A Little Desert Hiking

Good morning, Caesars!!  :)   This was the view from our hotel room shortly after I woke up.

Mark and I got up fairly early so we could check out the casino a little bit before we had to leave. We made our way downstairs and had breakfast at a little cafe (I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich with capers...oh man, was it good!), then wandered around for a little while to check out the casino while we finished our coffee. I lost $10 on some slot machines and video poker, then we made our way back up to the room to repack our bags before checking out. It was time for some adventuring!

Hello, desert!

Mark and I were going to spend the next day or so in Death Valley. We made a quick stop at Target for some snacks and water bottles after we checked out of the hotel, then hit the road.

It took a couple hours to get there, and almost all of the drive was through miles and miles of desert. I absolutely loved the scenery, but Mark thought the lack of green trees (or really, green anything) was too depressing for him. After a while, we finally came to the park entrance and stopped to pay the entrance fee.

Hello, Death Valley!   :)

We decided to spend the afternoon checking out the southern part of the park before making our way to our hotel, which was further north. The park map showed an easy short hike nearby (the Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail), so we decided to check it out.

So, in typical me fashion, of course the hike wound up taking way longer than we expected. Oops. I realized as we pulled into the parking lot that the map said it was one mile each way, not one mile total. But hey, adventure, right? I'm sure Mark loves going places with me.

At least the scenery was worth it!

The hike was pretty easy and eventually made its way through the canyon and back toward Red Cathedral. We climbed over some small rock piles to get a better view, then eventually turned around and started to make our way back to the car.

The sun was starting to get a little lower in the sky and the colors on the rocks were fantastic. I must have stopped every five minutes to take more pictures.

Toward the end of the hike.

We made our way back to the car and, since it was late afternoon, decided to drive a little further south to watch the sun set before heading to the hotel for the night.