Water’s Bad, but Canyon Colors Shine

Looking west from Badwater, the lowest point in North America, at 282 feet below sea level, the eye is drawn to what appears to be a shallow stream flowing across the valley floor. But this flow is a trompe l’oeil, a mirage caused by the strange terrain and deceptive coloring.

Light plays upon the valley floor, and the landscape spins as though caught in a color wheel, from the gray and gold of sunrise to the lavender and purple of sunset. To say the least, visiting the lowest parts of Death Valley National Park is often a colorful experience.

Badwater--and some of the nearby canyons off Badwater Road--give a brilliant visual display of Death Valley’s geology as shifting patterns of light bring out the iridescent colors.

A hike across the barren salt flats to Badwater and beyond may just be the definitive Death Valley experience. It’s an excursion into extremes--the lowest land in North America and one of the hottest places on Earth. Because temperature increases as elevation decreases, Badwater is no place to linger in the summer, when temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit are regularly recorded.

While Badwater is not the lowest spot on the Earth’s surface (that distinction belongs to the Dead Sea, on the Israel-Jordan border, at 1,312 feet below sea level), its proximity to adjacent high country makes its level quite pronounced. The park’s high point, Telescope Peak (11,049 feet), is located less than 20 miles west of Badwater.

A “Sea Level” sign posted high on the cliffs above Badwater helps visitors imagine what a depression of 282 feet represents. These cliffs thrust skyward to Dante’s View, 5,475 feet above sea level.

As the story goes, an early map maker named the briny pools “Badwater” when his mule refused to drink the water. Badwater’s water is indeed bad--as is most surface water in Death Valley--because of an extremely high concentration of salts; it’s undrinkable but not poisonous.

While Badwater’s environmental conditions are hostile to life, some plants and animals manage to survive. Patches of grass and clumps of pickle weed edge the shallow pools where water beetles and insect larvae can be observed.

A causeway leads out onto the salt flats. To really get a feel for the enormity of the valley floor, continue past the well-beaten pathway farther out onto the salt flats.

Access: From the junction of California highways 190 and 178, head south on the latter (Badwater Road) for 16.5 miles to the signed Badwater parking area.

Dante’s View

From the parking area at Dante’s View, an unsigned but distinct trail leaves the tourists behind and ascends north toward Dante’s Point. A short hike (one mile round trip with 200-foot elevation gain) to Dante’s Point, perched more than a mile above the valley floor, offers views of the lowest and highest points in the Lower 48.

Beyond Badwater towers Telescope Peak and, farther still, 14,495-foot Mt. Whitney. A second, unsigned little trail (0.25 mile) extends southwest from the parking area to a rocky promontory popular with photographers.

Hellish names to the contrary, Death Valley, as surveyed from Dante’s View, appears far from lifeless. The dark splotches on the Panamint Mountains are actually bristlecone pine and juniper. Those small dark spots observed along the west side of the valley are mesquite thickets.

Directly below Dante’s is the vast salt sink. The gleaming white beds of almost pure salt contrast with the brown, gray and tan elsewhere on the valley floor.

Dante’s View was created during Death Valley’s pre-park days in the late 1920s. Local innkeeper Charlie Brown escorted a group of private tour operators high into the Black Mountains to see what he considered the best view. All agreed that tourists would be wowed by such vistas. Brown was soon awarded a contract to construct a road to the viewpoint. Within a few months Dante’s View, as it was dubbed, became the first stop on the Union Pacific’s Death Valley bus tours.

I suggest taking the hike in the early morning so the sun is at your back when you’re savoring the view or snapping a picture.

The trail climbs briskly and briefly up a hill, then makes a mellow contour along the mountain’s west slope. About 0.3 mile from the trail head, the path meets the summit ridge, then ascends a bit more to reach Dante’s Point.

Access: From California 190, 12 miles east of Furnace Creek, turn south on Dante’s View Road and follow it 13.2 miles to its end at Dante’s View parking area.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Badwater, Dante’s View Trails

WHERE: Death Valley National Park

DISTANCE: From Badwater Road across Salt Flats is 1 mile round trip. To Dante’s Point is 1 mile round trip with 200-foot elevation gain.

TERRAIN: Vast salt sink on valley floor and dramatic cliffs high above them.

HIGHLIGHTS: Magnificent views of the highest and lowest points in the continental U.S.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Easy.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, CA 92328, tel. (760) 786-3244.