40 year residence of Pete Aquereberry.
Aguereberry Point
Scenic views from above Death Valley in Panamint Mountains.
Artists Palette
Geologic color display.
Ashford Mill
Abandoned mill at southern end of Death Valley.
Badwater
Badwater Death Valley, lowest point in the western hemisphere.
Ballarat - Panamint Valley
Recreation, supplies and entertainment for miners in Panamint Mountains.
Chloride City
Ghost town in the Funeral Mountains near Daylight Pass.
Dante's View
About a mile above Badwater is Dante's View. Panoramic vistas of the Death Valley.
Darwin - Panamint Valley
1870's silver boom town.
Darwin Falls - Panamint Valley
A year-round waterfall.
Devil's Cornfield
Arrowweed clumps resembling corn shocks.
Devil's Golf Course
Salt formations in ancient lake bottom.
Eureka Mine
Worked for over 40 years.
Golden Canyon
One of the most popular of the Death Valley day hikes.
Harmony Borax Works
Saltmarsh borate refining plant.
Keane Wonder Mill
Keane Wonder Mine
Leadfield
Salted ore brought Leadfield residents here to realize they had their money stolen.
Lippencott
Lead mine in Racetrack Valley
Lost Burro Gold Mine
No one seems to know what happened to the burro
Mesquite Dunes
Sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells.
Mosaic Canyon
Smooth marble contrasts with angular composites in this outdoor museum.
Mustard Canyon
Yellow canyon near Harmony Borax Works.
Natural Bridge
Natural bridge spanning narrow canyon.
Padre Crowley Point - Panamint Valley
Scenic view point of the northern Panamint Valley.
Rhyolite
Large Nevada ghost town west of Beatty near Death Valley.
Salt Creek
Home of rare Salt Creek Pupfish.
Saratoga Springs
Third largest marsh habitat in Death Valley National Park
Scotty's Castle
Majestic home of the legendary Death Valley Scotty
Skidoo Mill
Skidoo stamp mill overlooking Death Valley.
Titus Canyon
Scenic narrow canyon road.
Twenty Mule Team Canyon
Desolate and picturesque canyon drive east of Furnace Creek.
Ubehebe Crater
Maar volcano only about 3,000 years old.
Wildflowers
Southern Death Valley wildflowers
Wildrose Kilns
Charcoal kilns high up in Wildrose Canyon.
Zabriskie Point
Dynamic sunrise vista point
Death Valley Ghost Towns
Bits of history and links to photos.
Saline Valley
Photo tours of locations in the Saline Valley portion of Death Valley National Park.
Eureka Dunes
Photo tour of the remote Eureka sand dunes in the Eureka Valley, northern Death Valley National Park.
The Racetrack
Mysterious moving rocks on dry playa in the heart of Death Valley National Park
Westside Road
Death Valley's Westside Road featuring sites including the Lake Manly shoreline, 20 Mule Team Road, Bennett's Long Camp, Eagle Borax Works, Shorty's Grave and Shorty's Well.
Lippencott Mine
Lead Mine south of the Racetrack and east of the Saline Valley.
Lost Burro Gold Mine - Sometimes a beligerant burro can be a good thing.
DEATH VALLEY
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A Land of Illusion "The valley we call Death isn't really that different from much of the rest of the desert West. It's just a little deeper, a little hotter, and a little drier. What sets it apart more than anything else is the mind's eye. For it is a land of illusion, a place in the mind, a shimmering mirage of riches and mystery and death." |
Death Valley - Extreme Desert
Death Valley is infamous as a place of heat, salt, and bad water, but it is the freshwater springs that allows for the life here. To this day water controls where life is found and provides the life's blood of all creatures who live here.
Geology of Death Valley
As the glaciers retreated from the Sierra Nevada at the end of the last ice age, Death Valley became a lake filled with abundant water and life. Life teemed in the fresh water lakes and crowded the verdant shores. 10,000 years ago the ancestors of the modern Shoshone and Paiute made their homes along the lake and in the nearby mountains. Life was good, and water brought them life.
Death Valley Wildlife
Over time, the climate became more arid and the lakes dried up. Even the memory of them faded. The Shoshone people crowded around the only remaining sources of life, the freshwater springs that bubbled out of the ground along the foot of the Funeral Mountains. Each major spring had a major village and the largest of all, Timbisha, was at what we call today, Furnace Creek.
Death Valley History & Culture
In 1849 a party of pioneers taking a shortcut to the goldfields of California stumbled into the valley. The pioneers were desperate for water, and they too found salvation in the springs at Furnace Creek. In the 1870's the first white settlers, Andrew Laswell and Cal Mowrey entered the valley. They were looking for water to grow crops and alfalfa for the booming towns in the Panamint Mountains to the west. Laswell and Mowrey developed hay ranches at both Bennett's well and Furnace Creek and were the first to dig irrigation ditches to harness the power of the water in the Furnace Creek area.
Death Valley Ghost Towns
By the early 1880's, the water at Furnace Creek was controlled by William Tell Coleman and his borax company. The Harmony Borax Works just north of Furnace Creek needed water to extract borax from the salt crusts that lined the ancient lake beds. Texas Spring provided the water for chemical processing, and the irrigation ditches and water from Travertine Springs above Furnace Creek provided water for Coleman's company town of "Greenland". With water, Coleman was able to make a success of his chemical operation and make Death Valley history with his 20 mule teams.
Death Valley Photo Tours
Geology of Death Valley
A Walk Through Time
Golden Canyon Geology Tour
Death Valley Day Hikes
Death Valley Satellite Map
Hottest, Driest, Lowest: Death Valley is a land of extremes. It is one of the hottest places on the surface of the Earth with summer temperatures averaging well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It encompasses the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level, and it is the driest place in North America with an average rainfall of only 1.96 inches a year.
This valley is also a land of subtle beauties: Morning light creeping across the eroded badlands of Zabriskie Point to strike Manly Beacon, the setting sun and lengthening shadows on the Sand Dunes at Stovepipe Wells, and the colors of myriad wildflowers on the golden hills above Harmony Borax on a warm spring day.
Death Valley is a treasure trove of scientific information about the ancient Earth and about the forces still working to shape our modern world. It is home to plants, animals, and human beings that have adapted themselves to take advantage of its rare and hard won bounty. It is a story of western expansion, wealth, greed, suffering and triumph. Death Valley is a land of extremes, and much more.
| GLOSSARY | > badlands, dunes |
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