The drive from Las Vegas meandered through some desolate country - Pahrump, Nevada comes to mind.
Entering the park near Shoshone, California, we were greeted by this coyote. He graciously posed when we stopped our car (photo by Joe).
One of the first places we tried to find was the Artist's Palette, a collection of rocks with a distinctive range of colors. The two pictures below were taken at the first place we stopped, thinking we'd found the palette. We were wrong - the real Artist's Palette was further down the road.
And here is the actual Artist's Palette.
The first stop was nice too, and it provided a little exercise climbing around rocks - a foreshadowing of things to come.
Later that afternoon we checked into Furnace Creek Inn, home base for the next three nights. The patio outside our room overlooked the spring-fed pool below. The stone stairway and palm oasis were on the right.
