death valley
death valley is a rather extravagantly named basin of arid land, surrounded on each side by towering, snow capped, peaks. at 200m below sea level, it's one of the lowest points on the planet, and the mountains enclosing it serve to further illustrate this fact. i'd initally thought that this would just be something to drive through, but was unprepared for the spectacular, rugged, beauty of the place. walking out on to the salt flats, you can look around and see nothing but space, a common commodity in this part of the states, but rendered particularly beautiful by the magnitude and setting. it's still a bit ambitiously titled though: dry and desolate yes, but only one person died here in the mid nineteenth century when prospectors stumbled into it, and that was probably due to a dodgy burger from the other side of the ridge.the season meant we didn't get the searing heat that descends in the summer, but the aggresive winds blew up a few sandstorms for me to gingerly drive through. our car didn't overheat as many do, but it did struggle as the road is at the perfect incline to confuse the hell out of an automatic: my poor dodge kept choking and wheezing as its shifted between gears trying to work out which of the two it was toying with was the correct one, and almost invariably making the switch a second too late. after a couple of days of totally smooth and silent driving it was hilarious to hear the car struggling like an asthmatic up some stairs.
eleven hours on the road, and i was beginning to struggle and really looking forward to ditching the car the next day in san francisco. there was still however one national park, yosemite, to go, which we would tackle refreshed after a night in a stereotypical highway motel in fresno.
posted by bicrom @ 11:40 am
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