By Shelby
Monday, we worked from a local library. We ate lunch in the car. I had an almond butter and jelly sandwich and Spencer had a turkey sandwich. The small table that attaches to the steering wheel has been one of the best items we got for this trip. Spencer uses it all the time. After work, we did laundry at a nearby laundromat.
Tuesday, we worked from the same library. It was conveniently only a 3 minute drive from the Planet Fitness we were staying at. Most of the Planet Fitnesses in the Las Vegas area are open 24/7, which is really nice.
Wednesday after work, we went to Carl’s Jr., a fast food restaurant that started on the west coast. We both got burgers and tried the chicken tenders. The chicken tenders were better than the burgers I thought. After dinner, we drove on to a different Planet Fitness closer to the downtown Las Vegas area.
Thursday, we drove an hour out of Las Vegas to Valley of Fire State Park. Valley of Fire State Park is known for its fiery red rocks and mountains. Our first hike was to thousands of years old petroglyphs. They were very cool to see. There were drawings of bighorn sheep which live in the area, spirals, people, and different patterns.
The road through the park followed along a canyon through the mountains. It was fun to drive on. We even saw some bighorn sheep sitting on some rocks near the road.
Our next hike was Rainbow Vista to Fire Canyon. For a desert, the area was surprisingly colorful. With the red and orange mountains and sand, the green bushes, blue sky, and purple mountains in the distance, I could see why it was called Rainbow Vista. The red sand was difficult to walk on and piled up on our shoes. We played the “sand is lava” by jumping from rock to rock in the sand.
Our longest hike of the day at almost 4 miles was the most interesting one. The first notable feature of the trail was the Fire Wave, a striped sandstone formation that looked like a wave of fire. The wave was formed by wind and water erosion over the last 150 million years.
The next feature was the Pink Canyon, a canyon carved out by water with pink walls. Part of it had water in it, so we had to backtrack and go around by walking above the canyon walls. The colors were so vibrant.
Up next was the Kaolin Slot Canyon, a dried up canyon with curvy walls we could walk through. After that was the White Domes Slot Canyon, a taller and wider canyon.
This trail had a lot of variety. The red mountains contrasted sharply with the bright white ones. We walked over long stretches of sand and also up rocky hillsides. It was a great hike. We liked that we could walk pretty much wherever we wanted without being forced to stay on the trail. Other features of the trail included a stone archway, an old movie set from the 60s, beautiful sandstone stairs, and white dome mountains. After we finished our hike, we drove the hour back to Las Vegas. For dinner, we got Chipotle, as is our custom after a long day of hiking. Then we returned to Planet Fitness for the night.
We spent Friday morning going through pictures and working on the website. After lunch, we drove into downtown Las Vegas, and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Just kidding! Our first stop was the Fremont Street Experience. This pedestrian-only street was covered by the world’s largest video screen. It seemed like stereotypical Las Vegas. There were casinos with bright flashing lights and street performers everywhere. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of homeless people, which was sad.
We went into the Golden Nugget casino and hotel to see the largest gold nugget on display. It is 61 pounds of gold. It looked pretty impressive. Next, we drove down the strip towards the famous Welcome to Las Vegas Sign. We saw lots of small wedding chapels along the way and joked about getting married early.
When we got to the welcome sign, we were surprised to see a line of at least 20-30 people waiting to take a picture with the sign. There was even a drink vendor and an Elvis impersonator hanging out there. We decided to skip the line and just take pictures from the side with people in it.
We made a quick stop at the Pinball Hall of Fame. It was in an old airplane hangar. There were almost 700 pinball machines. The large room was filled with rows and rows of pinball games. We each played one.
Next up was the Las Vegas Strip. We parked at the Tropicana before setting out on our walk. It was still pretty early in the day, so I was surprised to see so many people out walking. The casinos were very impressive. Excalibur had a massive castle that looked medieval.
We went in the New York New York casino. The outside of it was the New York skyline and there was a Statue of Liberty. The inside was huge and maze-like. There were so many machines and tables. There were a lot of people too. Spencer spent a dollar on a slot machine and immediately lost. Then he bought a $1 chip as a souvenir.
