We have been there three times. I wrote about our 1988 and 1993 trips, including a sidebar on the latter. I didn't write about our third trip and should have.

The photos -- like the one here of stunning Striped Butte Valley, 5,000 feet off the valley floor -- sprinkled around these Death Valley webpages were taken from the last trip, about three years ago, just after Death Valley Monument was expanded and promoted to national park status in Ocotober 1994.

You don't need four-wheel drive to see Death Valley's most famous sites, but we highly recommend having an all-terrain vehicle just so you'll feel comfortable driving on some rougher roads to see such spectacular back-country scenery as The Devil's Racetrack and Striped Butte Valley.

I haven't edited or updated the articles I wrote. So you'll see Death Valley called a monument, my current newspaper called Telegram-Tribune instead of its current name as The Tribune and assorted redundances, inaccuracies and inconsistencies as I learned more about the park the second time we visited.

We plan another trip to Death Valley for our 25th wedding anniversary in April 2000 to finally sample relaxing at the Furnace Creek Inn and another camping trip some time next decade to see more of the Northern end of the huge park.