Geography
Located east of the Sierra Nevada and occupying a transition zone between the Great Basin and Mojave deserts, the park protects a diverse desert environment of mountains, valleys, canyons, badlands, salt dunes and salt flats.
Death Valley National Park is the largest national park in the lower contiguous 48 states. Some 91 percent of the park is official wilderness area.
At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin on Death Valley’s floor is the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, and is located only 85 miles from Mt. Whitney (14,405 feet in elevation). This difference in elevation is the greatest elevation gradient in the contiguous United States. Highest peak in the park is 11,049-foot Telescope Peak at the top of the Panamint range.
Largely because of its lack of surface water and low relief, Death Valley is the hottest, driest place on the continent. The highest temperature in the world (134 °F) was recorded near Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913. Rainfall averages less than two inches a year and in some years no rain at all falls on Death Valley.
Natural History
Despite its bad rep as a desert wasteland, Death Valley is home and habitat for more than 1,000 species of plants and 440 species of animals that have adapted to extreme conditions. The park is an International Biosphere Reserve.
Only portions of the salt flats are devoid of plant life; the rest of the valley boasts at least some vegetation. More than two-dozen Death Valley plant species grow nowhere else on earth, including Death Valley sandpaper plant, Panamint locoweed, and napkin-ring buckwheat.
At lower elevations the dominant flora includes creosote bush and mesquite, plants that can extend their tap-root systems 50 feet to find groundwater. At higher elevations pinyon pine-juniper woodland thrive and limber pine and ancient bristlecone pine cling to life on the park’s highest slopes.
Wildlife includes coyotes, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, the desert shrew, plus several species of gophers, rats and mice. Bats roost in caves, crevices and mine tunnels. Burros, introduced in the 1880s, roam the Panamint and Owlshead Mountains, as do the native mule deer. Desert bighorn sheep can be sighted in remote canyons and gamboling over inaccessible ridges.
History
From as early at 7000 BC, Native American groups have lived in the region. About 1000 BC, the Timbisha (often referred to previously as the Shoshone) inhabited the area, migrating between the mountains in the summer and the valley in the winter. In 1849 a wagon train looking for a shortcut to California gave the valley its name, even though only one pioneer perished.
Many are the legends of Death Valley gold and silver mines, but the only truly profitable ore mined was borax, hauled out of the valley by the famed twenty-mule teams. Radio programs and films helped Death Valley capture popular attention, and tourism began in earnest in the 1920s and accelerated in the 1930s when Death Valley National Monument was established and Depression-era government workers built facilities and hundreds of miles of good roads. Death Valley was substantially expanded and upgraded to national park status in 1994.
For More Info
Death Valley National Park For camping, road and weather information call 760-786-3200 Furnace Creek Visitor Center & Museum, 15 miles inside the eastern park boundary on Calif. 190, offers interpretive exhibits and a new movie every half hour. Ask at the information desk for ranger-led nature walks and evening naturalist programs.
The park’s nine campgrounds are at elevations ranging from below sea level to 8,000 feet. Make reservations online or call 877-444-6777.
Death Valley Natural History Association supports preservation efforts, interpretative programs, and scientific research. The group operates three book/gift stores in the park.