the other types, but at times we saw fairly long lines of the big beasts parading on the road. To give another example, there is a fairly good road to Bahia Los Angeles, long a popular spot. we were the only cars at the resort, everybody else arriving by boat or plane. So please don't cross Baja off of your delightful places to go list. Just hope that they continue to confine all development to Mexico 1, praying that the Turistos will do the same.
DPS SPLIT-BREAK ADAGE		HARVEY MUDFOOTE ???
ATTENTION: Watch out for rattlesnakes, coral snakes, whip snakes, vinegaroons, centinades, millipedes, ticks, mites, black widow spiders, deer flies, cat's claw, agave, Spanish bayonets, poison oak, prickly pear, cholla, loco weed, nettles, porcupines, solpugids, tarantulas, cone-nosed kissing bugs, horned toads, Gila monsters, red ants, fire ants, Jerusalem crickets, cinch bugs, Giant Hairy desert scorpions and flash floods, before you squat.
DEATH VALLEY ROADS		WALT WHEELOCK
There have been rumors floating that most of the Death Valley roads are closed to regular traffic. Just another example of a bureaucratic snafu. With a shortage of funds, the administration decided to eliminate all regular maintenance on many of the dirt roads. At the same time, with the new flair for non-lingual signs for the growing number of illiterates, they purchased a large number of two types of signs. One shows a figure of an overgrown sedan, the other of a jeep with the word "only". Now all roads have one or the other, so any road not deemed safe for city drivers came up with the "Jeep Only" sign. This included such highways as the West Side road past Shorty's Well and Bennett Well, even though these can he driven by any type of car. Likewise, though it may have a washout (passable) now and then, it is still no trouble to make the Racetrack. I had quite a conversation with Bob Murphy, Supt. of DVNM, and he agrees that this is a sad mistake. They hope to sometime change the word "only" to "recommended" but have no idea when. It sure is a hell of a situation, when, it appears that if one wants to get off the freeway, a jeep is considered desirable. Or do they want us programmed to the paved highways only in the National Monuments? We can enjoy the back roads without jeep or programming by Big Brother.
BOOK REVIEW		HENRY HEUSINKVELD
On my last week-end trip Ed Treacv handed me a present, the book Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. I have been entranced by this book and have extracted a few paragraphs from pages 189,and 190, which seem so poetic and true, really the essence of the book. WILDERNESS. The word itself is music. WILDERNESS, wilderness ........ We scarcely know what we mean by the term, though the sound of it draws all whose nerves and emotions have not yet been irreparably stunned, deadened, numbed by the caterwauling of commerce, the sweating scramble for profit and domination.

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