After a thorough investigation of the dunes, including my foray to the top and down to the bottom of a seventy foot dune and with the sun sinking low on the horizon, and a stiff breeze picking up, we began to walk back to the supply wagon and go find a camp spot. I suppose most people aren't interested in the back country rule that we took advantage of, but two miles from any road or major point of interest is green light for setting up shop. Tents and flashlights, folding chairs and camping stoves, lanterns and coolers, marinated steak and lots of nice cold beer. You know - car camping shop!




Once nestled into a little zone far off towards a canyon in the close by Marble Mountains, we were set up eating and enjoying the quietude. The stars above were so mesmerizing they caused us to get crooks in our necks from constantly admiring their glow. The solar reflections of light coming from so many million miles away seemed so much stronger than what we were used to. We both live within the range of the overwhelming LA blot out effect. You can barely see the moon . . . on clear nights in downtown LA.

That night a stiff wind picked up off the flat plains of the long, sweeping desert floor. It blew tiny sand crystals onto my cheeks as I lay, sans tent, dozing off and waking up to check the night sky for evidence of the Milky Way. Yep, still there. One easy way to determine if you have made it far enough off the grid during your adventure travel is whether or not you can easily discern the white band of the Milky Way constellation. Well, that night in Death Valley it was quite obvious that we were off the grid. However, with the NBA All-Star game being held in Las Vegas that weekend, there was also an obvious flight path, as easy to spot as the constellation, with a row of airplanes across the entire night sky carrying fans to watch the spectacle unfold. One reporter called the basketball debauchery the Hip Hop Woodstock.

ER Harris