First week in the RV: San Diego, Joshua Tree, Dead Valley and Las Vegas

One week in the RV ... already ... and we have already seen amazing sceneries from the West USA. As expected, everything here is HUGE: distances, hamburgers, cars, trucks, campers, shops, packagings ... everything is always bigger, nicer, faster, louder ... Welcome in America ! 😎

After a few days visiting the Pacific coast South of Los Angeles, we drove to our first National Park: Joshua Tree. 

 

We've spent 2 days there hiking along cactus gardens in the desert. Clarisse and Antone have spent hours climbing the boulders from each spot we stopped by. Joshua Tree is a rock climbers paradise and we understand why; routes are short but very ludic and nice.

The Garrigues family, trying to hide in a dried tree:

The sunset from Keys View.

Driving the RV can be exhausting, specially in case of strong wind or high trafic conditions. However, it can also be pretty cool when driving alone on such straight roads !

Our first plan was to drive North to the Yosemite National Park and then drive back East of the Sierra Nevada, but since the Tioga Road is still closed due to heavy snow falls last winter, we have changed our plans and finally headed towards the Death Valley, valley of the extremes !

Arriving early in the morning to avoid the heat during day time, we hiked at Bad Water Bassin - the lowest point on the western world (85m below sea level) - and Natural Bridge Trail.

The heat usually rises up to 50°C during a summer day in the valley but we were lucky and had a couple of clouds that limited the temperature to a reasonable 38°C, which already transforms small hikes with the kids to real expeditions !

Breakfast on the way to Last Vegas at a horse ridding show for Clarisse 😀

Finally, after a week spent in the desert, we stopped for 2 days at Las Vegas. No words to describe this crazy city and the opulence that we observed all over the city. We finished our exhausting day on the Strip with the MJ One show that completed our ear's destruction 😬

 

Next: head towards Red Rock Canyon Park before driving to the Grand Canyon.