If there's a bright center to the universe...

Welcome to Day 1 in Death Valley.

(Please excuse the current lack of high resolution shots, internet here is slow so I may not get them all up for a while)

These first two shots are from the way into the park. The long road into the valley and the view from Crowley Point.

 

Started off by going to Badwater, the lowest point in the western hemisphere. There isn't much water here, but what little is here is, well, bad. The name was given when an early surveyor marked the small pools and his map with "Bad Water" after his mule wouldn't drink it. The water that forms the pool here can be runoff from the hills but mostly comes up through the ground picking up the mineral deposits as it comes. This is also the only known habitat of the Badwater Snail, who apparently doesn't mind the salt, but is too shy to be photographed. It is also endangered.

Next stop was Devil's Golf Course mostly because there is a sign pointing it out. The area consists of more salt and dirt, just taller formations than Badwater or the Salt Flats.  That is Telescope Peak in the background. It is the highest point in the park.  The drop from Telescope to Badwater is one of the biggest and steepest on the planet: from 11,048 feet to -282 feet.

After that I took Artist's Drive which doesn't photograph well in the morning and midday light. I may get back here in the evening for some shots. So then it was on to Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie is just above the Golden Canyon trailhead and overlooks the valley I was just in. I hiked out to the washes below the point and shot some pics. There isn't much water in Death Valley, but there is a lot of evidence of water and you can see in the runoffs, stratification in Zabriskie Point, and mud crusts.

I stopped and shot some roadside flowers as well. There ARE flowers in Death Valley. In the winter anyway.

Last shots, Stovepipe Dunes which I hiked this morning (exHAUSTing) and will have more for you later, the dusk sky in DeVa, and the homestead.