We drove home from Vegas this afternoon. The trip was reasonably uneventful. We ran into some traffic in Riverside County, but it was almost 5:00 PM — Expected.
I-15 runs right along the edge of the Mojave Preserve. There are exits for Death Valley! It’s desolate.
To be kind, this is not a pretty desert. There are low scrubby plants and some cactus. It’s mostly dirt you see–endless miles of it.
I took a bunch of shots to get the one that graces this blog entry. My first was at 109°, then 111°. We peaked at 113° and started heading down before this sharp spike to 116° just east of Barstow. It only lasted a few miles¹.
Some of the earlier shots were cooler with my cruise control set for 80 mph.
¹ – The National Park Service reports 120° at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, around 50 miles north.