I’m pretty sure I’ve written at some point that I prefer spending several days at my ultimate destination whenever I travel, rather than a quick few. But sometimes, when that’s all you’ve got, the only thing to do is to make the best out of it.
Over the weekend I went up to Death Valley National Park for a two-day trip with the intent of exploring only that area. Last May I visited Lake Tahoe (which I have procrastinated on writing about, but should do soon), and came across Mosaic Canyon in Death Valley while searching for destinations along the way. The photos I saw were mesmerizing, but it was an hour and a half off the path, so I didn’t get to go then.
I’ve also had my eye on Hoover Dam, but figured I’d fit that into a weekend Vegas trip sometime in the future.
But sometimes life drops little unexpected surprises, like this weekend because I ended up crossing both these items off my bucket list!
Mosaic Canyon is definitely a beaut. It’s amazing to see close up the rock formations caused by water that ran through them for hundreds of years.
I didn’t get to hike the entire trail, but from the distance I did manage to cover, it was a moderate hike with some parts where it’s necessary to take large steps and climb over rocks to move forward.
That was the highlight of time spent at the park because my boyfriend and I decided to drive to Vegas to visit a friend. It was only about two hours away anyway, so why not?
Plus, the Hoover Dam was also about an hour away from where my friend stays, so there was definitely enough time to squeeze that in. The dam was an awe-inspiring work of engineering and we got to tour the facility for about an hour. It was also pretty cool that the area allows visitors to be in two places at once since the dam is both in Nevada and Arizona 😛
In a nutshell, the weekend went like this: we arrived in Death Valley Friday evening, left Saturday in the early evening for Vegas, arrived in Vegas in the middle of the evening, and left for Los Angeles on Sunday immediately after the Super Bowl. We clocked less than 24 hours in each place, and it was really a bit of a crunch. But I think the slightly more than 48 hours we had for those two-plus days were a good mix of planning and spontaneity.
What’s on your bucket list?