Re: death valley i nee help or ill come to my death lol!!!!
Posted by devin on May 01, 2002 at 16:18:52:
In Reply to: Re: death valley i nee help or ill come to my death lol!!!! posted by kelsey on April 30, 2002 at 20:15:46:
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is the largest National Park outside of Alaska. with 3,336,000 acres. A drive across the park from the western entrance near Panamint Springs to the Furnace Creek Visitors Center in the middle of the park takes a bit over two hours. The drive out of the park via the southeast entrance near Shoshone takes about another two hours. Add frequent stops to see the views and you have a full day easily just driving.
If you want to see Death Valley, you really need to allow yourself several days, make a reservation at either the Furnace Creek Inn or Ranch and then explore.
It is a common misconception that Death Valley is nothing but a huge salt bed left over when a huge lake 600 feet deep dried up over 15000 years ago. While the valley floor does contain a salt bed several hundred feet deep which was found in the late 1800's to have a large supply of Borax, a major mineral used in many household products, there is much more to Death Valley.
There are sand dunes which each day present the visitor with new patterns, wildflowers, over 900 kinds of plants, and beautiful canyons at the foot of the mountains on either side of the valley. If you golf you can play at a beautiful course at Furnace Creek, which bills itself as the "world's lowest golf course" at 214 feet below sea level.
There is even life in Death Valley although survival is a daily struggle in a place where the highest recorded temperature was 134 degrees. Most of the animal life is nocturnal living the active part of their lives when the sun sets and the heat on the valley floor falls dramatically.