Death Valley National Park in eastern California is a land of extremes. Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest in elevation of all the national parks in the United States. It is also the largest national Park in the lower 48 states. Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, is 282 feet below sea level. According to legend, Badwater gets its name from a mule that refused to drink the salty water. Nearby Telescope Peak, at 11,043 feet above sea level, is covered with winter snow for a good part of the year. In a land that gets an average of 2.36 inches of rainfall, a rare rainstorm can bring vast fields of colorful wildflowers. The park is in the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert, yet several lush oases harbor tiny fish and provide refuge for other wildlife and humans. Despite its morbid name, a great diversity of life survives in Death Valley.
People identify deserts as vast areas covered by sand dunes. That may be true in some parts of the world but in the Mojave, less than one percent of the desert is covered with sand dunes. In order for sand dunes to exist there has to be a source of sand. Also there needs to be winds to move the sands and a place for the sand to collect. The eroded canyons and washes of Death Valley National Park provide plenty of sand. The wind seems to blow frequently here, especially in the springtime, and there are a few areas where the sand is trapped by geographic features such as mountains. Mesquite Flats near Stovepipe Wells is one such place.
Gower Gulch is a one and a half mile gulch near Zabriskie Point on the eastern side of Death Valley in the Black Mountains. The Gower Gulch trail goes through some classic examples of badlands formations. Gower Gulch is named after Harry P. Gower, an official of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The gulch contained mines, camps, and roads during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The Narrows in Titus Canyon, at 1.5 miles in length, is in one of the largest canyons in Death Valley. The sheer limestone and dolomite walls rise 500 feet. Titus Canyon drains 35 square miles and is prone to flash flooding. During the rapid runoff, water cuts the stream channel downward rather than widening the canyon. This gives the canyon a classic wineglass shape. Titus Canyon is north of Stovepipe Wells.
At about 2000 years old, Ubehebe Crater is a relative newcomer to the geological landscape of Death Valley. Rising magma turned groundwater to steam which eventually built up pressure and exploded the rocks, creating this crater. The explosion sent shattered rock over a six-square mile area up to a depth of 150 feet. Ubehebe Crater is a half-mile across and about 500 feet deep.
Native American groups inhabited Death Valley from as early as 7000 BC. More recently, around 1000 AD, the Timbisha people migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of gold miners were stuck in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the California gold fields. One of their group died here and the name Death Valley stuck. Several towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to support the mining of gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley by mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism in the valley developed in the 1920s, when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley was declared a national monument in 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Death Valley owes much of its early development to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which improved the area from 1933 to 1942 by creating trails, buildings, and camps. They also brought phone and water service to some parts of the valley. Much of what they built is still in use today. The park was expanded over the years and was signed into law as Death Valley National Park by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
People identify deserts as vast areas covered by sand dunes. That may be true in some parts of the world but in the Mojave, less than one percent of the desert is covered with sand dunes. In order for sand dunes to exist there has to be a source of sand. Also there needs to be winds to move the sands and a place for the sand to collect. The eroded canyons and washes of Death Valley National Park provide plenty of sand. The wind seems to blow frequently here, especially in the springtime, and there are a few areas where the sand is trapped by geographic features such as mountains. Mesquite Flats near Stovepipe Wells is one such place.
Gower Gulch is a one and a half mile gulch near Zabriskie Point on the eastern side of Death Valley in the Black Mountains. The Gower Gulch trail goes through some classic examples of badlands formations. Gower Gulch is named after Harry P. Gower, an official of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The gulch contained mines, camps, and roads during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The Narrows in Titus Canyon, at 1.5 miles in length, is in one of the largest canyons in Death Valley. The sheer limestone and dolomite walls rise 500 feet. Titus Canyon drains 35 square miles and is prone to flash flooding. During the rapid runoff, water cuts the stream channel downward rather than widening the canyon. This gives the canyon a classic wineglass shape. Titus Canyon is north of Stovepipe Wells.
At about 2000 years old, Ubehebe Crater is a relative newcomer to the geological landscape of Death Valley. Rising magma turned groundwater to steam which eventually built up pressure and exploded the rocks, creating this crater. The explosion sent shattered rock over a six-square mile area up to a depth of 150 feet. Ubehebe Crater is a half-mile across and about 500 feet deep.
Native American groups inhabited Death Valley from as early as 7000 BC. More recently, around 1000 AD, the Timbisha people migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of gold miners were stuck in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the California gold fields. One of their group died here and the name Death Valley stuck. Several towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to support the mining of gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley by mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism in the valley developed in the 1920s, when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley was declared a national monument in 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Death Valley owes much of its early development to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which improved the area from 1933 to 1942 by creating trails, buildings, and camps. They also brought phone and water service to some parts of the valley. Much of what they built is still in use today. The park was expanded over the years and was signed into law as Death Valley National Park by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
This gallery contains some of my favorite Death Valley National Park images that are available as downloads and fine art prints. To view the gallery, click here or on the photo collage above. When you are in the gallery, click on a thumbnail to enlarge an image. To navigate the images click on the arrows. To see the captions click on the (i) symbol.
