Water in the Valley of Death

Badwater Basin, Death Valley
Today my plans revolve around water. First I want to visit Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, and then go for a swim in the spring-fed pool at Furnace Creek Ranch. So, grab your sunscreen, we're on our way...

It has been getting warmer lately in the Mojave, and today (April 3) the temperature rises to 99 degrees here in Death Valley. (Later I checked the weather data, and it was actually hotter here than at any other place in the country that day.) Driving along under the blazing sun I'm thinking to myself, "Why is it so hot here?" Well, this is what I learned from the National Park Service on that topic:

The depth (200+ feet below sea level) and shape of the valley (long and narrow--yet walled in by steep mountain ranges) have a lot to do with it. Clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow the desert surface to continuously heat up. The heat radiates from the rocks and soil (the ground temperature can be 80°F hotter than the air!) At night, the heated air rises, but is trapped by the high valley walls and comes back down, only slightly cooler than the surrounding hot valley air. Commpression by the low elevation air pressure creates even more heat, so the valley experiences blowing winds of super-heated air.

I reach for the AC.

After traversing Salsberry Pass (3,315ft) and Jubilee Pass (1,290ft), the descent from the southeast into Death Valley proper begins. Signs mark the descent at regular intervals. 600 feet. 200 feet. Sea Level. 100 feet BELOW sea level. It feels like I'm in one of those war movies where the disabled submarine sinks further and further, with gauges moving into red zones and rivets starting to fly from the intense pressure on the hull. My craft finally hits bottom at around 250 feet below the waves. "Status report!" "No damage, sir!" "Restart the engines, maintain 50mph, heading zero degrees!" "Aye aye, captain."

The Panamint Mountains are on my left and the Amargosa Range is to my right. It is very hot. The desert sun is obviously affecting my mind. That last paragraph proves it.

Ahead I see what looks like... snow??

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Of course it is not snow; it is salt: sodium chloride, nearly 100% pure. More than 2,000 years ago this area was a lake some 30 feet deep. The water has evaporated, leaving the salt behind in depths of one to five feet.

A briny pond here contains more open water than I have seen anywhere else in Death Valley, but it is four times saltier than the ocean--unfit for man or beast. Hence the name Badwater. But it is not devoid of life. A rare species of snail lives under the salt crust at the edge of the pond, feeding on algae.

Immediately behind the pond rises the steep rock face of the Black Mountains. Estimated to be 1,700 million years old, these Precambrian relics are, I believe, the oldest exposed rocks in the United States. They are remnants of a volcanic mountain belt ancient beyond comprehension, almost twice as old as the surface of the moon.

All very interesting. But I have some less salty water on my mind... I can't wait to make it up to Furnace Creek Ranch, 18 miles to the north, so that I can take a swim in their crystal clear spring-fed pool. I stayed at Furnace Creek Ranch on my previous visit to Death Valley, and it is quite a place! For those of you who might not have read about it, here is the link to my earlier post.

The place to be at the hottest spot in the United States
I spend an hour or so enjoying the cool water and shade of the palm trees. Then I return to the car, looking forward to the next item on my agenda. Now I will drive west out of Death Valley National Park and run smack into the most impressive line of mountains you can see in the Lower 48...the great cordillera of the Sierra Nevada.

"Death Valley is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to buy gas there."
The price of gas in Death Valley on April 3, 2007 was $4.23, 58% above the nationwide average of $2.67

Death Valley Ranch, a.k.a. "Scotty's Castle"

An unfinished hacienda for a Chicago millionaire
Surely one of the most interesting places to visit in Death Valley is "Scotty's Castle," a mansion built by Chicago insurance magnate Albert Johnson between 1922 and 1933. As interesting as the home itself, with its completely original furnishings, is the story of the unlikely friendship between conservative, Cornell-educated Johnson and Walter Scott, a cowboy con artist known to all as "Death Valley Scotty". Don't miss it if you come to Death Valley.

Park staff wear 1930's period costumes when leading tours through the home.







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Furnace Creek Ranch (Death Valley National Park)

Furnace Creek Ranch: an oasis at sunset
Much like Egypt, which has been called “the gift of the Nile” so is Furnace Creek the “gift” of underground springs. Almost 2 million gallons per day emerges from a Pleistocene Ice Age aquifer that extends as far east as southern Nevada and Utah.

These springs form the basis for the Valley's large tourism infrastructure, which consumes 95% of the outflow. One of the rangers told me he is concerned that Las Vegas wishes to drill more wells “up aquifer” to serve its growing population, which would reduce the amount of water available to wildlife living in Death Valley.

Furnace Creek was the site of a large Indian village before Anglo occupation of the valley.

The ranch was established to provide food for the workmen and twenty mule teams of the borax mining operations, which eventually became US Borax. Mining operations at Furnace Creek ceased in 1927, and the ranch opened for tourists in 1932. US Borax continued to own the property until 1969. Furnace Creek Ranch has 224 guest units, three restaurants, a saloon, swimming pool, campgrounds, date palm plantation, a borax museum, a 3,040 foot airstrip, and an 18-hole golf course (the world’s lowest).

Coincidentally, just two months ago I stayed with the luge team at the location of the world’s highest golf couse (Sestriere, in the Italian alps). Maybe I should pick up golf again...

