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Amargosa Valley, Nevada
Death may come invisible or in a holy wall of fire, in the breath between the markers on a black I-80 mile
Driving on US 95 North out of Las Vegas, don’t forget to make the left turn onto 373, which is hard to miss considering that it’s right near the Area 51 Alien Center, a neon green roadside building that looks fun from the outside but is decidedly less fun on the inside. Instead of non stop aliens, it’s basically a sad convenience store with no signs of aliens, unless of course they were cleverly disguised as an angry looking clerk, disappointed tourists and residents of the brothel out back.
From Nevada, I crossed into California and made my way into Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in the United States. But before I got there, I thought I should start my way up and work my way down. This is the view from Dante’s View, which is 5,476 feet above sea level, looking at Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet below sea level.
From Dante’s View, the road led dowm, down, down as far as you can go in this country and in this continent. Even in March, the temperature was 104 degrees and it was difficult to walk for even a few minutes outside without feeling your head throb as if it was trying to do everything it possibly could to get outside of your hot, hot head.
This is Badwater Basin, which may be less bad and really more like Misunderstood Basin. There was a rough, destructive beauty to it all, which seems somewhat appropriate deep down in a valley that is appropriately named after death.
Death Valley is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but luckily the middle of nowhere isn’t all that far from the middle of the action on the Las Vegas Strip. It’s only about two an a half hours each way. driving as fast as you can across the desert and trying not to be too curious about what is happening at all those United States military bases that you pass along the way. So while I did not see any bright flashing lights or weird looking human like figures at the military bases, they certainly were out in abundance back at the strip.
I have been to Las Vegas before but never stayed at the same hotel twice. It’s not like I didn’t like all the hotels (although there sure are some I didn’t), it’s just that there are so many hotels to choose from, why stay at the same one again if you don’t have to. In fact, logistical reasons saw me staying at two different hotels this time around. The first (on the left) was the MGM Signature Hotel, an apartment suite on a high floor of a gold glass tower that was kind of part of the MGM Grand. It was attached but involved a long convoluted path across skyways and past food courts and hallways and casinos before you finally found yourself at the far end of the strip and inside the actual MGM Grand. The other hotel (kind of pictured on the right) was the Wynn, which seemingly had a nicer, far more tricked out room and was in a better location, yet somehow didn’t quite feel as special as I hoped it would.
Back in New York, we are making a special visit to Battery Park to see the finally open Seaglass Carousel, a project announced a lifetime ago that has finally become reality. Inside a glass shelter designed by WXY Architecture, it consists of sea creatures on a rotating base designed to transport you from Battery Park into a magical undersea world, without at any point having to worry about being under an actual, non magical sea.
Seaglass may be pretty during the day, but it really shines (or I guess in this case, glows) at night.
