Death Valley National Park: Splendid Desolation by Stewart Aitchison

By Stewart Aitchison

A brilliant evocation of one of America's most beautiful desert landscapes. Award-winning author Stewart Aitchison reveals the fascinating truths and debunks the countless myths surrounding this magic landscape. In depth information assists the reader in planning and preparing for the trip of a lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Park Partners, Inc
• Release date: Jul 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781580711005

Stewart Aitchison

Stewart Aitchison has been exploring, studying, and writing about the Grand Canyon region for almost 40 years. When not writing, he escorts natural history trips on the Colorado Plateau, Southeast Alaska, and Mexico's Baja Peninsula. He makes his home in Flagstaff, Arizona, with his wife Ann and daughter Kate.

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DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK

Splendid Desolation

by

Stewart Aitchison

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SIERRA PRESS

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Sierra Press

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Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author and publisher wish to thank the National Park Service including Coralee Corky Hays, Chief of Interpretation, and Terry Baldino, Assistant Chief of Interpretation, along with Charlie Callagan, Dale Housley, Mark Neuwald, and Vickie Wolfe. Special thanks also to Barbara Doram, Bill Helmer, and Pauline Esteves of the Timbisha Shoshone Village who were also helpful in providing information. Thanks, too, to Janice Newton, Executive Director of the Death Valley Natural History Association, and her staff. Ann Kramer and Kaye Aitchison reviewed the rough draft, and Nicky Leach, editor extraordinaire, smoothed out the rough spots.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Region

The Geologic Story

Human History

A Land of Extremes

OF MULES AND MEN

The Bennett—Arcan Party

The Timbisha Shoshone

Mines and Ghost Towns

Borax and 20 Mule Teams

Scotty and His Castle

THE LANDSCAPE

The Dunes of Death Valley

Natural Features

Guide to Selected Destinations

The Racetrack

The Pupfish of Salt Creek

FIELD GUIDES

Mammals

Reptiles and Amphibians

Birds

Wildflowers

SURVIVING THE SUMMER

RESOURCES & INFORMATION

SUGGESTED READING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

COMING SOON

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Death Valley, late afternoon view from Dante's View

INTRODUCTION

In the cool dark, I drive up the road in the Black Mountains first graded back in the 1920s to provide tourists with a startling view of Death Valley. An early advertisement had boasted, You might enjoy a trip to Death Valley, now! It has all of the advantages of hell without the inconveniences. A common poorwill, not the devil, flushes in the headlights.

There is just a hint of day along the eastern horizon as I pull into the parking lot of Dantes View, located more than 5,000 feet high in the Black Mountains. From there, I carefully follow a primitive trail that climbs the ridge north of the parking area. The crunching of stone breaks the profound silence. Is it the movements along the great faults that created this landscape? No, just my boots hitting trail. Suddenly, a shrill trilling sends a chill up my spine. Rattlesnake! Then a flash of iridescent green and rose red sweeps by—not a snake but a broad-tailed hummingbird frantically looking for open blossoms. None here. And the hummer is gone.

A half-mile walk brings me to Dante Peak. Here I sit and wait. In the clear western sky, the pink boundary between night and day slowly descends until a snow-capped, distant peak to the northwest catches fire. That particular summit is Mount Whitney, at 14,491 feet the crown of the Sierra Nevada and the highest point in the contiguous United States. The rising sun begins to illuminate the top of Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range and reveals the yawning, shadowy graben in front of me. The bare bones of the earth are exposed, colorful, naked scarps and undulating foothills. With no trees, buildings, or familiar objects, the scale is deceptive. Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, is an unfathomable vertical mile below me. To the south are the Avawatz and Owlhead Mountains. To the right of the Owlheads is Wingate Wash, used by some of the 1849 argonauts to escape Death Valley and later by the legendary twenty-mule team wagons. North are the Cottonwood Mountains on the west and the Grapevine and Funeral Mountains on the east side of the great valley. Behind me, backlit against the rising bright-orange sun, are the Spring Mountains over in Nevada.

I snooze but awake later hot and sweaty, cotton-mouthed and exposed skin already glowing red. Several turkey vultures teeter by me, broad dark wings held in the characteristic dihedral, drifting ever higher on a rising thermal. I move to convince them and myself that I am not dead. The sunlight hits the glistening white saltpan of Badwater. A persistent tale says that the Paiute cursed Death Valley with the name Tomesha, ground afire, an appropriate name for sure, but simply a corruption of Tumbisha, the Timbisha Shoshone village at the mouth of Furnace Creek and actually closer to meaning red ochre.

In the harsh midday light, the mountains are brooding masses of burnt iron. Most have no introductory hills,