Day 13: Bishop - Death Valley - Las Vegas

We began our day in the town of Bishop, and after a nice (and complimentary) breakfast we set off towards the desert.
Our last stop before we reached the American Desert however was Lone Pine, a small settlement with many buildings based on the time of the American Gold rushes. This supplied us with a few more American souvenirs before we set out into the huge deserts of Eastern California.
The desert soon became apparent, and the high temperature soon followed. By the time of our first stop: a dried up salt lake (apparently California had stolen the water from the lake, leaving just the plain), the temperature had climbed to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (over 32 degrees Celsius). The atmosphere was just as I had imagined: really still and silent but for the crunch of our feet walking on the gravel. We were careful to look out for wildlife, but all we saw was a red ant, no rattlesnakes.
Further down the road we stopped for more photographs of the stunningly still desert, with rocky mountains littering the otherwise flat plains. The desert was surprisingly green, not as I had imagined. There were multiple small shrubs, including some small cacti and Joshua Trees, only found in these local deserts.
Soon later we found the first and smaller of the two Valleys we were going through today: The Panamint valley. In this valley we dropped from about 7000 feet down to 1000 feet, before rising afterwards back up to over 4000 feet. The winding road had amazing views down the rugged valley, and we stopped frequently for photos. We stopped at the bottom of this Valley and discovered the temperature to be 104 degrees Fahrenheit: finally we had reached our benchmark of 40 degrees Celsius, the warmest temperature I have ever experienced (that I remember anyway: Bangkok may have be warmer but I was only about 1 year old).
After we climbed up back to over 4000 feet, we dropped into the famous Death Valley. This was a slightly less harsh gradient, and the harsh rocky cliffs were further away, but the temperature remained above 100 degrees. As we reached the bottom plain of the valley (elevation below sea level) we finally found a proper desert: the golden sand dunes, showing no life, as I had imagined the desert to be. Observing the necessary safety signs that plastered the carpark (Heat Kills) we moved into this amazing yet incredibly hot desert for a look, but quickly retreated into the air-conditioned car.
Our next stop was an old Borax mine before we stopped at the visitor centre for lunch. We were greeted by a very enthusiastic Rang (who had even been in the Waitomo caves) who was very happy to meet New Zealanders. After a slideshow and finally lunch we set off b ck into the heat, beginning to wish we had stayed in the cool Yosemite National Park.
Our last stop in the heat of the Valley was the Badlands: amazing carved rock hills, showing layer upon layer of rock formations.

Finally we arrived in the city which held our Accommodation: Las Vegas. Coming into the city it seemed just normal, until we reached the Las Vegas Boulevard. Quickly the buildings shot up, and we were on the Las Vegas Strip.
We passed the gigantic first two hotels/casinos (one of which was the huge Egyptian themed Luxor, with a huge pyramid) before reaching our accommodation: Excalibur. We got lost in the huge expanse of car park and, awed by the size, walked into the Castle. Thankfully (and unsurprisingly) it was very well air conditioned. We passed an awful lot of sad people throwing their money away on the slots as we worked our way to the Check-in. The lights and sounds were unbelievable.
We quickly put all our stuff upstairs (floor 22) and sped downstairs to the pool ( it was due to close in half an hour). We needn’t have bothered: it was an overfull pool no deeper than 3 feet at any7 point (evidently to keep the children busy as their parents gambled).
Soon we went back to get changed and find dinner. We had all sorts of things to choose from, and we eventually settled on the all you can eat buffet, which needless to say was HUGE, but nice!
After dinner we decided to have a look around the huge casinos/hotels down the strip. There was no end to the ways you could waste your money, but the buildings were amazing. We looked all throughout our place, The Luxor, New York New York (which included mock ups of famous buildings and a roller coaster, and the MGM hotel (which was the biggest by far). The lights and sounds of Vegas were even more interesting at night.
We saved money by not participating in any gambling and went to bed, after a very long but rewarding day of firsts.