Road Trip to The Grand Canyon++ (Part 2)
It was December 28, 2017. The morning was bright with a very comfortable weather at Kingman Arizona. Just within an hour we reached Hoover Dam. An impressive of feat of engineering to put a leash on colorado river in a place so rocky that it felt pretty lifeless. It wasn’t a place to hang out for longer than an hour. So headed for California towards Death Valley.
The sun was hanging in the lower sky by the time we got there. It was casting impressive shadows of our mortal selves on the dry desert as if making a fleeting mark of our presence there. This place is called Death Valley for a reason. Apart from one of the hottest places on earth, this place looks alien like. As if straight out of another planet from a science fiction movie. We reached Zabriskie Point when the sunlight was leaving its last mark on the mountain tops kissing them goodbye. An impressive display of colors on rocky landscapes and the view of vast plains of Badwater Basin at a distance held me captive there. But I had to break out of it. Light was going away and I still had to see salty falts of the Badwater Basin. Just 20 minutes ride from there to the basin, it was already sundown. But the moon was shining as bright as ever. It was a vast empty land as big as I had never seen before sorrounded by mountains in every direction. It was the lowest piont on North America. During rainstorms this flatland is flooded accumulating salt from nearby rocks. That salty water is undrinkable hence the name Badwater. But in the dry season all the water is evaporated leaving a thick sheet of salt.
That was what we went to see. Had to hike about two miles close the middle to see the salt formation as it was not visible at the entrace because of many people walking over it. My phone’s juice ran out so could not take pictures in the middle. But I saw a spectacular sight like the picture below minus the DSLR effects. These structures are made out of salt and they were as hard as rock. Took some broken pieces as souvenir.
We had sand dunes of Death Valley on our list. But we had to save it for another time as night time fell. And it was time for Las Vegas. That place was full of light and wierd people. All the important places were placed in one street, Las Vegas Boulevard, and it is a bit hard to cover on foot. But we tried. From Venetian to Bellagio, that infamous hotel in the movie Oceans 11, and back again. We were offered unconventional enternainment out on the streets which we had to decline. We took the High Roller (Ferris Wheel) ride to watch the whole city from above. Just so you know it is currently the tallest ferris wheel on planet earth.
An eventful day conluded with dinner from ‘Halal Guys’ in Caesar casino. You see the irony? Halal in a casino. Whatever. A sleepy ride back to the hotel at Kingman, it was time to prepare for the main event the next day. The Grand Canyon.