Death Valley, Las Vegas, April 2003

Here's a page with some pictures and reminiscences from my vacation to Death Valley and Las Vegas in April 2003. I went with my friend Vitaly from work, and we also met up with my roommate Boris and some friends of his in Las Vegas. Vitaly and I spent a couple days roaming around Death Valley and seeing the sights, then headed down to Vegas to meet up with Boris et al.

This page is meant to be pretty low-key rather than an exhaustive catalog of all the sights etc. I basically brought along my digicam and took pictures when something caught my eye. Perhaps you'll enjoy some of the shots! :-)

And with that, away we go! (btw, click on the small pictures to get full-size versions...)

Longstreet_Oasis_1 640 X 480 41 KB The first night we stayed at a roadside place called the Longstreet Inn and Casino. They had this very pleasant desert oasis in the back.

Longstreet_Oasis_2 640 X 480 41 KB They even have a gazebo!

Mountains_Bush 800 X 600 67 KB Walking to the edge of the oasis, you can start to see the bush country up close. Very stark, but strangely alluring.

Dantes_View_1 800 X 600 48 KB The first stop of the day was Dante's View. The names of the places in Death Valley are very fitting: Death Valley, Last Chance Ravine, Starvation Gorge. But of course the people who named these weren't driving a big macked-out SUV like we were! :-)

Dantes_View_Vitaly 800 X 600 48 KB And here we have our traveling partner, Comrade Vitaly Serbin! Don't you like the Vanna White, game-show pose he's striking? Yes Pat, and our grand prize behind Door #1 is, A Big Death-Filled Canyon!!! :-)

Dantes_View_2 600 X 800 48 KB Some more cool shots from the crest at Dante's View. There is a great deal of geology staring you in the face around here. The valley actually delineates a fault line in the Earth's crust. The mountains in the distance are actually rising and tilting towards us, and the ledge we're standing on is moving slowly off to our left. Uhhhhhh ... :-)

Dantes_View_3 800 X 600 65 KB

Dantes_View_Ken 800 X 600 63 KB And here we have your narrator, and brave and dauntless naturalist. Always ready for adventure, but of course! :-)

Desert_Rainbow 800 X 600 37 KB Later on, we had an afternoon storm. Not so uncommon during the spring. Afterwards, there was a very striking rainbow from this cloud to the top of the hill. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you can still see it.

Devils_Golf_Course_Vitaly 800 X 600 85 KB The Devil's Golf Course is an area fill with these very cool structures of crystallized salt. I don't exactly know the rationale for the name. Here's Vitaly doing the game-show thing again. :-)

Devils_Golf_Course_Sunbeam 800 X 600 78 KB A cool sunbeam shooting through the late afternoon clouds onto the Golf Course.

Devils_Golf_Course_Ken 800 X 600 78 KB Here I am standing on these intricate, hardy salt structures. Wearing my $10 flip-flops and jim-jams. Am I too much of a tourist? Nahhhhh ... :-)

Devils_Golf_Course_Clouds 800 X 600 90 KB The late afternoon light is very soft and soothing when looking in the opposite direction from the almost-setting sun.

Artists_Palette 800 X 600 57 KB This place is called the Artist's Palette b/c all the minerals have these varied and striking colors.

Artists_Palette_Riverbed 800 X 600 45 KB Check out the dry-but-muddy riverbed to center-right. Yow, watch out for flash floods!

Zabriskie_Point_1 800 X 600 41 KB Zabriskie Point is supposed to have real nice sunrises, which we came out to see. Also some other people were out with pretty heavy-duty camera equipment to catch it. The moon was still pretty high in the sky, too.

Zabriskie_Point_Clouds 800 X 600 32 KB Purty pre-sunrise clouds. The foreground cloud looks like it's being blown to the right.

Zabriskie_Point_Sunrise_1 800 X 600 36 KB One neat thing about Zabriskie is that you can see the sunrise approaching you across the valley. Note the light is a bit lower on the mountains in the next shot.

Zabriskie_Point_Sunrise_2 800 X 600 34 KB

Zabriskie_Point_Sunrise_3 800 X 600 47 KB The sun is almost upon us now.

