Devils Hole and the highway

I left Las Vegas later than planned because I decided to get a little more sleep. Pretty much every day of my road trip I've only gotten about six hours of sleep per night. And, the lack of sleep finally seemed to catch up to me. Because I had a lot of driving to do today, I didn't do much in the way of fun. As I headed north through Nevada, I made a little side trip to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. I wanted to check out Devils Hole, home of the rarest creature on earth...the Devils Hole pupfish.

During last year's road trip, I visited Death Valley National Park and saw many Salt Creek pupfish, which are a different species. Devils Hole is also part of the park, but in a rather remote area of the refuge. Because the Devils Hole pupfish are so rare...and to keep them safe from danger including from humans...the hole is fenced off. Which means you can't actually see the fish, at least from the viewing area.

Devils Hole is actually a geothermal pool, with the temperature of the water in the 90s. I found an interesting article with video that tells a little about the history of the hole and the pupfish.

After a quick lunch at a nearby rest area, I spent about 5 1/2 hours driving to my nightly pit stop. But, it was a pleasant drive because Nevada has VERY nice roads, even the less traveled state highways. The same could not be said of Arizona. Even their interstate freeways need a lot of work. Tomorrow, another day of long driving, but one park visit on the agenda!