July 2002
It's always an awesome sight to see Las Vegas at night from a distance. I stopped at a gas station for a fill-up and tried my luck at a dollar slot machine. One pull, no winner. OK, it wasn't going to my day at the machines, so I drove on. From Las Vegas there are two entrances to Death Valley: one via Shoshone and another through Death Valley Junction. The latter is the popular choice because its route is quicker and safer. Driving toward Death Valley Junction On Route 95, I managed to arrive at a deserted rest area in Amargosa at midnight. Across the street at a gas station was a single tracker-trailer truck parked for the evening. I went into the gas station mart and bought two bottles of Miller, gave one to the truck driver, and exchanged our stories of the days on the road. Even at midnight it was still too warm to sleep inside the car so I laid out my sleeping bag on a picnic table and tried to pick out the only constellation I knew among the million stars: the Big Dipper. Today was the Fourth of July, and I got to see the best firework the Mother Nature could provide.
I woke up just before the sunrise and drove into the Valley to take advantage of cool air before he woke up, the Devil, I mean. Once inside the park, I took a drive into Twenty Mule Team Canyon, where teams of twenty mules pulled carts full of borax so Americans could clean themselves and their clothes. There actually was a brand of detergent called Twenty Mule Team in the olden days. A mile down the road was Zabriskie Point, which I highly recommend for fun desert hiking (click HERE for trail photos) and photo opportunities, especially before sunrise and sunset for warm colors. I was here in the month of January once, and the temperature was in the 90s. So you can imagine what it's like in July. I believe 160 degrees was the hottest recorded temperature at Death Valley. At the Furnace Creek junction, I headed south toward Badwater, the lowest point(280 feet below sea level) in US. Along the way, it's worthwhile to stop at Devils Golf Course (crystallized salt deposits that's sharp enough to cut through your boots), Artists Drive (hills colored by various minerals), and Golden Canyon. By 10 AM, the Devil had awaken and breathed out his fiery breath. I wished I'd had a bottle of cold water for every time I said "It's ****ing hotter than hell!" There was an oasis at Furnace Creek, rows of palm tress and a running creek. A small coyote was chewing on a bone. When I got close to see if it was Wiley's son, he shyly trotted away. There was one of those twenty mule team wagon on display. All for borax. All for soap. I suppose that's wiser than working for stock options at a high-tech company. I continued on Route 190 toward Lone Pine. More interesting sites were Devils Cornfield and Sand Dunes. I've been to the place where the Devil plays golf and where he grows corn, but was disappointed to leave the park without seeing the man himself. This IS about the closest thing to hell, I suppose. This was my second time, and I really enjoy visiting this place whenever I'm in the area. It's like Hell, you know. I like to see what the place looks like, but I wouldn't want to live there... or here. Joshua trees waved me good-bye as I was leaving the Valley.
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