Desert Destination: Death Valley

Welcome to Death Valley National Park, at over 3 million acres, it's the largest national park in the lower 48 states. It's a place full of colorful geology, unexplained phenomenon, extreme variations, and wonderful surprises.

On today's trip, I'm going to take you from the southeast end of the park, near Shoshone, along the road that traverses the eastern side of the park up to Scotty's Castle.

Spring is a great time to visit Death Valley. Not only are the temperatures reasonable, but desert plants brighten the landscape. Some of the best places to see flowers are right next to the roads. Just park and wander around, and the diversity of life becomes apparent.

One of my favorite plants, the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) was in bloom. 

The bright yellow flowers flashed as the branches waved in the wind. 

Spring is a popular time to visit Death Valley, and in fact there were thousands of people staying at Furnace Creek, the park headquarters area. But because Death Valley is so huge, people are spread out in the rest of the park, and it often felt like I had it all to myself.

It was easy to pull off the highway and snap photos of whatever caught my attention, like some more wildflowers and the beginning of a salt flat.

The salt makes it hard for vegetation to live, but nevertheless, some plants and animals have adapted to it. One of the reasons there is so much salt in the bottom of Death Valley is that it used to have a huge lake in it, Lake Manly. When the water evaporated, the salt was left behind. The lake fluctuated at different levels, so there were many opportunities for salt to be deposited.

As I headed north, I noticed some people walking out on a big salt flat. I rounded a curve and saw a parking area. This wasn't just any salt flat, it was...

...Badwater! The lowest spot in North America, at 282 feet below sea level. A boardwalk stretched out from the parking lot onto the salt flat. 

I was there late in the day, but I could just imagine the heat of a July sun at noon. It would probably be over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, about hot enough to start drying a person into jerky.

These holes intrigued me. I'm not sure what caused them, but it makes me wonder if there are parts of Badwater that might suddenly sink and swallow me up.

Off the beaten path, the salt deposits rise up and provide interesting relief.

At Devil's Golf Course, the salt formations are even higher. They look delicate, but most are very hard and crunchy. Footing is difficult, and a fall would hurt.

Since it was late in the day, for a short while I was the only one out there, and it felt both neat and creepy at the same time.

I decided to take a detour off the highway to go on Artist Drive. The mountains are particularly colorful in this area. With the sun mostly behind Telescope Peak and the other mountains on the other side of the valley, I didn't have the full effect of the artist's palette, but it was still spectacular. The road is one way because of some tight turns and constricted canyons. Maybe next time I can do it on bicycle.

The next day I got a really early start and continued further north to Salt Creek. This is a little creek on the valley bottom. Despite the high salt, high temperatures, and scarce vegetation, this creek manages to be home to tiny pupfish, along with aquatic insects, birds, and more. 

A sand dune with pickleweed is right near the trail. The pickleweed is succulent, with squishy flesh that stores water.

To protect the creek, the trail is on a boardwalk which goes next to and sometimes over the creek.

Further north I found more good places to stop and enjoy the wildflowers.

It was a very windy day, so I decided to skip the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells. In the distance of this photo you can see the sand blowing off the dunes. If you want to experience a sand storm, one way to get a similar feeling is go to sand dunes on a windy day. I'm not sure why you would want to experience a sand storm, but just in case...

There is just so much to see in Death Valley that at times it becomes visually overwhelming. One thing I like to focus on are the alluvial fans, the land flowing out of the canyons in a fan-like pattern. Water eroded the rock away further upstream, redepositing it. As I look at the alluvial fan, my eye always moves up to the mouth of the canyon and I wonder what is up there. Death Valley must have hundreds of alluvial fans, so it makes my imagination go wild.

Another stop to admire some beautiful phacelia. Flowers bloom at the lower elevations from about February to the end of March, and then they start blooming at higher elevations. Telescope Peak is over 11,000 feet high, so there are even flowers blooming in the middle of summer in Death Valley.

A couple more alluvial fans coming down from mountains on the other side of the valley, with creosote bushes in the foreground.

Towards the north end of Death Valley, the main road curves to the east and goes to Scotty's Castle. 
The area is an oasis, and it's fun to wander the grounds and feel a little more humidity. A hummingbird was hanging out near the small waterfall between these palm trees.

Continuing up Grapevine Canyon, the road eventually leaves the park. I like the back of the park entrance sign, which said "Thanks for Experiencing Your National Park. Please Visit Again." 

I think I will. Thanks, Death Valley.

