THEY CAME BACK down the Grapevine Canyon Road, leaving Scotty’s magnificent Moorish folly behind them and headed up the rough drive to the Ubehebe Crater. Partway up, they came to the Grapevine Ranger Station. It looked like a border-crossing hut. There was a woman inside. She asked them where they were headed. They said they were heading up to take a look at Ubehebe Crater, and maybe drive on to the Eureka Dunes. She leaned out through the station window and said, “I wouldn’t advise that, folks. Not a great idea. You’re on your own up there. Going up over that mountain pass…then there’s nothing. I would advise taking a pass on the Eureka Dunes today.”
“Is there any problem?” Johnny asked. “Anybody die?”
“Not that I heard of,” the ranger said.
“Any avalanches or snow?”
“At Eureka? No,
