USA 2002 - Death Valley - Crankshaft Corner!

Death Valley : 1 - 2 - 3

Death Valley was actually Angela's favourite place that we visited while in America. It was so hot but had beautiful scenery, and a mad range of wildlife.

ABOVE: When we planned our drive in to Death Valley, the most scenic route looked like the one from the north. It was a dotted road, but we assumed that meant it was a bit narrow - when we got there we learnt that it mean it was a dirt track!! You can see the dotted road on the map above.

ABOVE & BELOW: Here is the Chrysler Grand Voyager that we'd hired for our trip. I was the only person liscensed to drive it, but it was great fun - it was like sitting in a huge arm chair and had automatic everything including cruise control. It seated seven, and as we were a group of five, there was plenty of room.

ABOVE & BELOW: Driving down the dirt track wasn't too bad, but I'm sure it didn't do much good for the suspension. When we got to aptley Crank Shaft Corner we got a bit shaken (quite litterally). We were lucky that the car managed to keep going. It was another 20 miles of track from this corner to the tarmac! You can see the road going off in the distance above.

ABOVE: This was the view across Death Valley as we entered from the north. You can see the incline down hill which then takes it 282 feet below sea level!

BELOW: On the way in we stopped at Scotty's Castle which is a 1920s two storey Spanish Villa, and saw scenes of the distant sand dunes. I didn't manage to take any pictures but have nabbed some off the internet - click on the pictures to go to the original page the picture was taken from.

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