Death Valley: Land Of Extremes Part Five

Filed in archive on March 10, 2007

Instead of going straight out to "the rocks" directly after the long drive, we decided to set up camp and relax for sunset, and then first thing in the morning make the trek out to the dried-up lake bed. There was a discernible energy humming from the high cliff walls that surrounded the desolate, yellowish, flat area that formed the area known as The Racetrack. Etched away by millions of years of searing wind and water decay, the broken fragmented peaks of the hovering mountain range seemed to form an amphitheatre around everything in the lowlands.




The next morning I found myself wandering about on what was once a thriving collection of water, home to a different variety of species that now inhabits the more arid climate of Death Valley. I was truly excited to see these natural wonders, having read quite a bit of hype and hearing more than one story about this place. It is a geological mystery in some senses: exactly how and exactly when do the boulders that lay strewn about randomly on the incredibly flat surface actually move.

Because their trails are obvious - so clearly delineated across the hexagonal chips the form the texture of the ground there - they are wondrous to spy upon! They are worthy of pondering for a minute or two, and worthy of the long trek out those 27 miles, past obnoxious trains of four-wheel drive vehicles, dusty washboard roads, and the rattling of the tin in the wind at Tea Kettle Junction.

ER Harris