The story
Listen, if you can, under the engine. The mountain quiet is giving way to desert quiet, which is a different and bigger silence, the kind that has a whole open valley folded into it. You're near the bottom of the grade now, the switchbacks loosening their grip, the road starting to run straighter and easier. Borrego Springs and the heart of the park lie out ahead on the valley floor. Stay with the descent a little longer and let the road deliver you down onto the flats, where this whole desert finally lays itself out flat and wide before you.
