Salt flats all around, cool this early morning in January. The Panamint Range brillant, but bare--- bare of trees, bare of snow despite rising to over 11,000 feet high. It's other-worldly here in the lowest place in both North and South America.
Saltbrush in the brillant sun. The climate is so hostile and bizarre on the Death Valley floor that plants have adapted by doing their major growing during the cool season, and then going dormant during the long hot season. On this cool but pleasant morning in January, this hardy survivor may be stirring.
