Death Valley Part IV: Furnace Creek and South

For our third day into Death Valley we headed south past Furnace Creek Visitor Center and took the eastern fork in the road to follow California Route 190 that runs through the park. We pulled off at Zabriskie Point. It is a short hike up the hill for breath-taking views of multi-colored mudstone badlands.

After Zabriskie Point we continued south on Route 190, then turned right onto the 13-mile spur road to Dante's View. The road is steep and winding, and the last 1/4 mile has a 15% grade. Vehicles longer than 25 feet are prohibited. Dante's View is about 5,500 feet above the valley floor and provides a spectacular view of Death Valley right from the edge of the parking lot.

The white area in the above photo isn't snow. It was 90 degrees down on the valley floor. The white area is Badwater Basin, which is a salt basin that is at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America. Runoff from the surrounding mountains and from infrequent rains in Death Valley runs toward Badwater Basin. Much of the water evaporates before it even gets to the basin as evidenced by the white streaks. Water that does make it to the basin quickly evaporates leaving behind even more salt. We'll have more on the salt basin shortly.

There is also a small knoll that is a little higher than the parking lot. It's about a quarter mile walk, the last part of which is uphill.

The view from the knoll to the north is similar to the one from the parking lot, but you get a little better view to the south.

At the knoll Paul climbed the last 15 feet of rock.

We left Dante's View and headed back north toward Furnace Creek. At Furnace Creek we turned left and headed south on the western fork in the road, which is Badwater Road. We took the short gravel spur road off Badwater Road to the Devil's Golf Course. Here, the salt has crystallized and formed gnarled lumps.

You can walk out onto the salt, but the terrain in uneven. If you fall, it's gonna hurt. Talk about rubbing salt in a wound.

The next photo is a closeup of some of the crystals. They are very hard and very jagged. To get an idea of scale, the larger crystal spikes are about an inch long.

We continued down Badwater Road and stopped at Badwater Basin that we overlooked a while earlier from Dante's View. There is a small pool of water that is four times saltier than sea water. It's so salty there are salt crystals on the bottom, floating on the surface and all around the edge. Yet there is a species of tiny snail that lives under the crust in this briny water and feeds on algae.

Badwater Basin is the lowest point in Death valley and in all of North America. Interestingly, the highest point in the contiguous 48 states is Mt. Whitney at an altitude of 14,505 feet, and it is only 76 miles to the west.

It is a 5-mile walk across Badwater Basin. We had no intention of walking all the way, but we went a short distance for a photo.

From Badwater Basin we headed back north on Badwater Road and stopped at Natural Bridge. The hike to Natural Bridge is about half a mile up a canyon that has been cut by flash floods.

The water has undercut the stone at one location and formed a natural bridge.

You can hike another half mile or so beyond the bridge, but the canyon is fairly steep so the bridge was as far as we got. It was mid afternoon, and we still had a couple more stops we wanted to make before heading back to the motor home.

We continued north on Badwater Road until we came to Artists Drive. Artists Drive is a 9-mile, one-way side road that winds through multi-colored hills of volcanic ash.

 

Our last stop of the day was Golden Canyon. Golden Canyon was cut into gold-colored sandstone by the waters of flash floods. This canyon isn't as steep as the canyon at Natural Bridge, but it's fairly wide and the walls aren't very high so there is very little shade. It was late in the day and it was over 90 degrees so we stopped to take advantage of the shade at infrequent overhangs.

 

We walked far enough (about a mile) to catch a glimpse of the formation at the end of the canyon known as Red Cathedral before turning around. The trail went farther, but it was late in the day, it was hot, and we were almost out of water even though we brought extra.

There is also a side trail off to the right from Golden Canyon that connects to Zabriskie Point, which was our first stop of the day. If you look at the first photo in this post you can see Red Cathedral on the right.

We had saved a little water back at the car, and it was still cold. We stopped at the general store at Furnace Creek Village for frozen fruit bars to help us cool off. They were very refreshing. From there it was back to the motor home for dinner and some relaxation.

Death Valley turned out to be one of those delightful surprises. Initially, Margery was ambivalent about seeing it; but Paul wanted to stop because we were passing by. However, it was a fascinating and diverse place with a majestic, rugged beauty. It was definitely worth our time and effort.

There is yet more to see in the area so stay tuned.