Death Valley

Driving through the Mojave Desert seemed perilous to me. Inside the van, it was cool and comfortable, but even a short visual inspection of the world outside my window told me that this was no cheerful sunshine; it was deadly. I'd seen my first desert in Phoenix in 2011, but the Sonoran Desert and the Mohave seem like two different animals (granted, I saw the Sonoran in spring and the Mohave in summer). They're both simultaneously grey and sun drenched, but the Sonoran is filled with Saguaros and wildflowers, and the Mohave with only occasional Joshua Trees and grey bushy balls that look like tumbleweeds that haven't yet started to tumble. And then there's Death Valley, the hottest place on earth. We drove into the Death Valley National Park on Sunday, and it was hot--probably around 115 by the time we reached our first stop, a place called the Badlands. We'd been to Badlands National Park in 2004, and the name of this Death Valley spot was accurate. Here are some of the views from Zabriskie Point:
















This spot was so hot that I could feel my feet starting to burn right through the soles of my sneakers. Still, people feel heat differently. Here's a gentleman who clearly did:



Our next stop was a spot called Badwater Basin, well over 200 feet below sea level. This is the hottest spot in the valley, so I was surprised to see even a little water there. These vast salt flats heat up, and you'll cook if you walk on them in summer. Still, people do it. Water collects here after heavy rains, so that explains the badwater.












We drove a while and got out of the car a few times to wander up a rock for a view of the bleak desert landscape or to get a National Parks Passport Stamp to prove we'd been there. The desert here really is bleak--a good setting for a reading of parts of The Waste Land--but there's so much beauty there, too. Rock formations grow out of the desert floor, most of them stark white, but occasionally a red or gold swath cuts the rock.












Nothing much grows out here in the summer: not as far as I could tell at least. In spite of that, there is the suggestion of life. I saw my first mirage in the Mohave, a wide sparkling lake on the horizon that made me believe for a second that I was on some long beach leading eventually to water and maybe even something green. It took me a minute to remember the word mirage and then the word scintillation: the optical illusion that makes heat waves appear to move in the distance.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was recorded in Death Valley in the 1930s: 134 degrees. This weekend, the forecast says it will be 129 at Badwater. That kind of heat can make a cool van overheat easily. It can make travelers stuck by the side of the road fry in the sun. Like I said: it can be perilous.



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