Thanks, Susan and Tools!

entrance gate -- the mules have been replaced by tourists
watering the golf course's palms in the early morning
the spring-fed swimming pool is GREAT

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Borax and the Twenty Mule Teams

Of all the minerals mined in Death Valley over the years, borax produced the most profits, and became known as the White Gold of the desert. Borates are salt minerals. They were deposited in ancient lake beds that were uplifted and eroded. Water dissolved the borates and carried them to the Death Valley floor, where they recrystallized as borax. Borax is used in fiberglass, welding flux, insecticides and fungicides, corrugated cardboard, soap and detergents, and fire retardant.

In 1881 borax was found near Furnace Creek. Rights to the claim (and the nearby water, necessary for processing) were sold to William Tell Coleman, who built the Harmony borax works in 1883. Borax was mined at this site until 1888. Chinese workmen gathered the ore.

Site of the Harmony borax works in Death Valley
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Extracting and processing the borax was a relatively straightforward operation, and the thorniest issue the mining company faced was how to get its product to market. The answer was supplied by the twenty mule team--whose image lives on in Western lore despite being in use only six years (1883-1889)--to haul the ore 165 miles to the railhead in Mojave, California. Its fame is due primarily to a successful advertising campaign which promoted 20-Mule-Team Borax Soap and a long-running radio and television program, “Death Valley Days.”

The twenty mule teams could pull loads weighing up to 36 tons, including 1,200 gallons of drinking water. The entire unit with mules was more than 100 feet long.
In 1884 a steam tractor replaced the twenty mule teams, and this in turn was replaced by the Borate and Daggett railroad. Salt marsh operations such as those at Harmony were obsolete by 1890. The underground Billie Mine, which closed in 2005, was the last borax mining operation in the Death Valley area.

Left: One of the original wagons and water tank for the twenty mule teams. Right: Steam tractor introduced in 1894 to replace the twenty mule teams. It was in turn replaced by the Borate and Daggett Railroad.

Timbisha of Tümpisa

I was somewhat surprised to discover that a tribe of Indians, the Timbisha Shoshone, have lived in Death Valley for centuries, and continue to do so just a quarter-mile from Furnace Creek Ranch. Their name for Death Valley is Tümpisa, which means "rock paint".

The Mesquite tree is a focal point of Timbisha culture. The Timbisha collected fallen mesquite pods, grinding them into a sweet flour and shaping it into cakes to take with them into the mountains when the valley floor grew too hot. These cakes provided food throughout the fall and winter, supplementing a diet of of game and roasted pinenuts. The current health of the mesquite groves is not good, with 95% of the water in Furnace Creek going to support tourist activities.

Relations with outsiders have ebbed and flowed over the years. They were last uprooted from their property in 1936, and their tenure in the Park was guaranteed only recently, when Congress passed the Timbisha Homeland Act of 2000.




Left: Timbisha tribe headquarters. Right: A Timbisha adobe house, built by the CCC in the 1930s.



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Mosaic Canyon (Death Valley National Park)

An easy quarter-mile hike leads to the beautiful narrows of Mosaic Canyon, which are composed of smooth, water-polished marble. The canyon drains a 4-square mile area, and could be deadly if a flash flood should occur. The walk has many twists and turns, and an added benefit is that much of it is in the shade.

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Charcoal Kilns (Death Valley National Park)

High up (6,875 ft. above sea level) in the piñon pine forest of the Panamint Range, about 10 miles west of Badwater Basin, you can see a collection of old charcoal kilns, designed by Swiss engineers, and built by Chinese laborers in 1879. There are 10 of them, each 25 feet high and 30 feet in diameter.

They suppled the Modock mine smelter, 30 miles to the west, which extracted silver and lead from the ore mined there. After only three years of use, the kilns closed, so that what we see are probably the best preserved charcoal kilns in the West.

Each kiln held four cords of pine wood. Burning the wood took 6-8 days, and cooling the resulting charcoal another 5 days. You can still see stumps of trees felled over a century ago to feed these kilns.

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My Take on Death Valley

"Hottest, driest, lowest" are words that quickly arise when describing Death Valley. But for me, it is the middle one which is most shocking. LESS THAN TWO INCHES. That's the average annual rainfall in Death Valley. Water governs everything. To survive and prosper here requires a strategy that conforms to strict parameters set by nature.
Looking down at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America (282 ft. below sea level)
Artists Palette


Death Valley, seven miles north of Furnace Creek
Death Valley's modern history goes hand-in-glove with borax. This is the most profitable substance ever mined here (I'll post more on that later), but the era of profitable large-scale mining ended around 1915. Then the managers at United States Borax hit upon an idea. They convinced the National Park Service that Death Valley was a unique national treasure and should be preserved. In 1933 Death Valley was designated a National Monument. This resulted in a temporary closing of lands to prospecting. But by prior agreement, within four months Congress reopened Death Valley to prospecting and mining. Meanwhile, with abundant water, shade trees, and accomodations, Furnace Creek became the heart of a growing tourism industry within the new park. And who owned Furnace Creek? United States Borax, of course.

Where we stayed: Furnace Creek Ranch
Furnace Creek Inn

Death Valley Wildflowers

Panamint Daisy (Enceliopsis covillei)
The majority of this flower's range is within Death Valley.
Although mid-February to mid-April is the peak blooming period, we did not see a great amount of wildflowers in Death Valley during our two-day visit: a few, but not many. The Park Service informed us that a good wildflower year depends on at least three factors: well-spaced rainfall throughout the winter and early spring, sufficient warmth, and lack of drying winds.

Seen in Mosaic Canyon