SLO through Death Valley

Hello!!
I can't believe it has only been 3 days into our trip, there is already so much to tell! Just to make it easier, Katie is writing this one so when referring to "I", it's me, Katie :)

So we left on Monday the 6th around 1 pm and headed for San Luis. It took us a while to get everything packed in the car as we have everything you can imagine, from cooking supplies to a can of bear repellent. When we got to SLO, Tanner, Conner's brother, was still at work so we met him at his house. I think it is very necessary to share with you all Tanner's directions to his house because it was a great start to our trip...."GO through the driveway with the closed gate and park near the mobile home. If you've seen a cemetery on the right, you've gone too far. Once you park there will be a path through the trees behind you a wood bridge and gate, once you go through the gate take the first path to your left, there will be two bikes outside the cottage." Surprisingly, these were extremely accurate, except he forgot to mention that the gate has a giant sign that says "GUARD DOGS. DO NOT ENTER." The cottage was amazing and thank you Tanner for letting us stay.

Anyways, that night we went to dinner and a bar called Frog and Peach. When we got back, Tanner had the pleasure of shaving Conner's head. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Gave him a mullet and some balding in the back first. In the morning we had breakfast a nice local cafe on the water in Los Osos and then began our journey to Death Valley.

We didn't realize how far Death Valley actually was from SLO, so when we found out it was 8 hours instead of four, we decided we might need to stop along the way. We found a little campground called Walker Pass probably about 50 miles outside of Bakersfield. At that point we were really starting to get into desert land so it was really pretty.

We finally made it to Death Valley on Wednesday morning and right away we were both in awe. It was really cool to see the elevation signs decreasing from 5,000 all the way to sea level and below. When we first got there, it was pretty hot, probably 90 degrees, but we knew that was nothing compared to what we would experience later in the day. We did our first hike through Mosaic Canyon, which was a hike through a dried up river. It was pretty amazing. This narrow path was just surrounded by huge red and yellow rock walls, a lot actually made out of limestone. Neither of us had ever experienced the desert before and it really does have it's own unique beauty to it. When we finished the hike we got some lunch down at the main lodging and recreation area, Furnace Creek. We realized, after spending about an hour in Death Valley, that the fact that we spoke English and were actually from the US, made us the minority. Our new game became to guess where everyone was from.

Later, it started getting SUPER hot so we went swimming at the lodge after finding our own little camp spot near by. The campground was pretty empty, not many people visit there in the summer compared to winter, I don't blame them, the heat is almost unbearable. After the pool, around 5 we headed to the sand dunes, something both of us were super excited about. I think this was top 3, if not THE coolest thing I have ever done. It was, what seemed like, an endless land of sand dunes. I felt like I was in Aladdin :) It was super hot but I convinced Conner that we should hike up one of the taller sand dunes so we could see the sunset. Probably the most tiring work out either of us have ever had but I would sprint up that thing a million times just to see that view. Conner did an amazing job with taking pictures so hopefully you will be able to understand how awesome it was. Only regret is not bring a giant piece of cardboard to slide down on. Wow this is getting long...

Okay, that night we made an extravagant meal of cold soup and scrambled eggs and then tried to go to bed but had to instantly get out of the tent because it was so hot. We thought once the sun went down, it would cool down, we were greatly mistaken. Conner found our little hand fans and I filled up a spray bottle with water and the next two hours consisted of us spraying ourselves with water until we fell asleep.

We got up around 5:30 and drove to Badwater, which is the lowest elevation in the western hemisphere at about 280 or so feet below sea level. It was basically just an ocean of dried salt and it was surrounded by mountains. Pretty cool walking on salt. We did one more little hike through the Golden Canyon and then went up to Zabriski Point for a famous view of the valley. Breathtaking is all I can say.

So now, we are in Vegas. We are staying in a Best Western (thanks to my parents) about a half a mile from the strip. I had never seen Vegas before. The buildings are huge, with New York New York, Mandalay Bay and Caesar's Palace, it is exactly like the movies! So how did we spend our first few hours in this crazy city that never sleeps!? We were too early for check in so we sat in the parking lot of the Best Western and made tuna sandwiches, which, by the way, are incredibly hard to make when your can opener does not work. We are LIVING LARGE people!

SO that is it for now, sorry this turned out to be a novel, but I'm just so excited I want to tell you everything!

We have A LOT of pictures, but of course our album thing is being really slow so we can't post all of them yet, but here are a few and more will come later!

Miss you all!!