DEATH VALLEY DAZE

HERE’S A FREE TIP for the national parks people responsible for Death Valley: tell potential visitors that it’s just like going down into a mine – without the claustrophobia!

A friend who was working in a copper mine told me once that when you’re going down into the Earth – way down - it’s as if you pass through discrete layers of temperature, getting hotter and hotter as you get lower. The feeling is exactly the same as you descend from Owens Lake to Panamint Springs, and then from Towne Pass into the valley proper. You may not be able to see the layers, but you sure can feel them, even in spring.

The effect even makes the air feel progressively thicker, and seems to slow your reflexes until you feel as if you’re moving through clear molasses. Drinking a lot of water is the obvious defense against this, and I put away a litre straight in the little Panamint Springs shop. It didn’t seem to make much difference.

Not that it was even all that hot. The thermometer at the Stovepipe Wells ranger station called it 45 degrees, and I’ve