Las Vegas, NV to Reno, NV

So we got up around 3am.  Disgusting, I know.  We headed out early so that we could make it to the top of Death Valley (Dante's View) to watch the sunrise.  And even though it was a bit of a drive, we got to the top (elevation 5,475ft) about 20 minutes before sunrise which was indeed impressive to watch come over the mountains to the east.  Equally, if not more beautiful, was the weird, orange, low-angle light all around us and the pink and orange light on the mountains to the west of us.  There were about 20 others who had made it to the top of the mountain with us; we all gathered shivering in the early morning cool.

After sunrise, we headed down the hill to Zabriskie Point which hadn't been overrun yet and the morning sun made some beautiful shadows on the rock formations.  We went on a short hike here.

Then we drove north to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes which I actually hadn't been to before and walked out onto the dunes to take a few more pictures before heading west.

At the top of the second pass, which incidentally I did not enjoy driving because it was so steep and twisty and narrow with such a long drop-off, we took in the view at Father Crowley's Overlook before dropping down to Owens Lake where we drove around on the dikes looking for birds feasting on brine shrimp in the salt flats.

Mount Whitney (above) and Owens Lake (below)

Now that we were in California, we turned north and had lunch at Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop, CA which was another nice place with decent food and beer.  We kept going north and our next stop was Mono Lake where we walked down to the lake to see the tufa (carbonate) formations from old springs that had bubbled up into the lake when it was deeper.

Mono Lake was the last stop of the day before getting to Reno, Nevada for the night.  I had assumed, we'd only get as far as Carson City, but we made good time on account of most of the roads (distractions) in Death Valley were closed from recent flooding.  Once in Reno, we got to our hotel and then went to Revision Brewing for dinner and the best beer on the trip!