DAY 36 started out with no issues. We got moving at a decent hour and headed into Death Valley National Park. The reason we weren’t comfortable with our spot the night before was that it happened to be within park boundaries. What was worse than that was there was a lot of ranger activity. I had seen an article online a few days prior about a jet crash there. That must have been the investigation front.

We moved past quite quickly out of respect for the rangers doing their jobs and of course to get on with our day. That place is HOT, I mean H!O!T!!! This is not my sort of place at this time of year. I would love to go back in the early spring to do it again. I took the death walk (about 1 mile out and back on the Badwater Basin Salt Flat). So, I am a pretty resourceful guy and since I knew I would melt making the walk I decided to bring instant shade, AKA a golf umbrella. I was the only one there doing that which surprised me. I did however get multiple compliments on my great idea. I must be an innovator.

After sweating up a storm, we headed to the visitor center where we watched a movie about the park, as always, very informative. Heading out we got confirmation of how hot it was. I took a picture with the thermometer when it was only 118 degrees, but before we drove off it actually hit 121 degrees. It was time to get moving, as I didn’t want to be there after 2 PM, the hottest time of the day (it was supposed to get to 124 according to the sign in the visitor center). We set off to Dante’s Overlook to check out the walk we did. The temperature up there was a comfortable 96 degrees.

At various points we actually had to turn off the air conditioning to prevent the car from overheating. In the hills the breeze was welcoming, 200 plus feet below sea level was not! I felt like an oven door was opened in my face. We made it to the park boundary by 2:30 PM and headed to our next destination. Since we were ahead of schedule and Las Vegas was only 15 minutes out of the way, we decided to hit the Stratosphere and be dare-devils. It was a nice excursion, but I am happy to be back heading to nature. Flying J is our campsite for the night. Let’s see how we make out!