So after glacier point and Yosemite I headed towards Vegas. It was a day of driving up and down thousands of feet. Luckily Tioga pass opened a week before I visisted Yosemite cutting 2 hours off my drive to Vegas. Tioga pass is a road through Yosemite and is closed during winters and opens only after the snow is completely cleared. Tioga pass boasts spectacular views from the beginning to the very end. Climbing to 10000ft, the kens were simply stunning with ranging views of Yosemite Valley. Each stop has a unique view waiting for you. At Olmsted Point, with binoculars, you can see people climbing Half Dome. Along the route is Tenaya lake located between mountains and harboring stellar reflections of the Hills surrounding it. Driving and weaving through the meadows and the mountain sides I exited the park through the West entrance of Yosemite. From here on we were descending from 10,000 ft. As I stopped along the road to take in the breath taking surrounding, I noticed a few daredevils climbing a nearby snow capped mountain to ski the last snow of the season. After stopping multiple times for stellar views I finally reached Interstate 365. But right before joining Interstate 365, I took a small detour towards the last gas station before the Yosemite west entrance and headed to the RV parking located on top of a hillock to get a perfect view of Mono Lake. Mono lake is called the inland sea and is used for every purpose other than fishing. The color contrast of the lake and the barren land around it is weirdly satisfying. After getting my fill of the view I mergerd with the interstate and headed into the Wild Wild West. The houses, the cantinas, in fact almost every structure looks as if they were a set in a western movie, adding a sense of nostalgia.

And so through all these landscapes, I was approaching Death Valley. Death Valley is known as the driest place on earth and it hasn’t rained there in over 2 million years. The nearest town close to Death Valley is the 50 miles away. Once you enter Death Valley all you can see is wide expanses of barren lands, mountains, and sand dunes. But these inhospitable terrains also harbor some gorgeous landscape views. Imagine miles and miles of land without a person in sight and tempered carefully under the sun’s blazing rays. The nothingness is a beauty in itself.

As I entered Death Valley I checked my fuel gauge and water stocks since there is practically no life in Death Valley apart from a couple of villages. But some 30 miles into Death Valley I noticed that my car fuel gauge had a glitch. The fuel gauge had been indicating the wrong levels of fuels all along and suddenly plunged to indicate that I had less than a quarter of the fuel tank left. I had enough fuel for another 60 miles and from what I gathered from the internet the nearest gas station was furnace creek which was 56 miles away. I had already crossed one of the two villages of Death Valley and that village was out of fuel and fuel would be available only after 2 days. There was no guarantee there would be fuel at the second village either. Even if I turned back there was a good chance I would run out of fuel well before I reached the interstate so I forged ahead praying that fuel didn’t run out and hoping my car fuel gauge indicator wouldn’t dip any lower. I switched off the AC so that I could conserve fuel and drove on neutral whenever I was heading downhill. I managed to conserve fuel and increase the mileage for the next 20 miles and if this went on I would make it furnace creek without any hitch but that was a long shot in the unforgiving desert. My lips were drying up fast and the hot breeze through the window was blistering my skin. Any moisture on my skin just vanished. The Sun was setting fast and with no person in sight, things were getting dire for me. If I ran out of fuel I would be stuck in the middle of the desert with a 2-day hike to the nearest gas station and this wasn’t an option in 110 F temperatures. I forged on using any tactic I could to save fuel. As I was driving deep into death valley and was staring at an emptying fuel gauge I came upon Stovepipe wells, the second village in death valley and thankfully there was fuel in the fuel pumps here. Apparently, Stovepipe Wells is a sort of resort unlike the first village which is basically a run down minning village. Stovepipe Wells had a saloon, a hotel with a pool, a gift shop and a gas station. I don’t know why anyone would want to establish the resort in the middle of nowhere but I was thanking my stars that they did.If not for this fuel station I might have been in a tricky situation. After I fueled up my car and got myself a shirt from the gift shop I got back on to the road and was on my way to Vegas. Along the way, I stopped at the Mesquite dunes which are sand dunes that a smaller version of the saharan dunes. A hundred feet from the road these dunes give an impression as if you are in the Deserts of Sahara. The setting sun and the orange hue on the dunes make the whole Vista magical but the heat accompanying the magical view was punishing. Just 20 mins outside the car, my skin started drying and cracking and that was my cue to get out of death valley.

Driving through Death Valley can get monotonous. There is no vegetation or civilization around for miles and all you see is barren land. Even if you got off the road for one second at high speeds you would bust a tire. Battling boredom I carefully drove my way through Death Valley and finally reached Parhump at around 8 pm. And from there Sin City was a hop, skip and a jump away.

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