Zabriskie Point, a photographer's paradise
In just three hours of driving we left the six-lane highways and the neon suburbs of L.A. and we drive down a two-way highway lined with old wooden utility poles. Religious rock and country are heard on the radio. We are surprised by a sand storm. The way is confused with the whole. Wait for the desert of Death Valley.
The death Valley it is one of the most inhospitable wildernesses on Earth, dotted with ghost towns and filled with stories of failed pioneers and missing tourists. Its name is more informative than sensational, which increases the interest of the visit . Of course, the beatniks did not pass through here. Trying to hitchhike across it is shooting yourself in the foot. There are hardly any shades, the temperatures are typical of the desert and the traffic is scarce.
The desert of Death Valley, with its lunar appearance, is the driest California
We cross the desert and paradoxically the constant reference on the road signs is the sea. From 1,511m Towne Pass to 55m below sea level in Furnace Creek Ranch, the only civilized point , along with Stove Wells Village, in a National Park the size of the province of La Coruña. Furnace Creek has a campground for hippies and chicks; a ranch with motel-type rooms to which is added a museum, a grocery store, a post office, a golf course (yes, in the desert), two restaurants and a saloon like the one seen in Western movies series B; and, perched on top of a hill, the most select hotel in the Park.
We spent the night at the ranch, where in the morning i meet a coyote . We greet each other cordially and continue on our way. Wait Badwater , the lowest point in North America, a lunar landscape of salt flats that plunges 85.5m below sea level. A few kilometers from here is ** Zabriskie Point , where Michelangelo Antonioni shot the film of the same name**. This scenery alone is worth the trip to Death Valley.
At noon we are surprised by a second sandstorm that blurs everything. The radio does not pick up any stations. Even though it wasn't on our initial itinerary, we can stay cooped up on the ranch listening to the howls of the coyote or we can go Las Vegas : Nevada City appears on the map just over two hours away.
Badwater Salt Flat is the lowest point in North America
After an evening of casinos, neon lights and ersatz Frank Sinatra , the next day dawns clear as a spring morning and we return to the asphalt. En route to Sequoia National Park we stopped at Ballarat , a ghost town that long ago was home to miners and prospectors during the gold rush . Today it looks like the setting for a Sam Peckinpah twilight western.
The vestiges of what was the prison, the morgue, a couple of collapsed houses, the frame of a door and a grocery store next to a camping area run by good old Rock Novak, who tells everyone who wants to listen that the rusty green 1942 Dodge pickup parked in front of his store was abandoned by Charles Manson and his 'his family' during their escape from the A. after the savage murders of actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and five other people **by virtue of an apocalypse that Manson believed heralded in the song Helter Skelter by The Beatles**.
This abandoned van in the town of Ballarat belonged to Charles Manson and his 'family'
At its height, Ballarat once had more than 500 inhabitants, three hotels and seven saloons, but when gold and silver ceased to be extracted from the Ratcliff mine in 1905 its decline began. The 'Easy Rider' sequence was filmed in Ballarat in which Peter Fonda decides to throw the watch to the ground, step on it, get rid of all restraints and fly free down the I-40 highway.
This report was published in issue 49 of the magazine Condé Nast Traveler.