Death Valley Quotes

“We passed the great arid deserts of the West, driving through canyons and beneath rocky outcroppings and over great crevasses. We drove through the Mojave Desert, Owens Valley and Death Valley, and the dust entered our bloodstream and flowed through to every part of our body. The West was both eerie and breathtakingly beautiful, and we wanted to live there forever.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“On our way back to Los Angeles, we drove down through Grapevine Canyon on the northern end of Death Valley. This is where Scotty’s Castle is located, with its cooling system and power provided by an underground spring. Everything was so different from anything I had known back East, and very interesting. We continued through Death Valley, with water bags hanging from the car’s front bumper and a water cooler tightly clamped into a window on the passenger side. There were no rest areas in the desert, so we had to make stops alongside the road. Out in the open, in the middle of the day, this was the way to get back to nature! We hadn’t seen a car in hours, so there was no problem regarding modesty. In those days, cars were not as reliable as now. Driving through Death Valley at high noon in the middle of summer wasn’t the brightest idea, but it was an adventure! It was so hot that I watched my urine sizzle and instantly evaporate off the pavement of Badwater Road, which runs the length of the valley. At Stovepipe Wells we turned west on SR 190, heading towards Keeler and Dolomite. On this stretch of road we could look ahead and see Mount Whitney with its summit being 14,505 feet above sea level. It was exciting to see the highest mountain in front of us and look back to the lowest point in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. At that time, Alaska and Hawaii were not yet in the Union. Now Mount McKinley in Alaska tops Mount Whitney by 5,732 feet, being 20,237 feet high.”
― Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One...."

“Though I've long thought I could hold back time through dance and creativity, I know that one day life will catch up with me. I won't last forever, I know. One day, I too will haunt this place, dancing like a dust devil in the wind.”
― Marta Becket, To Dance on Sands: The Life And Art of Death Valley's Marta Becket

“When I ache, when I'm tired or just lonely living in the town on my own, I know I have to keep on going. I walk into my theater and see my stage which still calls out to me and pleads with me, "Use me. Create for me." It's there ready to offer itself for more creatively [sic]. It is up to me to use it again. My theater says to me, "Take me. Do something with me. I'm ready for the challenge. Give me something to live for; something to look forward to.”
― Marta Becket, To Dance on Sands: The Life And Art of Death Valley's Marta Becket

“Even my texts are as dry as Death Valley”
― Frances Woodard, Strings of Fate