The last leg of the trip from Grand Canyon back up to Lake Tahoe is 12hrs by car, so we’ve split it in two and slept in motel at the entrance of Death Valley: “El Portal Motel” in Beatty, NV.

If it’s not a bit shady and you don’t fear that some Tarantino character will come to shoot everyone, you’re not having a proper motel experience. Ours was perfect! 🙂

Oh and on the way to the motel, I had to stop for coffee and took the first random exit, only to end up in a historical café on famous route 66!

Of course that road into Death Valley was closed again, so we could only see a little ghost town near the entrance. That and some old gold mining heritage towns.