Death
Valley:
After our
final glimpse of the Colorado at lake Mead at the lower end of the Grand Canyon
its off to the valley with the ominous sounding name “Death Valley”.
In 1849,
emigrants looking for a shortcut to the Californian goldfields endured a two
month ordeal of “hunger, thirst and awful silence” as they traversed this 192
kilometre long graben (sunken section of the earth’s surface.) One member of the party died, prompting the
last to leave to say, no doubt with great feeling, “Good-bye, Death Valley” The
name has endured.
Just 160
kilometres from the highest point in the southern 48 states, Mt Whitney - 4000 metres+ , the Valley
is known for its extremes – up to 85 metres below sea level, less than 50mm
annual rainfall (in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada) and maximum
temperature of 55 degrees Celsius – it none-the-less supports a surprising
variety of life. A rare heavy shower of rain can bring forth a brightly
coloured carpet of wildflowers from the more than 1,000 plant species found
here. More surprising are the pupfish, snails and other aquatic life found in
and around springs – relics from times past when the valley was an ice-age, melt-water
lake. Mammals such as bobcats, kit foxes, coyotes and nocturnal rodents, birds,
reptiles including the rattlesnake, spiders, scorpions and many other
invertebrates are also common but elusive
In spite of
these extreme conditions, Death Valley National Park is a popular destination
for tourists with around one million visitors annually, a fact that doesn’t
greatly surprise us based on the number of tour buses, RVs, caravans and cars
we see regularly along the road.
Our base for
two nights is Furnace Creek Ranch which is adjacent to the Timbisha Shoshone
Village. These hardy people have occupied the valley for the last 6,000 years
or so and now jointly manage the region with the National Parks Service.
While the
main route through the Valley is excellent, we are somewhat restricted in where
we can go here as many of the roads are either unpaved (a strict no-no for
rental vehicles) or otherwise unsuited to larger rigs such as ours. As we
descend towards Furnace Creek we are able to absorb the broad valley unfolding
ahead -nestled between steepling, jagged peaks - and wonder at the almost
surreal, dramatically sculpted and rather fantastically coloured landscape at
Zabriskie. This was the site of one of the many mining activities – borax,
silver and gold – during the typical mining town boom and bust years.
The valley
floor consists predominantly of broken rock swept initially from the
surrounding steep mountain canyons and gullies as huge, overlapping alluvial
fans and then re-distributed along the valley floor by Salt Creek in times of
rare flooding rains. Normally dry, it would seem that on occasions the valley
must receive a large portion of its annual precipitation in one huge cloudburst
which transforms the creek into a raging torrent such is the impressive result
of its work.
A most
enjoyable and rewarding day is spent taking a guided tour through the
intriguing Scotty’s Castle followed by the natural wonder of Ubehebe Crater.
‘Scotty’s
Castle’ is the subject of one of the Valley’s many fascinating folk tales. A
one-time entertainer with Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley, Scotty became a very
clever and successful con-man. His greatest deception was to convince a number
of rich investors in New York that he had discovered a rich gold mine in Death
Valley. Among those to invest were Chicago businessman Albert Johnson and his
wife Bessie. By the time that they discovered the hoax they had become firm
friends with Scotty and had fallen in love with the Grapevine Canyon Spring
area of Death Valley. The climate was good for Albert’s health and allowed him
to indulge in cowboy-style adventures while Bessie was taken by the beauty and
solitude of the whole Valley and so, throughout the 1920s they built their
extremely luxurious castle which they called Death Valley Ranch. Scotty continued to live on the property and
perpetuated the myth of the goldmine, passing the property off as his own, ‘financed’
of course by the non-existent gold. The Johnsons never corrected this story and
Albert became Scotty’s source of ‘gold’ for the rest of his life. In the words
of Albert, “We have been partners for a long time. Scott has a great appetite
for money and I like to feed it. He has always repaid me – in laughs.”The National Parks Service now maintains what
has become known as ‘Scotty’s Castle’ and preserves not only the house but also
the stories and experiences of the Johnsons and Death Valley Scotty.
At around
2,000 years, Ubehebe Crater is quite young in geological terms. One of many
such explosion craters throughout the valley, Ubehebe is evidence of the
underlying geothermal activity which sometimes breaks through to the surface.
These craters are created when magma rises upwards and contacts groundwater to
create an explosive mixture of superheated steam and rock which eventually
blasts through the surface to create huge chasms such as this 800 metre wide,
50 metre deep crater.
As we leave the area Elaine spots our first – very well camouflaged - coyote and, quite
fittingly
in Loony Tunes tradition, we encounter a roadrunner in the campground upon our
return. The following morning a number of coyotes are scavenging quite openly
opposite the campsite and along the roadside as we depart.
Rather
surprisingly for such an arid region, there are very few sand-dunes. We spend
some time exploring the largest collection, 36 square kilometres of wind
sculpted quartz grain dunes at Mesquite Flat on our way out of the Valley. From
Towne Pass, some 1500 metres above the valley floor in the Panamint Range, we
can see, less than 80 kilometres away, the 4,000 metre peaks of the Sierra
Nevada on the eastern boundary of Giant Sequoia National Park, our next destination. They however form an impenetrable barrier and so we detour south through the desert terrain of Panamint Valley to Bakersfield and then north to the Park along the western edge of the range, a distance of around 270 kilometres.
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