Death Valley
To be completely honest, I was a bit worried about taking my van into Death Valley National Park. I drive an 81’ VW Vanagon with the original engine, so you could say it’s not the most reliable vehicle in the world, and Death Valley isn’t the most welcoming name either. I made the descent into the valley during the wintertime to avoid being in the hottest place on Earth with an air-cooled Vanagon with no air conditioning, and I figured it’s better to be a bit cold than unbearable hot.
The valley itself is one of the more raw and beautiful places I have ever been on this planet. It is so unwelcoming to life that you find a certain solace in the silence and emptiness. I made it to Death Valley on the tail end of a little South Western USA road trip with my dog, Charlie, and we only had a day and a morning to spend in the park so I basically headed straight for Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
When we arrived, it was sunset, and there were hundreds of people exploring and playing in the dunes. Despite the many signs saying otherwise, I couldn’t think of a better place to let Charlie off the leash to roam on his own, and I have never seen that dog happier in my life. I think what gets forgotten today when nearly everyone is hyper-concerned about their dogs is that they never grant them the freedom to run with only the trust that they’ll eventually come back. Dogs need that.
I waited until the next morning to really shoot any photos because I was a bit turned off by the number of people in the dunes. When I woke, it felt like a completely different landscape. There was almost nobody to be seen, the sand had been swept clean of footprints from the wind, and the valley was completely silent. As soon as I crossed over the first dune, I was immediately getting sandblasted by 60mph winds that pick up small particles of sand as they blew. I pushed through the wind with Charlie by my side, stoked as ever, and managed to make some of my favorite photographs that I have ever taken.
It is important to note that I traveled to Death Valley National Park during the government shut down and despite how nice it was to not have to pay an entrance fee and camp for free, the park was overrun by trash from careless park goers. In one bathroom alone, I cleaned up 5 large trash bags full of everything from plastic water bottles to diapers. This sort of pollution has set restoration of natural ecosystems in some national parks back 20 years. The work put in by park rangers and volunteers to wean wildlife off of human food and trash for the past two decades has been dropped back to ground zero in a matter of weeks. Please take care of our parks and wild spaces and be mindful of where your trash is going, regardless if there is anyone to take care of it for you. Pack out your trash, leave only footprints.
