Day 10, Part 3: Monday, May 1st, 2006
Beatty, Nevada to Death Valley National Park and back

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With my frisbee goal realized, I have to improvise what to do with the rest of my day in the park. The first idea that strikes my fancy is to drive up a road that leads towards a natural arch in the Amargosa Mountains. I passed by the road on the way down to Badwater, and so I drive back up there and start hiking up a dry wash into a rocky canyon.

Another desert flower is eking out a living in a sliver of shade on the side of the canyon.

The natural arch actually turns out to be a natural bridge, since it spans the watercourse running up the canyon. A few Germans are (once again) there ahead of me, and I wait for them to walk away before I take this picture. I then consider climbing the walls alongside the bridge to get a better perspective on the whole thing. I ultimately decide against any temptations of fate for the day and, instead, sit down in the shadow of the bridge in an attempt to cool down. A steady flow of warm wind keeps rising up from the furnace of the valley below, though, and persistently buffets my face as if it were the breath of the devil himself.

Things feel considerably hotter once I get back on the floor of the valley. I can see the heat rising up in waves off of what I thought of nine years ago as "God's gravel driveway." Now the heat is radiating so clearly--and forbiddingly--off the bottom of the basin that it looks more like a stovetop to me than anything else.

Suddenly, I notice an airplane leaving weirdly shaped jet trails in the sky over Telescope Peak. I take a picture of it as it forms something like a question mark. Later on, it will make the shape of a Valentine's Day heart. I'm pretty sure that it's a military plane, on a training flight from either Edwards Air Force Base or the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, but I am tempted to tell people that this trail was made by the UFO I saw floating over the Badwater salt flats a few hours before.


Just outside the valley itself is a mountain that's labeled "Winters Peak" on my map. I look around for it for awhile and eventually decide that it's the one to the left of the telephone pole in this picture. By the time I get out of the car to take this photograph, the temperature has hit 100 degrees and is still rising. Without any air conditioning in my car, I decide that it's time for a lunch break in the cool oasis of Furnace Creek.

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