Attempt at Valle De La Muerte

After exiting the Valle de la Luna, we made an attempt to go to Valle de la Muerte. We were told it was close and doable on a bike within the time frame in which we had rented our bikes. Now I believe this was just a sales pitch to get us to rent the bikes.

Coming back to the highway from the Valle de la Luna provided our first down hill cruise of the day as you can see in the next two photos.

Once we reached the highway again, the terrain was a different story. Although it was easier because it was pavement it was all uphill for as far as we could see.
The views from the side of the road were almost as cool as what we'd seen at the Valle de la Luna.
Going uphill...
Still heading uphill...
When does this hill end?
Just around the corner then we ought to be at the top, right?
Well by the time we got to what we thought was the top of the hill, we realized we weren't going to have enough time to make it to the Valle de la Muerte. The road continued to go up hill, so we just took some photos from here and returned back to town.
The down hill was so much fun, but I had to reign it in, because I easily escaped Sita by wide margins and she was scared that I was going to fast (I probably was, I think I probably came close to 50 or 60 mph). I stopped repeatedly to let Sita catch up. In the photo below I let her pass me and go on for some time, fully confident that I would catch up again. Hey, what can I say, it pays to be heavier then your riding partner on the downhill. I caught up without even pedaling. I couldn't pedal, I was going to fast.
The next few photos are of us coming back into town as the sun started to set.