Dispatch from Death Valley NP, California
Text, photographs and web design by Erik Gauger

Nobody's in the cafe except an old fat man, who's asleep on the bar stool.

This cafe - it's somewhere north of Northeastern California; along the westernmost portion of the Great Basin desert.  Technically, I'm in Oregon, but the wet emerald Kingdom of the Northwest doesn't apply here.  Like most of Oregon, the Southeastern basin and range is dry, its vegetation comes in golden and amber hues, its landscapes all deep gullies and dry lakes, its people few and far between.  Southeastern Oregon is almost the size of New England, yet holds only 40,000 people.

 I sit down.  No waitress to be found, but the sleeping man's tea is steaming, so we know somebody's in the kitchen.

Nobody's in the cafe except an old fat man, who's asleep on the bar stool.

This cafe - it's somewhere north of Northeastern California; along the westernmost portion of the Great Basin desert.  Technically, I'm in Oregon, but the wet emerald Kingdom of the Northwest doesn't apply here.  Like most of Oregon, the Southeastern basin and range is dry, its vegetation comes in golden and amber hues, its landscapes all deep gullies and dry lakes, its people few and far between.  Southeastern Oregon is almost the size of New England, yet holds only 40,000 people.

Nobody's in the cafe except an old fat man, who's asleep on the bar stool.

 

Desert Southwest Anza Borrego The Barren Desert The Channel Islands Windblown zoology off the coast of Los Angeles Colorado Plateau, Navajo Country Mesa to Canyon along the Plateau Death Valley The Saltwater Fish of Death Valley Mojave National Preserve Wandering the Eastern Mojave High Desert Stories from California's High Desert Areas Los Angeles Gray River in the Sun Los Angeles Map Imperial Valley Death and Salvation on the New River Panamint Valley Panamint Valley Roach Motel White Sands and Southern New Mexico Atomic Agriculture on the Rio Grande The Salton Sea Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea Slab City and the New River Death and Salvation on the New River Trona, California Trona and the Unusual Lake Searles Western Mojave Four Seasons of the Mojave Los Angeles Coast Images and captions from the LA coast.