Spectacular drive through Death Valley

On the way home from fishing the Golden Trout Wilderness, rather than going back the way we came (to Reno), we drove east to fly out of Las Vegas, providing an opportunity to see some new, really interesting country in Death Valley and the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Death Valley was geologically spectacular and ecologically fascinating, and Ash Meadows held Devil's Hole, a place famous in fish biology as the home of an entire species that evolved and remains in a single small (but very deep) hole in the ground, the Devil's Hope Pupfish. Because people are people (unfortunately), Devil's Hole can only be viewed from a cage, at a distance too far back to see any of the rare fish. It was still interesting to see. We got to see live pupfish, relatively close relatives of those in Devil's Hope, up close at a nearby springfed oasis, which held Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish.

This trip also gave me time to do everything I've ever wanted to do in Vegas itself, specifically 1) returning the rental car, and 2) flying home. That's the whole list.