Desert Destination: Owl Creek Campground--Speleo-Ed 2009

Every Monday I feature a Desert Destination.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Speleo-Ed, a weekend seminar highlighting cave education. It was held at Rainbow Basin north of Barstow, California. I arrived late Friday night and couldn't really see much of the Owl Canyon campground, but the next morning I got up before sunrise and climbed up some of the surrounding hills. The large tan tent was the gathering place for the 100 attendees.

Saturday morning we spent inside the tent, listening to a variety of interesting talks. Everyone brought there own folding chair. The tent made it dark enough so we could use powerpoint. Being cavers, we felt very comfortable inside the dark environment.

The screen was a quilt tied up to a makeshift rafter. It was a wonderfully rustic setting.

After lunch there were several field trips. I chose to go on the geology one, which was a popular one. We stopped to listen about the Barstow syncline. The syncline is the folding of the earth into a basin (as opposed to an anticline, where a dome is formed). There's a rather good entry on geology of the Rainbow Basin here if you're interested.

The syncline is a spectacular geologic feature and so easy to see. Many field geology classes come out to study it and measure the angles of the dip. (I think that's the correct terminology--I'm working on beefing up my geologic knowledge, but right now it's rather scanty.)

This geologic feature caught my eye. You can see if it from the same overlook as the syncline, just turn around 180 degrees. 

It's obvious why Rainbow Basin got its name. The different colors are apparently due to iron. When the iron is oxidized, it makes reddish colors and when it is reduced, it makes greenish colors.

We started hiking up one of the washes to explore more in the Rainbow Basin.

There were lots of interesting rock formations, and the clouds even became rather interesting to watch.

As we headed up one gully, it got narrower and narrower, and we had to go in single file. Our group stretched on and on...

The gully walls got steeper and steeper. It definitely would not be a good place to be during a flash flood.

And then, up ahead, we saw the gully go into a dark hole. Oooh. We were all cavers, so we were very excited. 

This is called a soil pipe cave, and is basically formed by water washing away the sediments and eroding the rather soft limestones, dolomites, and conglomerates. There are little mud and dirt formations in parts of the cave, and bat droppings on the floor.

The cave was short, but it was long enough we had to turn on our headlamps.

The entrance on the uphill side was quite a bit smaller, requiring stoop walking and a little climb. We went further up the gully until a tall dry waterfall stopped up. Then we turned around and got to go through the cave again. Hurray! We did some more hiking and went to another cave, this one even requiring crawling. 

When we got back to the campground in the late afternoon, there was another talk. This one was about paleontology and was put on by Bob Reynolds of LSA & Associates and Bob Hilburn of Mojave River Valley Museum. They showed us bones and casts from some of the interesting creatures that have been found in the  area. 

The Barstow formation is called "highly fossiliferous," meaning that there are lots of fossils in it. In this area, a permit is required to collect fossils from BLM lands. Many different animals are preserved in this area, which was a combination of lakes and rivers and uplands. Many lived during the Barstovian North America Stage, during the Miocene about 13.6 to 16.3 million years before the present. I couldn't find a good website about the fossils, but this dissertation abstract gives a little more info about ages and some of the megafauna found.

We took a walk down a nearby wash, where one of the paleontologist pointed out the fossilized track of a camel. It's on the wall of the wash, because it was made before the rock had been tilted upward. I would have never noticed it if it hadn't been pointed out to me.

Here's a closeup of the fossil. The fossil is in relief, meaning that instead of the track being depressed like a recent track in mud, the fossil is raised. You can sort of make out the toes of the camel.

That night we had a yummy dinner, a fun night hike (except for the people who went to the business meeting), and relaxing talks around campfires. The wind was strong and I didn't stay up too late. (I live on a ranch, anything past 9 p.m. is late for me!!)

Going to bed early meant I got up early and had time the next morning to hike around and explore more before the Sunday field trip (which will be featured next Monday). I loved looking at all the different washes and gullies and rock formations next to the campground. 

The Owl Canyon campground is called primitive, but it has limited drinking water, picnic tables, fire grilles, outhouses, and swingsets and playground equipment! It is a super place for kids. And it only costs $6 a night to camp.

On my wanderings, I went up one gully and encountered this little rock waterfall with two holes near the base of it. Yep, those are cave entrances! I was by myself so I didn't go in, but I did check out the entrances and saw that some human garbage had washed in, and I couldn't see the end of the cave. I guess I'll just have to go back. Want to go with me?