Desert - pretty warm

Death Valley was quite a way from June Lake. We eventually found ourselves in the desert in the early afternoon. Pretty, and warmer than I expected right from the outset.



Death Valley is a little odd geographically. Here in Northern Nevada we're at 4,700ft. Driving South takes us even higher. Then at some point a great crack opens up in the earth and decends to a couple of hundred feet below sea level. So, we had a bit of driving down to do to get there.

We arrived in time to get to the ranger station at the aptly named Furnace Creek and arranged camping for the night, and planned our cycle trip. Camping was near Furnace Creek itself, with well organised camp sites on pretty solid dirt/rock. No showers but running water and toilets (our neighbours set up a solar shower avec cubicle as we were leaving - they had previously given us strawberries so we couldnt hate them for the shower!). Camping in the desert was frankly awesome. Amazing views, very warm, loads of stars - beautiful.

The idea of our trip was to Death Valley was to test some of our gear ready for our Alaska cycling adventure. Well, testing the food was surprisingly excellent. Trail rations from REI, though not cheap, were very easy to cook and tasty. Our thermarest kit for joining 2 thermarests together worked brilliantly but for one problem, my tent was a bit too small to accomodate 2 thermarests side-by-side (we subsequently bought a new tent, which is frankly ENORMOUS).