We saw some awesome stuff, including sand dunes, a volcanic crater, and many miles of crazy desert.

There was an amazingly intelligent group of folks at the crater that locked their keys in their car… darwinism at work. This whole concept of “death” in Death Valley was obviously lost on them. On the way out we saw the park ranger headed their way.

There are two hotels in Death Valley Junction, CA… they are both owned by Xanterra Parks and Resorts, who charges $250/night for the decent hotel and $140/night for the touristy motel place. Upon examining their website, I noticed that they also own the hotel in Stovepipe Wells. Nice monopoly, guys. In any case, we drove on…

There are three hotels in Pahrump, NV, and they are all full. We drove on to Las Vegas, where we were pretty much guaranteed to find a room… and we did! A very nice Hilton Garden Inn for only $99/night. I suppose we’ll do a drive-by of the strip today. I suspect it will be a lot like a “shit-hole bar” where it looks really great until someone turns the lights on.

Pictures will be posted when we get home!