By Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2024
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. —
The temperature had just crept past 125 degrees, and Stephen Peterson was staring absently at a family cooling off in the Stovepipe Wells hotel swimming pool.
“It can make you stir-crazy,” he said of enduring the oppressive heat.
Summer in Death Valley — famously (or infamously) the “hottest place on Earth” — can be brutal. Even without this month’s heat wave, the temperatures in July frequently top 120.
Although tourists and thrill seekers seldom spend more than 24 hours here in the summer, park rangers, tourism staff and Native Americans live here full-time, when conditions can easily kill those who are careless. For some of these year-round residents, the heat can feel like a prison because of the restrictions it places on life.
Peterson and his buddy Aniken Yeager work in the kitschy tourist town of Stovepipe Wells within the national park. Peterson works at the general store and Yeager is a line cook at the restaurant and saloon. Both live in the town’s dorm-style housing near the hotel.
To help fight cabin fever, Yeager adopted a stray dog. “It gets lonely, man,” he said. “I don’t want to take antidepressants.”
It’s a tight-knit community with about 50 employees — if you don’t know someone personally, you know of them. “We all take care of each other,” Yeager said.
Everyone has their own metaphor for describing the heat. Yeager said it’s like standing directly behind a running car, while to Peterson it’s a blow dryer to the face.
“It sneaks up on you,” Peterson said. “The science is brutal.” Sweat evaporates so fast that the skin never gets wet — he’s only ever felt sweat two or three times during the summer. On a bad day, heat exhaustion can set in within minutes.
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