Another Walk in the Park: Death Valley National Park

During the California Gold Rush, some 49ers sought a short cut across this desert valley because they had heard of what happened to the Donner Party when it got caught in the mountains in the winter. From the eastern ridge, it may have looked fairly easy to cross. You can clearly see the Panamint Mountains range on the other side so it can't be all that far. Trouble is, what may look like a smooth and level plain from up on the ridge looks a whole lot different when you are actually down there. Besides, you have to find a way to descend a steep mountainside with ox-drawn wagons where there is no road. And then find a way to climb over those western mountains--also with no road. They tried and failed to get through the Panamints at Warm Springs so they looked for other options. The "short cut" took them four months. It is said that one 49er who barely survived turned around and said, "Goodbye Death Valley" thus giving it a name.
In 1994, Death Valley was raised from national monument to national park status that designated most of it as wilderness. It is a harsh environment in which any emergency can quickly become life threatening because of the extreme heat, arid conditions and, ironically, the threat of flash floods. Temperatures often reach 120+ degrees, the hottest in the US, because the deep basin of the valley traps the heat from sunny skies. (Badwater is the lowest point in the US at 282 feet below sea level.)The mountains to the west (Mt. Whitney at 14,491 feet and Telescope Peak at 11,049 feet) force the winds to rise and the clouds to drop their moisture and dissipate before they can reach the valley.
Typically Death Valley receives less than two inches of rain a year but in October 2015 there were thunder storms of biblical proportions--1.3 inches. Total! The wettest October ever. The seeds of desert wildflowers have an extra thick coating that allows them to remain dormant for years or even decades and germinate only when conditions are favorable. In March 2016 those conditions were met and there was a spectacular "super bloom."
The name Death Valley seems to imply that nothing can live there but the higher elevations are cooler and wetter than the valley floor so there are a whole series of micro-climates in which well-adapted plants and animals can barely eek out a living. Even humans.
In the 1920s, a wealthy couple from Chicago, Albert and Bessie Johnson, built a home in Death Valley because Albert's doctor had advised a warm, dry climate. (Perhaps they overdid that warm, dry part.) In their desert home, the Johnsons hosted their new friend Walter Scott, a former cowboy, performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, prospector--and seller of shares in his fraudulent gold mine. They liked his stories. When the Johnsons weren't listening, though, Scott often bragged to others that it was he who built Scotty's Castle with proceeds from his "secret gold mine." Guided tours are available. Or used to be. The Castle and the road to it were severely damaged by that 2015 flash flood. May be open in 2019. Or 2020.
You may remember Death Valley Days, a radio program and later a TV show in the 1950s hosted by what was then a future president, Ronald Reagan. The sponsor, quite appropriately, was 20-mule-team borax, or Boraxo. The publicity helped generate support for the national park. You might want to visit the displays at the old borax mine.
Death Valley is not just sand and cactus. There is a lot more variety and beauty in the terrain than you might think and by changing your altitude--and attitude--there are treasures waiting to be found everywhere.

Furnace Creek Inn sits above the valley floor for better views

and a slightly lower temperature. Slightly.

The campground at Furnace Creek is just a gravel parking lot. We got one of the few wooded sites.

But there is plenty of winter sunshine.

Winds out of the north kicked up a dust storm. Mesquite Flat Dunes

are constantly built and then blown away by the wind.

The Devil's Golf Course is all rough and no fairway.

I think the rules allow you to drop a second ball.

Or, you could just play it where it lies.

Notch-leaf phacelia

Brown-eyed evening primrose

There is water in Death Valley.

Salt Creek bubbles to the surface at Devil's Hole.

Only salt-tolerant pupfish can live in it and you can't drink it.

Desert gold. Not exactly the kind of gold the 49ers sought.

Golden evening primrose

From Dante's Point, 5,000 feet above the Valley floor, there seems to be a lake down at Badwater. But that lake dried up thousands of years ago.

Now it is just salt flats that could be mistaken for a frozen lake.

Death Valley can be a lonely place. Take plenty of water and emergency supplies. And don't count on cell service.

Fuel up before you head out for the day. The price reflects the distance to the next gas station. Plus, this is California we're talking about.

Scotty's Castle was a major attraction until the flash floods of 2015 washed out the road, piled debris ten feet high, and deposited several feet of mud in all the buildings. Not expected to open until 2019 or 2020.