The Glitter, The Solitude And The Beauty

It’s the only longest holiday of year. 10 days, from 24th Dec to 4th Jan. To escape from the brutal winter of Bend we decided to sign in to the hot Death Valley National Park and then to hit the party in Las Vegas!

It was all set, first Death Valley then Vegas then Zion National Park and back to our territory Bend!!!!

It’s going to be very difficult to distill down 8 days trip in just 1blog. Hope you won’t be hundred years old till you reach the last paragraph.

Day 1 (28th Dec) - Rough start

We’ve been planned to fly out to Vegas from Bend. It’s just a 2hrs journey but it got stretched for the whole day. Due to bad weather the flight got delayed by 5hrs :( so finally at 6 in the evening we fall in the Sin City!!!!

It was glittery, jazzy, loud and just by looking at the air port you will get why they say “What ever happens in Vegas, remains in Vegas!!!” There were slot machines at every possible location; pictures you usually avoid to have a look at when somebody else is around were on big hoardings with flashy lights!!!!!

Whatever considered as crooked in rest of the world has given a public appreciation in Vegas. For people in Vegas smoking, drinking and gambling is not an event it’s a continuous process!!! You will find people playing at slot machines and drinking even at 4 in the morning!!!

So this is all the ‘most talked about’ side of Vegas. But there is something more than this, it is the entertainment Capital of the world, live world class performances right from cirque du soleil to David Copperfield till Jeff Dunham! Deluxe hotels and top notch cars will be at your service with a cost next to nothing!!! The definition of luxury changes in Vegas!

 But despite of all this bewitching of Vegas, we hold all the temptations and PILAN KE MUTABIK we en routed to Death Valley!

Day 2 (29th Dec) – Amazement

Death Valley National Park- One of the largest national parks in US.

It’s the Grave of Glaciers- in the ice age there used to be glaciers in that region but after that all the snow has melted away and just the dead earth is remained. Life has been largely stripped away from this region. It’s low, rugged, hot yet magnetizing. Somebody has written this about Death Valley "Here you can’t hide, so you find yourself". Death valley is a place where one can experience the dispassion, cos there is no life all you can see is just the bare earth.

The Name death valley came like this- 50 wagons were trying to cross this valley 49 could not survive through the heat. The only person, who could make it through, turned back and said “bye bye death valley” and the name stuck!!!!!!

First we saw 'Harmony Borax Works' it was a fully operating borax plant in 1880s.Now there are just the remains of buildings, machinery, tanks, piping, and waste tailings.

After that we visited was Golden Canyon. As its name suggests it’s a canyon of yellow colored stones and sand. It was a surprise hike! You can climb up through the cranks in the walls of the canyon. These cranks were created by flash floods and the unsettled earth.

Though the climb was like 30 mins, but the view from the top was breath taking. I felt like I am looking at a satellite picture of salt and alkaline flats and broad regions of sand dunes. It was amazing!

After that we walked almost a mile in canyon but then we realized we are not going to find its end even if we walk for the rest of day. So we turned back and headed towards the Natural Bridge. It’s a big rock arch intersecting the canyon. View was amazing, clear blue sky and dark brown colored rocks in golden sunshine!!!!

Then most visited point of Death Valley 'Bad Water Basin'. It has a little story behind its name, 'once upon a time a horse rider offered this water to his horse and the despite of all that hot dessert around the horse dint drink the water’ hence the name 'Bad Waters'. Bad water is the lowest point in US. Way back there used to be a lake but now there is just a patch of water!!! Isn’t it scary? When we were roaming in Death Valley I felt that Death Valley is a live (dead??) demo of the consequences of Global warming!!!

The 2nd last point was Devils Golf Course- It’s a rough space formed by salt crystals. It’s been named so coz only devil can play golf in such plane. :) A very nice location for photos and for final fighting scene of Hindi movies!

Nywy it was almost 4 in the evening and we had only half an hour before sun set so we decided to do the Artists Drive! As its name suggests it’s a drive through the art works of God. In Death Valley the earth is bare...you can see its different layers and colors. Minerals give colors to the earth and you can see its diversity. It was a drive through beautifully painted hills. It felt like walking through a scenic portrait!!!! And as the sun was setting the colors got glorified in the yellow sunlight.

By thanking God for such a wonderful portrait, we ended our day1 in death valley and headed back to our base camp in a town called 'Beatty'.Believe me the phrase 'Ugly Betty' must have been came from this town. Its a B grade version of Vegas!!! 

Day2 (30th Dec) – Disappointment and the Surprise

Sunrise at the sand dunes

The day has started very early as we wanted to catch the sunrise at the sand dunes. After struggling with our sleep we finally reached at the dunes before sunrise. But the sun rise didn’t happen as we were expecting. It was a cloudy morning :( We actually wanted take photos of dunes in the golden yellow light on sunrise but Bad luck!!!

