Sometimes when we drive towards our next destined place to visit, we don't quite know where we'll stay. When leaving Yosemite, that was the case. We drove through a town called Bishop but we knew that was very busy because of memorial day weekend and we'd already checked in advance so we carried on and found a town called Lone Pine. There were about 10 motels and we got quotes from all of them but they were all a bit pricey. The nicest had double rooms for $50 plus tax so we decided to go for 2 rooms. When checking in, we asked if we could squeeze us all in to 1 room and they allowed it for no extra cost so it turned out we got a bargain!

Lone Pine is about as western as they come and it turns out that many of the old films were shot here as well as some new ones. Jack Palante and John Wayne even stayed at our hotel! We made sure we got the most out of the town by visiting the saloon bar complete with swinging doors!

Continuing with our journey we spent a day driving through Death Valley N.P. So called because of the sheer heat of the place. It holds the record for the hottest average temperature on the planet. What had we let ourselves in for! Well... not much really because we hit one of those rare summer days when its cloudy and the temperature doesn't get much higher than 25 degrees celcius! I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not. We're grateful for not having to withstand the heat but on the other hand that's part of the Death Valley experience!

In Death Valley is the lowest point in the western hemisphere - Badwater; 280 ft below see level - they have a sign up on the cliff saying where sea level is! The whole park is a dry, arid desert region so there's very little life and the best attraction is the views across the valley from Dante's Peak. Another standout feature is Artists Pallette where the rocks are an array of different colours.

At the western side of the park is a town called Beatty in Nevada where we stayed for two nights prior to our arrival in Las Vegas. There was nothing at all to do in this small, desolate town other than wait for the weekend to pass so we could go to Vegas and not pay the high weekend rates! It was nice to chill in a decent hotel before our action packed 4 days in the gambling capital of the world!

Next to Beatty is a ghost town deserted in 1911 called Rhyolite where some of the old buildings are still standing and some weird statues have been erected in recent years. Next stop... Vegas!