We continued our walk down the Strip. We saw the Eiffel Tower across the street from the Bellagio. We went in the Flamingo hotel and casino to check out the free exotic bird habitat, but they weren’t on display because of the bird flu.
The Venetian was pretty cool. The inside was like Venice. There were canals with people riding around in gondolas. The ceiling was painted like the sky. There were bridges crossing over the canal. There were even restaurants with “outdoor” seating. There were also lots of high-end shops and stores.
We got dinner at an Italian restaurant in Caesars Palace. It was fancier than we had expected and became quite the splurge. The waiters were dressed up in suits. The food was expensive and the portions were pretty small. It was good though. We got a caesar salad to start which was fun.
Our last stop was the Bellagio. All of these massive casinos seemed very similar. They all had huge malls inside with the same stores, a labyrinth of slot machines, and fancy restaurants. I chose to try a slot machine here with no luck. I also bought a $1 chip as a souvenir. We caught the fountain show outside the Bellagio. It was done to the song Singin’ in the Rain. It was very well done. After that, we were tired and cold so we headed back to the car. We drove to a nearby Planet Fitness for the night.
Saturday morning, we got up early since we had a two hour drive to Death Valley National Park in California. After we got ready in Planet Fitness, we got a quick breakfast at McDonald’s. The drive to Death Valley was interesting. To get out of Las Vegas, we had to drive high up and over a mountain range. After that, most of the drive was downhill to Death Valley.
Our first stop in the park was Zabriskie Point, a viewpoint of the surrounding badlands. The badlands were pretty colorful, with many different shades of brown. There were trails into the badlands that looked fun to explore, but we didn’t have much time too spare. We continued on to the visitors center.
Our first stop after the visitors center was the Devil’s Golf Course. There, we were able to explore some very interesting salt deposit formations. They were created over many years when water rises up, dissolves the minerals, and dries up, leaving the unique formations. The Devil’s Golf Course got its name from an old National Park Service guidebook that stated “only the devil could play golf” on its surface.
Next was Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. We walked out onto a salt flat. The salt was very rigid and rough and formed different geometric shapes.
Next up was the Artists Palette Scenic Drive. We drove up into colorful mountains. It was also pretty busy. People were climbing all over the place taking pictures. The road curved through high canyon walls. It was amazing they were able to make a road there.
When we finished the drive, we went to Borax Works, an old borax mining and processing plant. When the borax was refined, it was transported by a 20 mule team over a hundred miles to the railroad.
The Mesquite Sand Dunes were our next stop. We had lunch before going out into the dunes. We spent an hour exploring and looking for the most pristine dunes. We went barefoot to keep sand out of our shoes. The sand facing the sun was significantly warmer than the sand facing away.
Our last stop of the day was Dante’s View. We drove up a long and very steep road at the end to get to the top of the mountain. There was a short trail going up to the actual peak of the mountain, so we decided to climb up. It was definitely worth it despite the cold. The sunset was beautiful and we had views in every direction. We could see Badwater Basin below where we had walked earlier. After the sunset, we returned to the car and left the park. We had considered staying later to see the stars, but decided against it. We had a two hour drive back to Las Vegas.
Sunday, we went grocery shopping for our next meal, zuppa toscana with bread and butter. We went to a park overlooking Las Vegas to cook. We also finished up work on the website and got ready for next week. We did a lot this week. As we move into southern California next week, we’re hoping for warmer weather.
Fun Facts from Week 40:
- Caesars Palace, not Caesar’s Palace, is named that way because every customer is considered a Caesar, not because the palace belongs to Caesar.
- The Statue of Liberty weighs approximately 4,645,161 Hershey’s chocolate bars.
- The famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was erected in 1959 and cost the county $4000.
- Death Valley National Park is officially the hottest place on earth. It holds the world record hottest air temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
5 responses to “Week 40”
Thank you for sharing. I love following you across the states.
Thanks for following us and commenting! It’s great to hear!
I love following you 2 across the states. Love your pics!
Great photos! Papa and I have been to some if the places you went to in Tucson, so it memories brought back by your pictures. We also made that same drive into Vegas. Have fun, be safe and live you both!
Thanks, Miss you!