It was not that bad, we had good exercises in climbing up almost 20-30 feet high dunes and a mile long walks in the sand. With hungry stomach we attacked on a huge breakfast at stove pipe wells :)

Mosaic Canyon

It’s a half mile walk through the canyon narrows. They are smooth polished marble walls ,Yes marble walls!! Natural marble!! It was incredible, first time in my life I saw such narrows with so beautifully decorated walls. You can see the layers and different type of formations in the walls. The narrows are like a hallway and it ends in a big canyon. Huge rocky walls with mud fall over it. They call it mud falls coz the dried mud is still on the walls and it looks like a fall.

Scotty’s castle

Ya you got that right, there is a big castle in the dessert. Sounds weird and the story behind the castle is even weirder.First let me tell you the story of the castle, very first thing it is not owned by Scotty and the second thing is it’s not a castle it’s a two story Spanish style villa.

This castle tells story about friendship between a millionaire gentleman and a fraudulent gold mine founder Scotty (aka Death Valley Scotty).

Scotty was a great story teller. He has been grown up in the Death Valley so he could come up with very realistic fake stories about it.

Albert Johnson has invested in Scotty’s gold mine but even after investing millions he dint not get any return from it. To find the truth about the mine, Albert Johnson made a trip to Death Valley. But in the first visit it self this gentleman felt in love with Death Valley and Scotty’s company. He started visiting the place more frequently. Despite of the fraud of Scotty, Albert Johnson and Scotty became friends. And to make the visit more comfortable for his wife too he decided to build a villa. Scotty used to entertain him with his stories.

After the great depression Johnson has opened that villa for tourism and because of Scotty’s entertaining company soon it became the number 1 destination for Death Valley visitors.

Titus Canoyn

It’s a 26 mile long canyon and its one of the entry point for Death Valley. It is so big that you can drive a truck through it :) Its huge rocky walls make you feel so tiny. Despite of the heat outside, because of the rocks it was very pleasant inside the canyon.

After returning from the canyon we again tried our luck for sunset but again we couldn’t catch it at the dunes. But we clicked some really beautiful photographs of the rising moon. So the day started with dunes ended on the same dunes!

Day 3 (31 Dec) Last stroke

It was our last day in Death Valley. The last points were just as the last finishing strokes.

Zabriskie point, Dante’s view and ghost town (Rhyolite) are the places which can be called as the signature poses of Death Valley.

Ghost Town Rhyolite- Crumbled buildings are the main attraction of this ghost town. Death Valley has many ghost towns in it. These are basically abandoned towns due to the closed mines. In the gold rush due to mines some places have been civilized for the mine workers. But as soon as the mine closed down the towns got stripped away.

Zabriskie point -

Its a part of Amargosa Range. Very beautiful convoluted rock formations just have a look at the pictures

Dante’s View-

Dante's View is a panoramic view of the southern Death Valley basin. You can see the lowest point bad waters and highest point telescope view at the same time. The point has been named after Dante for his poem Inferno- Means a large controlled fire. From this point you can see the burning valley.

It was the best point to crown the trip. Ending on this lovely note we headed towards Vegas for the 31st night.

Vegas 31st Party- It was smoky, boozy and freezing night. A cultural shock for me :) but the firework was stunning. First time in my life I have seen such a big celebration for the New Year!!!!!!

1st and 2nd Jan- Zion National Park

After wandering through the life less stretches of the Death Valley, Zion was the perfect choice. It was mighty and exquisite. What more to say I felt in love at first sight with Zion. Big reddish tan colored sand stone walls, lush greenery and all year round gushing Virgin River. It was all picture perfect. Ideal location for Shahrukh Songs :P

Actually winter is not the right season to visit Zion. There are so many adventurous trails and hikes but because of ice we could not do anything. So the Zion visit was almost like a virtual tour. Did not do any hikes but catched a very good sun set and sun rise. Sun was just so in favor with us, sunrise at 8.15 and sunset at 5.45 no hurries!!! We enjoyed the beauty of nature with some ice skidding and frozen trails :)

There is so much write about the beauty of Zion but as pictures are worth 1000 words I am posting those :)

3rd Jan - Last day of the trip

It was a day specially spared out for leisure. Actually we dint get a flight for 3rd Jan so we planned to come back early on 4th. So 3rd is just a buffer to end the trip with a big sleep, king size lunch and dinner and the last finishing touch cirque de soliel.

We saw the KA show. It was thrilling, captivating, mind boggling and in short a must watch. Cirque d soliel has taken the circus to a way different level. It has drama, action, romance, comedy and everything has woven in a beautiful story. The visual effects and the techniques used are just stunning. A Grand set up, big and continuously changing stage and world class performances. Trying to keep the joy in our minds we ended the trip and returned to our home sweet home :)

We enjoyed the flavors of these places fully because all the places were so in contrast with each other. So after clattering Vegas we could enjoy the serenity of Death Valley and after the DEATH Valley we could enjoy the vivacious Zion. Ultimately it turned out as a beautiful collage :)