Zabriskie_Point_Sunbeam 800 X 600 33 KB Another cool sunbeam. I liked the way it cut through this shallow valley.

Amorgosa_Opera 800 X 600 71 KB Just by total coincidence, our hotel was right next door to the Amargosa Opera House, which I had seen written up previously in the NY Times. This is an ``opera house'' out in the middle of total nowhere, run by a single woman who also does all the shows herself. She's been doing her thing here for 20 or 30 years. Tres cool.

Sand_Dunes_1 800 X 600 66 KB We checked out some sand dunes later b/c Vitaly wanted to see some sidewinder rattlesnakes. I watched from a safe distance. :-) Unfortunately (?) Vitaly didn't catch any.

Sand_Dunes_2 600 X 800 72 KB I took this picture of my footprints after fighting my way up one of the dunes. Pretty good workout.

Fall_River_1 600 X 800 141 KB We went hiking later on up the Fall River Canyon into the mountains. These canyons are formed by the runoff from flash floods and other processes. So needless to say, we checked the weather before going. :-) Vitaly at bottom gives some scale to this shot of the side of the canyon.

Fall_River_2 800 X 600 93 KB I'm a bit in the shadows in this shot. But isn't this striking scenery, esp. in the cool late afternoon light?

Fall_River_Lizard_Closeup 800 X 600 84 KB This is a giant pre-historic lizard we saw off in the distance. He tried to eat us ... Nooooo, actually, this guy is like 2 inches across. :-) Vitaly noticed him sitting on a rock as we walked by.

Fall_River_3 800 X 600 99 KB More purty late-afternoon shots of the canyon.

Fall_River_4 600 X 800 61 KB

Rhyolite_Bottle_House 800 X 600 105 KB Next morning, we went to Rhyolite, which is a gold rush ghost town from the early-1900's. They even have a website at www.rhyolitesite.com. Now isn't that ironic? Almost like a link in time from one gold rush to another. :-) This picture is of the Rhyolite bottle house, which was built by its owner out of 30,000 empty beer bottles for some crazy reason. The sign on the bridge says ``No fishing from bridge.'' :-)

Rhyolite_Bank 800 X 600 62 KB The ruins of the Rhyolite National Bank, which was a very swank building in its day. The guide said this building is the most photographed ruin in Nevada.

Rhyolite_Bank_Basement 600 X 800 86 KB Standing inside the Rhyolite National Bank. The basement room at left-center is very spooky and interesting. If you go inside, you see lots of graffiti and markings going back 50 or 60 years, from people from all over the world.

Rhyolite_Dream_House 800 X 600 71 KB Here is Ken's dream home. :-) This house was on the outskirts of town, starting to get out into the Nevada prairie.

Rhyolite_Mine 600 X 800 135 KB An old abandoned mine. Presumably one of the gold mines, which however never produced any significant amount of gold. We were tempted to jump the fence and head in, but I guess even Vitaly and I aren't that crazy. :-)

Mirage_Volcano_1 800 X 600 46 KB And on to Las Vegas! (Cue the big band music here.) I didn't take so many pics here in the city, but here are a couple shots of the man-made ``volcano'' in front of the Mirage, which goes off every half-hour or so. As an aside, we drove along a highway that borders Area 51 while driving from Rhyolite to Vegas. Though we didn't get any shots of aliens flying overhead. :-)

Mirage_Volcano_2 800 X 600 54 KB

Bellagio_Dark 800 X 600 48 KB Here is a (dark) shot of the Bellagio, which is definitely a high-roller casino.

Bellagio_Fountains_1 800 X 600 71 KB The Bellagio has these famous fountains outside, which play a show synchronized to music every 15 minutes. Very tasteful, very artistic, very cool. This song that was playing to this show was a big glitzy big-band tune.

Bellagio_Silouette_1 800 X 600 47 KB The show 15 minutes later was to a softer, more relaxed Elton John song. Very nice. I'm the silhouette in the foreground. Now that came out well, didn't it? :-)

Bellagio_Silouette_2 800 X 600 51 KB I kept this pic and the one before it, mostly to remember the show with the softer, more chilled-out feel. Very pleasantly surprising, and classy. This shot was of the fountains lighting up for one of the flourishes at the end.

That's all folks! :-)