After three days in Vegas, our next destination is the Yosemite National Park. It’s a long drive between the two places. I have two ways to get to Yosemite. I could either take the 500 miles longer route via cities in California which is much safer or I could take the shorter 400 miles route through the Death Valley National Park. Both routes is estimated to take the same amount of time, 8 hours.
I decided to take the more exciting and precarious route — Death Valley! I guess we had been watching too many movies of overheated cars stranded in the middle of the desert. Suanne was unsure if that is the right thing to do. The boys were quite scared to tell the truth! Me? I would not pass on this chance to put another tick mark on my “Been There, Done That” list.
Let’s put things in perspective. I would say that 32C/90F is a hot day in Vancouver. When we were in Vegas it was 45C/113F — and that felt like you’re in a furnace. Guess how hot it COULD get in Death Valley … 54C/130F. Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in North America. That would put the fear of God in every man.
Oh well, you’ll only live once … I-95 it is then. Click here for the route we took (on hindsight, we should have taken this route instead).

We loaded up with water. We started off with getting 20 bottles of drinking water two days prior. Then just the day before we left Vegas, I checked the internet and read of some horror stories of people getting stranded and all. So, to play it safe, we bought another 24 bottles and some 4 litres bottles! We should be alright.

At the store, we also gotten ourselves some of our favourite snacks. Since the heavy breakfast buffet at Rio’s, we did not count on stopping for lunch. Nah … I don’t think they have McDonalds in the middle of the desert.

We almost always have string cheese for snacks on road trips. This one is pretty good but the best we had was from Oregon’s Tillamook cheese. The Pringles Parmesan Garlic potato chips were unique … so, we bought that to try. Normally Pringles comes in the longish can. It’s very salty … a disappointment really.

We made a stop at a small town called Beatty at the outskirt of Death Valley. It was all because of huge signs along the way advertising fresh home made jerkies for sale. We bought one pack.

This one is called “Gus’s Really Good Fresh Cowboy Beef Jerky”. Let me tell you … (more…)