Feature
The CI ac I< amas P rint
______ 7
WEdNEsdAy, ApRil 5, 2000
This Land is Your Land...Death Valley Style
Ml By: Duane, Jason, Megan, Marie, Sarah, Alpha Matt,-Heath,
ivuincnne
This land isyourland,
Thislandismyland
!■
From California,
To the New York Island.
Bill Guthrie, Jennifer Porter and John Snively (from
left to right) were the instructors/van drivers on the
trip, as well as very useful resources for the
biology, geology and history of the valley.
From the Salt brush playa,
To the snowcapped mountains.
Sun high: Borax.
Tothe Aitist’spalette.
From the Redwood Forest
Tothe GulfStream waters
From the Dusty washboard
This land was made foryou and me.
Thiscampwasmadeforyouandme.
As I was walking,
Our fearless leader,
Tha ribbon ofhighway,
Isawaboveme,
Sleeps in the trailer,
That endless skyway .
I saw below me,
That golden valley
1 his land was made for you and me
This van is your van,
this van is my van,
To the borrowed showers.
Amongthe salad.
And aging burgers.
But we’re so happy,
Because we’re with him
This camp was made foryou and me.
Jen’s van is haunted
At least it’s working
From Pauling Center,
She loves the sand dunes.
to the Harney Basin.
Greg and her beetles,
From Winnemucca
Herdad is manly,
to Texascampground
But sleeps on padding.
Hispad’ssobigitcan sleep three.
This Van was made foryou and me.
We’re in Death Valley
We’resleeping on tables,
Our tents are totaled,
Because it’s windy.
Our shorts are sandy.
Our hair is tangled,
This camp was made foryou and me.
Listening to a presentation at the charcoal kilns. Yes,
that is snow on the ground.
BiH’svan'sahazard,
Ithas some issues,
Buthasaspeaker,
To wake the sleepers.
He’s a great talker.
Cooking breakfast in the the trailer during a very
windy morning. The same trailer Snively almost slept
in after his tent was destroyed in the wind.
And a bird watcher.
This bird was bom to live free.
One van's arrival in Death Valley, above.
Sleeping on picnic tables during the monstrous
winds, below. The wind distorting the tents, right.
Sarah, Amber, Jason and Helen hold up a
canyon wall in Titus Canyon, above. Bill's van
tire didn't survive the bumpy road to Titus
Canyon, above left Snively talks about Mosaic
Canyon, left
Photos by Matt Brown,
Jason Strawn, Megan
Oldenstadt and Jennifer
Porter
Death Valley Is Hotter Than Hell
Death Valley
By Bob Porter
By Jason Strawn
The Devil wanted a place on earth.
Sort of a summer home:
A place to spend his vacation
Whenever he wanted to roam.
So he picked out Death Valley.
A place so wretched and so rough.
Here the climate was to his liking
And the miners were hardened and tough.
He dried up the streams in the canyons
And ordered no rain to fall:
He dried up the lakes in the valleys,
Then baked and scorched it all.
Then over his barren desert
He transplanted shrubs from Hell.
The cactus, the thistle and the prickly
pear—
The climate suited them well.
Now, the home was much to his liking.
But animal life, he had none:
So he created crawling creatures
That all mankind would shun.
First he made the rattlesnake.
With its forked poisonous tongue:
He taught it to strike and to rattle
And how to swallow its young.
The he made Scorpions and Lizards
And the ugly old Horned Toad.
He placed spiders of every description
Under rocks by the side of the road.
Then he ordered the sun to shine hotter.
Hotter and hotter still.
Until even the cactus wilted
And the old Horned Toad looked ill.
Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom.
As any bad creator would:
He chuckled and snickered a lot,
And admitted to himself that it was good.
'Twas summer now and Satan lay
By a prickly pear to rest.
The sweat rolled off his wearthy brow.
So he took off his coat and vest
"By Golly, "he finally panted
"I did my job too well. - J
...
I'm going back where I came from
Death Valley is hotter than Hell!"
There’s a dry barren land
All covered with sand
Where the sun will bleach out
Your bone
And death lies in wait
To determine your fate
As ancient and watchful as stone
A glimpse of this sight
at day or at night
and your stomach will shrivel
with fear
but I’ve been to this place
and it’s filled with such grace
and wonder, it makes your
eyes tear.
Because out of the gloom
Springs a small yellow bloom
A preview of something to be
As a dead looking brush
Springs something so lush
Death Valley is home for me.