Our second full day in the park began at Badwater Basin, an expansive salt flat, devoid of obvious life, with distant desert mountains. It is home to the lowest point in North America.
See that faint white line almost directly above our camper? That marks sea level.Badwater Basin is 282 ft below sea level. The salt flats here cover nearly 200 square miles and are composed mostly of sodium chloride (table salt), along with calcite, gypsum, and borax.
Stories suggest that Badwater Basin earned its name when a mule belonging to an early surveyor refused to drink from the spring-fed pool near the present-day boardwalk. However, the water here is not truly “bad,” just very salty. Despite this high salinity, many organisms not only survive, but thrive here. The pool is home to an endemic snail naturally found only at this location, and its rim is dotted with salt tolerant plants, including pickleweed.
Steve and the big kids hiked then hiked to Natural Bridge, a stunning geologic formation tucked back in a Death Valley canyon.Different from the smooth sandstone arches found in Utah, Natural Bridge is interesting because it is made of a jagged rocky alluvial deposit (rock, gravel, and sediment washed to the base of an ancient mountain and cemented together). The bridge rises approximately 35 ft above the canyon floor and is about 35 ft thick. Although rain is infrequent here, over thousands of years, flash flood events have carved the canyon which the bridge spans today.Our last stop was at Zabriskie Point, an iconic Death Valley vista.The spectacular views from Zabriskie Point are some of the most photographed in Death Valley National Park. Named in honor of Christian Zabriskie, a prominent figure in the heyday of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, Zabriskie Point affords an elevated vista from which to marvel at the badlands below. These yellow and brown stripped hills have been shaped by the powerful force of water, and even during dry times, the path carved by this water is unmistakable.
posted under |
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).JPG)
%20(Medium).JPG)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).JPG)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).jpg)
%20(Medium).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment