Death Valley National Monument
| Death Valley Nevada, part of the Mohave desert, is one of the hottest and driest places on earth. This barren desert is surronded by towering mountains. Rain clouds break against the slopes of these mountains keeping the valley beyond dry. Death Valley includes the lowest point in North America at Badwater where the elevation plunges 280 feet below sea level. Much of the rest of the valley is also below sea level. The heat climbs as the elevation sinks. Death Valley is one of the hottest places on earth- where temperatures have reached 134 degrees Fahrenheit.- just two degrees short of the highest temperature ever recorded. The names given to the valley and it's features reflect the hardships the early pioneers faced in crossing it: "Funeral Mountains", "Dante's View", "Dry Mountain", and "Saline Lake". | |
| Rare rainfall washes salt and debris down to the valley floor where the water evaporates leaving behind salt flats, and salt pinnacles like these at "Devil's golf course". |
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| On "artist's drive" erosion has scoured these volcanic deposits revealing the subtle and varied colors of the minerals. | |
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| View from Zabriskie Point |
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