After Dante's Peak New year's morning (here if interested), my wife and I rented one of the Jeeps at Furnace Creek and headed off to the Race Track. I think I'll echo Fred's daughter's sentiments that being all alone before sunrise/after sunset wandering around the playa is kinda creepy. (Badwater gave me the same creepy feeling New Year's eve after sunset). After the wonderful clouds in the morning at Dante's View, the skies around the Race Track were stubbornly empty. I'm sure I'll be making a return trip.
Being exceptionally alone is something I enjoy quite a lot (I am introverted after all), so I think I'll change the feeling from creepy to awe at the vast openness of my surroundings combined with a bit of "am I walking towards where I parked?" anxiety. It's hard to find a car when you park on a non-descript turn out and wander for more than a mile on terrain that looks the same for more than a miles in either direction. I think I would have preferred to just sit down and watch the milky way move across the sky rather than trying to find the jeep (so I could make it back to Furnace Creek before the restaurant kitchen closes).
Tim... I like the open-ness you captured in the first one. I hear you on the unique feelings that stir when in these places alone. Your imagination fires up and it can be quite unsettling. Having said that... it's not something most people get to experience, so when I was in Death Valley a couple of years back, I did my best to "enjoy" that eerie feeling.
paul0510 wrote:
Is image #2 a new 'Tea Kettle Junction' or, God forbid, a replacement?
was just going to ask the same thing. looks like the NPS updated the old sign.... a shame really...
