David Stein, age 12, of St. Louis Missouri, for his question:

What is Death Valley like?

Visitors who expect to see a vast vista of dreary desert dunes get a opening surprise. For Death Valley is sever dull and its colors are far from drab. In fact, this National Monument of ours is a scenic wonderland. Its colors change from dawn to sunset and its beauties change with the seasons.
Six months of the year from October to May, Death Valley enjoys a mild and sunny climate. Visitors can take their time, riding and driving, hiking and strolling through the stretches of this famous desert. Every turn in the way reveals new surprises. It is like turning the pages of a fantastic picture book. But no painting or photo can capture its real life beauty and though poets have tried, their words have failed to describe it. To know what Death Valley is really like, you must see it with your own eyes.
Its greatest surprise is its variety its palette of changing colors, its fantastic assortment of rocky formations. The next surprise is the fact that Death Valley is far from dead. It has picturesque gardens of low growing desert plants and a dozen different cactus that burst into bloom after the spring rains. Then, the spiky fuzz of the beavertail is decked with gaudy red roses, and the grizzly bear cactus wears flowery saucers of vivid yellow. Various annual seeds drink in the silvery spring showers, sprout and add more blossoms.
The scenic wonderland has year round tenants. There are foxes and jackrabbits, coyotes and kangaroo rats, badgers and squirrels, horned toads and a variety of other lazy lizard . There are ravens and wrens, meadowlarks and mourning doves. And if you drive at a leisurely pace, a sassy road runner may pace along beside you with leggy strides. If you probe, you will find bugs and other small tenants even in the rippling regions of sandy dunes. Devil's Golf Course is a salty formation of impossible cracks and crinkles. To the small creatur$s that hide there, its crusty pits and peaks must seem like the world's most rugged mountains.
The long, low valley runs north and south and its sides are walled with the crests o£ soaring ranges. Canyon trails wind through gorges tinted with reds and yellows, whites and rusty browns. In the distant background', the purple blue peaks meet the azure blue sky. At dawn and sunset, the rainbow pastels become vivid with blazing colors. In winter, the peaks of the Panamint Range add snowcaps of dog tooth white to the western skyline.
Down in the Valley, you can visit Badwater, a dip in the desert about 280 feet below sea level. You can climb the ridge to Zabriskie Point and stand in an eroded landscape, fantastically uarved in rocky clays of reds and yellows. You can drive to Dante's View, 5475 feet above sea: level, for a panoramic picture of the scenic wonderland. Your gaze wanders down to the dunes and salt flats, the craters and crusty pockets a mile below. Then your eyes are drawn up from the flat desert floor to the majestic mountains on the other side.
Death Valley was named by the pioneers who tried to cross it in summer. Its wells and springs offered only bitter and poisonous water and its daytime temperatures soared above 130 degrees. But the days of the covered wagons are past. In an air conditioned car, you can cross it comfortably in summer. But take plenty of drinking water, and do not get out of your car. Admire the passing scenery as it whisks by the windows, but do not pause for longer looks. In winter, Death Valley basks under balmy summer sunshine, its scenic vistas sealed safely away from blizzards and shivering gales.