The Entrance to Mawrth Vallis

This image from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers the entrance to Mawrth Vallis.

In Andy Weir's "The Martian," stranded astronaut Mark Watney drives from the Ares 3 landing site in Acidalia Planitia towards the Ares 4 landing site in Schiaparelli Crater via Mawrth Vallis. This image covers the entrance to Mawrth Vallis. As you can tell, driving over this terrain will be much more difficult than it was depicted in the novel or the movie. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 58.5 centimeters (19.1 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 176 centimeters (69.2 inches) across are resolved.] North is up. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21555