Oz at the Sphere, or rent a car and drive to Death Valley? Vegas was already wearing on us, so we picked up a car and went to see the hottest place on earth. My last time in Death Valley National Park was fall of 2018, when I was there for a charity bicycle ride. I’ve ridden there a few times — five or six if my memory is correct. The landscape is surreal and seductive.

Jill had not been there before, so with a day to spend we did a greatest hits tour of Death Valley. You could easily spend a hundred years exploring the park and not see it all.

We started with Badwater, the lowest point in the continental US. My description didn’t do it justice (maybe no description does) because Jill’s first experience of Badwater — looking at the sea level marker 282 feet above, standing on a salt basin that stretches for miles, feeling the blast furnace heat — moved her more than she expected.

On our way to Furnace Creek, we detoured to Artist’s Drive, which loops up into the mountains and leads to Artist’s Palette, where rain turns the rocks vivid colors. There was no rain. Just temps that started climbing steeply.

Furnace Creek Ranch was the base for the Breakthrough T1D (then JDRF) Ride to Cure, and it was a lot like I remembered it from 2018. We paused to buy a gallon of water and a replacement for my favorite, raggedy-ass Death Valley cap, then headed over to the visitor center to check the official temperature.

Yep — 111 degrees, and no shade.

I remembered Stovepipe Wells having a decent restaurant, so we drove past Mesquite Dunes and stopped for lunch. The Badwater Saloon was better than I remembered, probably because there’s a new concessionaire running the place. We had a couple of above average sandwiches (high praise for concessionaire cuisine in the Valley) then started the drive back to Las Vegas.

We were feeling the heat by then, because otherwise we would have driven to Dante’s View to see the Valley from atop a mountain. I’ve been there once before and the view is spectacular. And now we have one more reason to return.