We thought we may stay one night at the north end of Death Valley - but all campgrounds were full. We drove to Ubehebe Crater and thought we may stop for lunch there, but the wind was wicked. I barely was able to stand solid long enough to take a photo.


What this sign doesn't tell you is that the wind might blow you over the edge!


So, we got outa there in a hurry and just ate some lunch on the road. The sweeping vistas in this valley actually remind me of Polychrome Pass in Mt. McKinley (Denali) national park. Probably a twisted memory there - the Alaska mountain range and Death Valley certainly bear no resemblance to each other ... and yet ...



So, we drove about an hour or so more ... and we saw this sign. Is this a park for us or what?! Hot Springs and cocktails. Yes!


And, this is what an RV Park office should look like right?


But, alas! It was not to be. We checked our cell phones and saw that there was no signal here. One full day without phones was kinda nice, but now we had some calls we needed to make. We had to move on. Pretty spectacular scenery. Yucca mountain is around here somewhere. You know, where they want to dump the nuclear waste?



We didn't go too much further before we saw full signal on the phones, so we looked for a place to stop and found a campground with hookups for $13. But when we tried to make calls we got fast busy signals, or messages that 'your call cannot be completed as dialed'. No matter what we dialed. Also, even though my computer was off, the stereo was off, the car was off ... there was faint music playing on my computer speakers. hmmmm, do you think this had anything to do with it?



So we spent another phoneless night with the wind rocking us to sleep. In the morning the phones worked.

I never thought of Las Vegas as a ski destination - but take a look at snow mountain. Pretty amazing how the desert gives rise to the snow.