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STORY: A mere 1/8 mi west of Zibriskie Point, the total loss of CA 190 is marked by piles of asphalt and huge breaks in the road that remains. Chunks of asphalt are strewn carelessly over the desert floor. All plant life has disappeared. One of the only things that marks the past existence of the highway is Mile Marker 114.50, still standing, though it stands in the middle of a wasteland rather than by the side of a quiet highway lined with light green shrubs and other pretty vegetation. It's as if a tornado and an earthquake had ravaged the land here Sunday. Water is surely one of the most powerful earth-shaping forces of nature, especially in a place as dry as Death Valley.
To the south up past the disheveled highway is Zibriskie Point just at the end of the golden mountains to the west. If you zoom into the Full Screen Panorama, you can just barely make out the Men's and Women's restrooms that were washed away and left off kilter and buried. Unfortunately, federal Park Rangers escorted us out of the valley just after making this image, so there was no chance of shooting the Point itself. If the Czechs who were in caravan with us reach me, I will post their images of the Point. I wish I had made an image of this stretch of highway earlier, as it would be a stark contrast to the desolation exhibited here, but it really wasn't as interesting to me before as so many other places to see. To the north my car came to rest about a 1/4 to 1/2 mi past the 4 foot high pile of highway pictured here. Between here and there it is rather difficult to follow the road, and while hiking that stretch, one is inclined to look at the ground for a foothold, and thus can wonder "off the road" without knowing it. To the south from here to a couple miles beyond Zibriskie Point, the road is mostly buried and the entire valley is awash with little streams and various sizes of rocks and debris of vegetation. The two fatalaties were found 1.5 to 2 mi south/east of here, so I consider myself even more lucky than before. I don't think I'll ever know who they were, but it seems likely that I surely met them briefly that day. May God rest their souls. |
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