Death Valley
In 1849 emigrants bound for California's gold fields strayed into the 120-mile long basin, enduring a two-month ordeal of "hunger and thirst and an awful silence." One of the last to leave looked down from a mountain at the narrow valley and said, "Good-bye, Death Valley."
The moniker belies the beauty in this vast graben, the geological term for a sunken fragment of the Earth's crust. Here are rocks sculptured by erosion, richly tinted mudstone hills and canyons, luminous sand dunes, lush oases, and a 200-sq-mile salt pan surrounded by mountains, one of America's greatest vertical rises. In some years spring rains trigger wildflower blooms amid more than a thousand varieties of plants. Those on the valley floor have adapted to a desert life by a variety of means. Some have roots that go downward 10 times the height of an average person. Some plants have a root system that lies just below the surface but extends out far in all directions. Others have skins that allow very little evaporation.
The largest national park south of Alaska, Death Valley is known for extremes: it is North America's driest and hottest spot (with fewer than 2''/ 5 centimeters of rainfall annually and a record high of 134°F [56.7 °C] on July 10, 1913), and has the lowest elevation on the continent — 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. This point is 84.6 miles (136.2 km) east-southeast of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m). Nearly 550 square miles of its area lie below sea level. Even with its extremes, the park still receives nearly a million visitors each year.
As night falls, Death Valley's elusive populations of bobcats, kit foxes, and rodents venture out. Far above on steep mountain slopes, desert bighorn sheep forage among Joshua trees, scrubby junipers, and pines, while hawks soar on thermals rising into vivid blue, cloudless skies. Lizards are numerous, but snakes comparatively rare. Several forms of desert Pupfish live in Salt Creek near the Visitor Center, Saratoga Spring in the southeast corner and other permanent bodies of water in the valley. Rabbits and several types of rodents, including Antelope Squirrels, Kangaroo Rats and Desert Wood Rats, are preyed upon by Coyotes, Kit Foxes and Bobcats.
The valley is part of the Great Basin, and sits east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Death Valley constitutes much of the park and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. The Sylvania Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries.
In spite of the overwhelming heat and sparse rainfall, Death Valley exhibits considerable biodiversity. Wildflowers, watered by snowmelt, carpet the desert floor each spring, continuing into June. Bighorn sheep, red-tailed hawks, and wild burros may be seen. Death Valley has over 600 springs and ponds. Salt Creek, a mile-long shallow depression in the center of the valley, supports pupfish.
Darwin Falls, on the western edge of Death Valley Monument, falls 100 feet (30 m) into a large pond surrounded by willows and cottonwood trees. Over 80 species of birds have been spotted around the pond.
The moniker belies the beauty in this vast graben, the geological term for a sunken fragment of the Earth's crust. Here are rocks sculptured by erosion, richly tinted mudstone hills and canyons, luminous sand dunes, lush oases, and a 200-sq-mile salt pan surrounded by mountains, one of America's greatest vertical rises. In some years spring rains trigger wildflower blooms amid more than a thousand varieties of plants. Those on the valley floor have adapted to a desert life by a variety of means. Some have roots that go downward 10 times the height of an average person. Some plants have a root system that lies just below the surface but extends out far in all directions. Others have skins that allow very little evaporation.
The largest national park south of Alaska, Death Valley is known for extremes: it is North America's driest and hottest spot (with fewer than 2''/ 5 centimeters of rainfall annually and a record high of 134°F [56.7 °C] on July 10, 1913), and has the lowest elevation on the continent — 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. This point is 84.6 miles (136.2 km) east-southeast of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m). Nearly 550 square miles of its area lie below sea level. Even with its extremes, the park still receives nearly a million visitors each year.
As night falls, Death Valley's elusive populations of bobcats, kit foxes, and rodents venture out. Far above on steep mountain slopes, desert bighorn sheep forage among Joshua trees, scrubby junipers, and pines, while hawks soar on thermals rising into vivid blue, cloudless skies. Lizards are numerous, but snakes comparatively rare. Several forms of desert Pupfish live in Salt Creek near the Visitor Center, Saratoga Spring in the southeast corner and other permanent bodies of water in the valley. Rabbits and several types of rodents, including Antelope Squirrels, Kangaroo Rats and Desert Wood Rats, are preyed upon by Coyotes, Kit Foxes and Bobcats.
The valley is part of the Great Basin, and sits east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Death Valley constitutes much of the park and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. The Sylvania Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries.
In spite of the overwhelming heat and sparse rainfall, Death Valley exhibits considerable biodiversity. Wildflowers, watered by snowmelt, carpet the desert floor each spring, continuing into June. Bighorn sheep, red-tailed hawks, and wild burros may be seen. Death Valley has over 600 springs and ponds. Salt Creek, a mile-long shallow depression in the center of the valley, supports pupfish.
Darwin Falls, on the western edge of Death Valley Monument, falls 100 feet (30 m) into a large pond surrounded by willows and cottonwood trees. Over 80 species of birds have been spotted around the pond.