As we all hunker down in the time of isolation. Dreams of a better tomorrow, places to go things to do offer hope when we can once again leave our shelter from this invisible storm.
When the temperatures eased this past fall of 2019 we made our way from the Pacific Coast down to Death Valley. For me Death Valley is one of those mysterious scared places where the sky opens over a surreal landscape.
The geology of the place is truly something to behold. The rock formations explode with colors like a rainbow fell from the never ending sky covering the landscape with all the beauty an artistic mind can conjure. The valley for me has to be one of the greatest natural sculptural landscapes on the planet. Everywhere you go, everywhere you look the landscape changes dramatically into a dream like frontier sculpted by all the wonder and power of nature.
This barren place has never really been settled in the true sense of the word, although many generations have tried. I would call Death Valley at best a seasonal garden of delight where we humans visit. Oh sure today in modern times we have the foot holds of settlement brought mostly by the National Park Service. Although without the monumental effort to maintain the modern infrastructure this place would quickly return to a forbidding wasteland as barren as Mars. Life though is abundant. Somehow the small emaciated coyotes still roam the desert plains in search of something to eat and a drop of water to drink.
Water is life here. Deep inside Death Valley water is more precious than gold or any other resource this place holds. Many have tried to find their fortunes in this place only to fail. Beaten by the extreme summer temperatures that soar into the hundreds making the parched landscape inhospitable to most living creatures.
Big Dipper
At night the edge of the universe rests on the distance mountains. The night sky is more brilliant here than any other place I’ve been. Maybe it’s the dry air or the below sea level elevation. You can almost reach out and touch the stars. This is a place to watch satellites and meteors. While we were there the Big Dipper rested on the distance edge of the earth. It stretched out across the landscape from the edges of mountain to mountain laying on the middle plains. Having seen the Big Dipper countless times, here it was like I’d never saw it before. You can begin to realize how vast the universe really is here. You can feel its size in human terms. You feel like you’re standing at the edge of an unimaginable height peering deep into space and time. I think this is one of the many reasons the first people here thought of this place as scared. You would have to be devoid of your senses not to be over come by the magic of nature here.
From the mountains if you know where to look you can find the stone maps indigenous people made with rocks. Similar to the Nazca Lines in Peru. Ancient people created paths, maps by placing rocks in lines and circles. The theory is the carefully placed rocks are navigation markers. Early visitors thought the lines and circles were natural, but human hands sculpted these markers.
And then there are the Wandering Stones. Rocks boulders that mysteriously move on their own. These rocks do travel long distances too. They just slide across the ground with no apparent means of transport. A lot of theories speculate on how and why these sometimes massive rocks move. Still today it’s a mystery. It’s hard to wrap your head around the how’s and why’s, because believe me countless of experts have tried. It’s just Magic and wondrous, so just believe.
Some day when you get out of Isolation and can then move around like we once did. Put Death Valley on your bucket list. I warn you though, if you go be prepared. Not just water, but your imagination. Be Safe Be Healthy and Wash your hands!
Next: Titus Canyon Death Valley. A oneway journey to adventure. There is no turning back!
david eubank on art 
Posted on March 29, 2020
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