The sun was westering when we dragged ourselves away from Scotty's castle and headed down to Mesquite Springs, where we meant to pitch our wandering castle for a night of camping out -- where better than in the hottest place in America on a bright and comfortable day?

The next morning, somewhat rumpled and gritty, we broke camp and headed down to Furnace Creek for breakfast. Afterwards, we revisited some of our favorite spots in the valley.

Another force that has shuffled Death Valley's deck is volcanism, which brings materials to the surface here that are usually well buried. Here at what is fancifully called Artist's Palette, common elements like iron and sulphur are joined by purplish manganese, reddish tin, and other trace minerals in an unusual display of earth tones.

Death Valley reminds us of the importance of water and chlorophyl. Even on a cool day in late Spring, the sun's heat bounced off and saved up by the bare land is oppressive. We set up our simple but comfortable camp in a barren, thinly settled campground at the end of its season. The official last day of the season here is Mother's Day. We enjoyed a simple dinner cooked on forty year-old boy scout gear, and read Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in preparation for Las Vegas by candlelight.

In Golden Canyon, one can get some hints about how this place came to be. After eons of aluvial deposition of dark volcanic bits of mountains carried downhill by gravity and downpours, the whole place filled up with water, probably during a period of global climatic change. The yellow material is mostly made up of the skeletons of one-celled water creatures.

We couldn't resist a brief stop at Zabriskie Point before we headed on across the Amargosa Desert, past Pahrump ("home of the new old west"), and into the belly of the beast. On our second passage into Nevada, through Pahrump Valley, we again noticed the blight associated with Nevada-style gambling tourism.

Lots of huge billboards, often using sexual imagery to romanticize the offerings, littered the road in unseemly competition. Scars of undeveloped housing developments raddled the desert scrub.

We put on soothing music and tried to look to the mountains, knowing that, for us at least, Vegas would be a pit stop, and the real travel would begin on its other side.