On a trip to Death Valley over the New Year's holiday I took this photo of Zabriskie Point, a classic desert vista and also the name of a critically maligned Antonioni film -- sort of the European take on the 60s counterculture in California.
Death Valley is, of course, one of the hottest places on earth, and is certainly the hottest place in North America. It's vast and more than a little weird. With much of it below sea level, it's perhaps not surprising that the underworld seems to hold sway here -- you'll find the 'devil's racetrack', a place where stones slide unseen across a dry lake bed, and the tortured shrubs of the 'devil's cornfield' (a surefire attraction for the treking midwesterner). The devil left some other stuff strewn around the valley too, but enough said on the point.
International tourists have seemed scarce in the US in the past few years, but with Bush's era waning, perhaps they are feeling more comfortable here. Or perhaps the shrinking dollar has simply made the US a more economical destination. Either way international tourists seemed to make up the majority of people in Death Valley (now the US's biggest national park outside Alaska). Japanese, Chinese, German, British, Australian, like Antonioni they come to experience what they -- more, it seems, than Americans -- imagine as the quintessentially American scene. Nobody seems to drive there from home;all the cars have that distinctly awkward rental look.
In January, at least, Death Valley is beautiful. In a deathy kind of way.
Feel free to download a larger, much prettier version of this photo from my web site.
MLucas 