Published on The Brunei Times
Desolate yet beautiful Death Valley
Liz Price
SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA
Saturday, May 12, 2007
WE HAD our picnic 60m below sea level and yet didn't get wet. We were in Death Valley, one of the driest places on earth, and the lowest elevation in the United States. The lowest point is actually -86m below sea level.
Despite its forbidding name, the area is actually one of great beauty. It is an ancient rift valley lakebed, now a deep, arid and salty basin. The desert landscape has sand dunes surrounded by mountains, which are often snow capped, spectacular wild flowers (after the rains), and abandoned mines. It is a desert of seemingly endless salt. The valley is 225km long and six to 26km wide.
Death Valley National Monument is in southeast California beside the south Nevada border. It can be reached from Las Vegas via the Amargosa Valley, some 200km away; or from Los Angeles which is about 400km away.
Hottest, driest, deepest. These are the three words that best describe it. The valley floor shimmers in the heat of the day and the sky is deep blue. It is the hottest spot in North America. Summer temperatures can reach 74C on the ground, and 57C in the air. For six months of the year the heat is unmerciful. The area receives almost no rainfall as the rain rarely gets past the guardian mountains. The annual rainfall is less than 5cm but when it rains there can be flash floods as the dry ground cannot absorb the water.
Despite the harshness and severity of this landscape, more than 900 kinds of plants live within the park. Those on the valley floor have adapted to a desert life in various ways. Some have incredibly long roots that go downward about 20m, others have roots which lie just below the surface but extend far in all directions. Others, like the cacti have skins which allow very little evaporation.
Desert animals are found, the largest being the desert bighorn which lives in the cooler, higher elevations. But the bighorn tends to be very elusive, like all the other animals, many of which are nocturnal. We didn't see any life at all, as all sensible animals were sheltering from the heat. However in the Visitors Centre in Furnace Creek, one can learn all about the natural history of the valley through the exhibits and video film. There are also regular talks as well as guided walks.
The park has nine campsites as well as two resorts. And although transport is essential to be able to tour the valley, there are also various places accessible for walkers, either for a one hour stroll or for an all day jaunt. For example one can spend a day climbing to the top of Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley at 3,368m. The vertical range, meaning the height from the lowest point of the valley to the top of the highest peak is one of the greatest in the United States, some 3,454m.
A tribe of Native Americans, the Timbisha, have lived in the valley for more than 1,000 years. But Death Valley was only discovered and named thus in 1849 when gold prospectors travelling to the Californian gold fields mistakenly undertook to cross this desolate region. Some of them died in the process. They are known as the "49ers".
Gold and silver deposits were then found in the 1850's. In the 1880's large deposits of borax were discovered. The men with their 20-mule team wagons pulled the loads of borax to the railroad.
There are several ghost towns where pieces of rusting machinery and bits of wood remind you of how these "49ers" struggled to survive. An American adventurer, Walter Scott, publicised the valley. He spent many years in the region and his ostentatious home, known as Scotty's Castle, was built in the 1920's. Scott died in 1954 and, in 1970, his ranch became part of the Death Valley National Monument.
The names given to the various parts of the park are all appropriately descriptive. Badlands is the lowest point at -86m below sea level and is a salty pool. The Devil's Golf Course was a shallow lake which dried up about 2000 years ago. Here, the Salt Pan surface is covered with jagged salt spikes. Artists Palette is a drive through colourful badlands and canyon country of incredible colours, where volcanoes erupted and the mineralised waters seeped up to colour the rock. When the land was uplifted the jumble of rocks were exposed. The colours include reds, pinks, yellows, greens and purples.
One drives through the Devil's Cornfield to reach the sand dunes. Taking photographs was difficult here as the wind was blowing particles of sand everywhere, but the dunes looked really impressive in the late afternoon sun. When it was time to leave the valley we climbed from -40m to about 2,000m within a matter of minutes. Quite an amazing place!The Brunei Times
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Source URL:
http://www.bt.com.bn/en/en/classification/life/travel/2007/05/12/desolate_yet_beautiful_death_valley
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