When I was a child and I imagined Death Valley, I thought of lifeless dunes as far as the eye could see, nothing on the horizon but more hills of blowing sand. I thought of being lost in the middle of this endless expanse, sunburnt and thirsty, becoming delirious and counting the hours until my final breath as I ration the last drops of water in my canteen. This image is not just a product of my overactive imagination, but a delusion I share with anyone who has ever seen a movie. The Mesquite Flat Dunes are, after all, in close proximity to Hollywood, and this site has shaped our archetypal image of the desert. From Spaghetti Westerns to Star Wars, and endless series of fictions filmed here have imprinted this landscape in our minds. Usually the dunes are shot form a low angle in an attempt to eliminate the imposing mountains that surround it, for these mountains do not fit with the idea of the endless desert. In reality the dunes are only about a mile and a half across, easily walkable, even without a canteen of water. The name Death Valley is something of a misnomer in itself, as there are few recorded deaths in its history.
The mountains surrounding Death Valley tend to miniaturize the dunes. It seems almost like toy desert - a little sandbox plopped down in the middle of this valley for our enjoyment and recreation. And indeed there are people playing all over it. There's a parking lot full of tourists who have stopped to run aroundthe dunes and climb the hills of sand. There are sandboarders bombing the highest peaks, riding in t-shirts and enjoying the always-fresh powder. Overhead there are two fighter jets doing loop-de-loops and filling the valley with continuous thunder. Its a far cry from the image of the lone, desperate soul, dying of thirst with no oasis in sight.
