Day 12 – 11/3 – Around and About the Park

Up, stop to admire the sunrise hitting the Panamint Mountains across the valley

Then off to Mesquite Spring. the contrasts in Death Valley all have to do with water. Where it is, life is abundant. Where it isn’t, well, we’ll get there in a bit.

Mesquite Spring is one of the places where it is.

Looking for insect larva in the stream bed. The other thing about water is that it is a dramatic force of nature. We found no larvae – most likely because of a recent flash flood where 1-2″ of rain washed thru is area wiping out the whole season’s population.

Next stop, Ubehebe Crater.

The crater (the largest of several in the area) was formed when hot lava from a nearby volcanic eruption spewed forth and landed in a body of water. The resulting steam blasted the craters. Geologists are unclear about the date of these craters with recent estimates of 6,000 and 300 years ago.

On to Devil’s Cornfield – a photo-stop

Hey, if they’ll name it we’ll stop and take pictures of it.

The next stop on the tour was Scotty’s Castle – a rather lavish home built by a couple of the most colorful characters in Death Valley’s history. Unfortunately a flash flood a couple of years ago deposited large quantities of mud in and around the property and did major damage to the electric and plumbing systems. So the place is undergoing significant restoration and is closed for the foreseeable future.

So we moved on to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. The dunes are not the largest dunes in the park but the others are significantly less accessible.

Being mid-day we had no hope of finding any significant life forms (other than German tourists) but Darrell sent us out to find different types of tracks.

The “zipper-looking” tracks (Cheryl’s right hand) are made by beetles. Her left hand is pointing to lizard tracks.

We also saw kangaroo rat tracks and some kind of canine tracks (could be dog or coyote)

After the dunes we stopped briefly at Stovepipe Wells Village because, well, they named it. But more importantly they put a gift shop and an ice cream store there.

Then it was off to Zabriskie Point. Other than the stunning alluvial fan formation (one of the best in the park) the point is a demonstration of man’s idiocy (or genius).

Once they built the road flash floods would run down it and threatened to wipe out the resort where we were staying. So some genius suggested cutting a small opening in the sand dune to reroute some of the water. The next rainstorm the water cut the resulting gully 15′ deep and it’s been getting deeper ever since. Eventually it will wash out the road and they will have to build a bridge over the cut.

After some discussion of the geology of alluvial fans and the power of water in such a dry place we returned to the resort to freshen up and then head to Amargosa Valley for dinner at a local casino. The casino (just over the Nevada border) is out in the middle of nowhere but the food was excellent none the less.

Tomorrow there’s more exploring The extreme variety of this place is amazing. There’s something new around every corner.

Till then, TTFN,