New year, Same old valley

[GowerGulch42]

It's been over 4 years since I last set foot in the valley. As far as I can remember, this is the longest time *in my life* that I've been away, and considering how far some of us are... that's even a short time. In 2013-2015, I was visiting 4-5 times per year, often for only a couple nights but sometimes for a week. Moving north to Oregon was always what I wanted and needed to do, even though it makes getting down to DV a two-day odyssey requiring me to drive clear across the state to cross into Nevada at McDermitt, nearly straight down the middle of the state to Tonopah, Beatty, and Daylight Pass. Repeat in reverse to return home. Point being: it isn't trivial anymore.

In the meantime, some things have changed. Some things have remained the same.

Scotty's Castle is still closed.
Titus Canyon is closed for a long time, no doubt.
The Salt Creek marshes and boardwalk are unrecognizable.
The salt pan at Badwater is now a glistening white, compared to the dusty brown it was in 2019.
More people than ever are visiting the park, and more problems are the result of that.
The NPS remains ciritically underfunded, and lately DVNP has had to use a higher proportion of their budget to recover from ever-increasing storm damage rather than keeping an eye on things. More tire tracks in places they ought not to be.

However, if you stand atop the Death Valley Buttes you wouldn't notice a difference. The Panamint skyline is unchanged, the view south to the Avawatz Mountains goes on forever, and the imposing grade up Towne Pass still grinds away at hundreds of rented RVs.

We're at a time in history where the sheer number of people is having a tangible impact even in far-flung areas. Popular areas were intolerable to me on a holiday weekend 5 years ago, I can't imagine they're any better now. As enthusiasts, we probably aren't the audience of concern for the park admin. We respect the place enough to not topple rocks or leave tire tracks across Racetrack Playa, but anywhere we can go can be reached by someone with less-than-pure intentions. It's a shame, but the dozen bad apples per year really DO ruin the whole batch for everyone, sometimes for decades.

There's nothing we can do to curb the increase in vandalism. More patrols might stop folks driving out into Badwater, but probably wouldn't stop vandalism of petroglyphs or artifact theft at archaeological sites deep in the Cottonwood Mountains. That's been the case for 100 years, and will be for the next 100 as well. Change will always happen. Not all change is good. We have to be able to live with that, even though we don't like it.

I just wanted to collect my thoughts, which are just ruminations of a restless brain. I miss Death Valley deeply. I intend to visit this year no matter what, so I'll get my fix soon enough