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November 19, 1999
The next day
(11-19) was the low point of my journey. No, I’m not depressed. No, I didn’t
have a bad day. It’s just that I finally got to Death Valley National Park, and the
elevation at the Visitor Center is 190 feet below sea level. There are some lower
places in the park. In particular, Badwater is 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point
in North America, but I’m not going to get there.
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Before I got into the park, I
passed through the town of Death Valley Junction, home of the renowned Amargosa
Opera House. The town has about six houses, but it does have the Opera House and an
attached hotel, left over from a mining boom in the 1920s. According to the lady I talked
with in the hotel, tourists come to the Opera House by the busload from places like San
Francisco, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The owners are renovating the hotel room by
room as money becomes available, and currently have 14 guest rooms. Eventually,
they’ll have about 20 rooms plus a hostel. |
I really like
what I’ve seen of Death Valley so far. It’s a stark, desolate, foreboding place,
but has a great deal of beauty as well. The surrounding mountains in particular have much
color – rust, gray, and many shades of brown – often marbled by the forces that
uplifted the land millions of years ago. I won’t get to see its "ugly" side
since I’m here in November, one of the best times to visit Death Valley. The average
daily high temperature in November is 75 degrees, and the average low is 48 degrees. From
April to October, however, the average high is 88 degrees or above, with a peak average in
July of 116 degrees. The all time recorded high was 134 degrees on July 10, 1913, which
was a world record for many years.
Despite the intense heat,
there is much life in Death Valley National Park. I’ve heard coyotes and seen several
kinds of birds. There are many other animal species – rabbits, snakes, lizards, mice,
etc. – which are mostly nocturnal. There are also over 900 species of plants within
the park, many of which can be found around the various creeks and springs. Furnace Creek,
location of the Visitor Center and my campground, looks like a large oasis complete with
palm trees and a golf course.
Death Valley was created about 10 million
years ago as mountains rose from land that had been previously covered by the sea. As the
mountains rose on either side, the valley stretched and sank, gradually settling at a
level below that of the now distant sea. Just 25,000 years ago a large lake, now called
Lake Manly, covered the valley to a depth of 600 feet. But as the last glacial age ended,
and the climate changed such that the valley received little rainfall (now less than 2
inches annually), the lake dried up leaving behind only a residue of salt and other
minerals. One of those other minerals, however, which was highly valued in the late 19th
century as soap, for tempering glass and for manufacturing welding flux (today the most
important use is in making fiber glass).
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Borax was
discovered here in 1881 and soon there was a major mining operation in the valley. The
famous 20 mule team borax wagon trains carried borax (24 tons at a time) 165 miles from
Death Valley to Mojave, California (the nearest railroad) over 10 days time. (Photo 99)
However, I learned something at the Visitor Center that just shocked me – the 20 mule
teams were actually 18 mules and 2 horses! |
Death Valley was "discovered" in
December 1849 when a group of 49ers, headed toward the gold fields of California, got off
course and stumbled into the valley. They couldn’t find a way to get out and some
spent more than a month on the valley floor, where one member of the party died. Their
suffering became a legend, and gave the valley its name when one member said
"Goodbye, Valley of Death" as the last of the group finally escaped.
Death Valley was first
preserved as a National Monument in 1933. In 1994, 1.3 million acres of wilderness were
added, and it was upgraded to a National Park. Today the park encompasses over 3.3 million
acres, is the largest National Park in the lower 48 states, and is over twice the size of
Delaware. Several valleys and mountain ranges are included in the bounds of the park,
including the Panamint Range with 11,049’ Telescope Peak. The park brochure says
there are Bristlecone Pines on Telescope Peak, but "the age…is not known".
I could refer them to a certain research geologist, who did some work at what is now Great
Basin NP, if they want a surefire way to tell.
Tonight will be my first
night to sleep below sea level. I just hope there isn’t some kid digging holes on
Malibu Beach, who finds and opens a big plug beneath the sand. You know what would happen
then – when the tide comes in, here comes 190 feet of water right at my campground.
There’s probably some phobia associated with sleeping below sea level – maybe
subaquaphobia. |
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