The story
You can feel it now, can't you. That dry warmth rising up the grade to meet the car, thickening with every hundred feet you drop. This is low desert, and even in the cool months it has a weight to the air that the mountaintop never had. Out ahead the land flattens into a vast pale floor, hazy at the edges, going on farther than feels possible. There's no shade out there to speak of, no kindness in the sun. That's exactly why we tour this country in the cool season, and why the water you packed matters more than anything else in the car.
