2007-10-09, Death Valley - 死亡谷（在线收听） |
| It's been called the land that God had forsaken, long considered one of the harshest environments on Earth and for good reason. Summer time, ah, we start to hit 100 usually in mid April, ah, and usually (don't) continue with that through, through mid October, in the middle of July, June, July and August, 120 easily. (Don't miss that. Ok. That's a wonderful...) Alan Van Volkenburg knows. He's been a park ranger in Death Valley for over a decade. The hottest I felt was 129. The day it hit 129 I went out and sat in the, in the, a shaded area that was outside. Just, kind of, think about what it felt like. And there was a slight breeze blowing and like, you know, you think a slight breeze would cool you down 'coz it was in the shade. That side of me, it felt, if I thought I was gonna come away, it being red burns. It felt that hot on that side. The vast expanses of sand and rock are seemingly devoid of life. In the valley's most hostile spot, the miles and miles of salt flats are completely parched. On average, the valley gets less than two inches of rain each year. Some years they don't get any at all. In this extreme, desolate landscape life is often hidden. Of course, there are common creatures - bighorn sheep that live up in the mountains, coyotes, snakes, spiders, and other desert denizens. They all have one thing in common - the ability to sniff out water in a place that looks bone-dry. There is water, I mean, surrounding the hills and canyons of this park, there are over 500 different small seeps and springs. We are at the largest collection of springs. Ranger Charlie Callaghan knows that where there is water, there is life. And in Death Valley, there is more water than meets the eye. It's that ability for both fauna and flora to survive here that Callaghan finds so remarkable. There is, amazing, there is over a thousand different species of plants found in Death Valley. There, there is several dozen of them that are endemics, so they are found nowhere else in the world. And although most of Death Valley looks exactly as it did thousands of years ago, the seeming desolation can be full of surprises. |
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