Driving along the southwest side of the Dead Sea, or actually walking, because if you are driving and blink, you will miss it, you might see a tiny sliver of green bushes emerging from the desert mountains above. The green bushes flank a small creek called Wadi Bokek (or Boqeq or Boukiq), which is in the Judean Desert Nature Reserve. The surrounding landscape is a vast wasteland of sandy-colored rock, bleached by the unrelenting, blazing sun, without another bit of green for many miles. Near the base of the creek is a stone structure from biblical times, Castle Boukiq. After viewing the stone ruins, I walked up the creek and into the mountains, where eventually the flanking cliffs hung precipitously overhead and signs were posted to warn of falling rocks. Time to turn around.