Besides visiting the Alabama Hills, we use the afternoon to relax by the swimming pool, have a swim, and utilise the washing facilities. In the evening, we eat at The Sportsman restaurant in Lone Pine, where we have another enjoyable meal.

Day 9 - a 296-mile drive across Death Valley from Lone Pine to Las Vegas, during which we leave behind the view of Mount Whitney (below - the highest point in the contiguous United States) to reach Badwater, which at 282-feet below sea level, is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere

The temperature reaches 113-Fahrenheit as we cross the barren desert to stop at the aptly named Furnace Creek where we have our picnic lunch. On the way we stop at Stovepipe Wells (for cooling drinks and ice creams), and the ruins of the Harmony Borax Works

Our route through Death Valley takes us to the Devil's Golf Course;

Artist's Drive; and Zabriske Point (below)

The car's thermometer soon reaches 100F,

but is gets even hotter at Furnace Creek