DEATH VALLEY - SEPTEMBER 2000

Behold: the lowest point in the US, 300 feet below sea level. Think that shiny stuff is water? You're wrong! It's salt - I know - I tasted it.

The view from Zabriski Point. To the right, "vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce"!

To the left, a dried up stream, or rather its remaining salt crust; to the right, the same thing on a grander scale, taken from Dante's View, 5500 feet above the Valley floor.

To the left, a clan picture - Father Hand, me, Cousin Pete, and Uncle Dave. To the right, myself (looking distinctly touristy and sunburned) on the edge of the mile-long vertical drop from Dante's View into the Valley.

I know it doesn't look real - but it is. The moon and a few stars, taken just after sunset from Dante's View.