Page 675 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

THE DESER T S  673

VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
Practical Information
Death Valley Museum & Visitor
Center: Rte 190, Furnace Creek.
Tel (760) 786-3200. Open daily.
Closed Jan 1, Thanksgiving, Dec
25. & Emergency: for park
rangers, call 911.
∑ nps.gov/deva

creatures are animals that are as
diverse as the rattlesnake, the
chuck walla lizard, and the coyote.
Salt formations at the Devil’s Golf Course Northern Death Valley has
the 3,000-year-old Ubehebe
Its name was inspired by Stovepipe Wells, founded in Crater, where few tourists
Dante’s Inferno. The best time 1926, was the valley’s first venture, despite the beauty
to see the view, which takes resort. According to legend, of the landscape. This is only
in the entire floor of Death’s a lumberjack traveling west one of the dozen volcanic
Valley, is in the morning. struck water here and stayed craters in the Mojave area;
Badwater, to the west, is the on. An old stovepipe, similar it is 900 yds (800 m) wide
lowest point in the western to the ones that were used to and 500 ft (150 m) deep).
hemisphere. It lies 282 ft (85 m) form the walls of wells, marks East of the crater, lies the
below sea level and is one of the site, which is the Valley’s Moorish-style Scotty’s Castle.
the world’s hottest places. The second-largest outpost. It was commissioned by Albert
air can reach 120° F (49° C), and A walk along the 14 sq miles Johnson at a cost of $2.4 million
as the ground temperature is (36 sq km) of undulating Sand in 1922, and covers about 30,000
50 percent higher than the air Dunes, north of Stovepipe sq ft (2,800 sq m). “Death Valley
temper ature, it really is possible Wells, is one of the greatest Scotty,” a friend of Johnson’s,
to fry an egg on the ground. experiences of Death Valley. lived here until his death in
The water here is not poisonous, Shifting winds blow the sand 1948. In 1970 it was bought
but it is unpalatable, filled with into the classic crescent dune by the National Park Service,
sodium chloride and sulfates. In shape. Mesquite trees dot the which gives guided tours.
spite of the extreme conditions, lower dunes. A variety of
Badwater is home to several wildlife feeds on the seeds of Scotty’s Castle
species of insect and to the these trees, such as kangaroo Hwy 267. Tel (760) 786-2392.
endangered Death Valley snail. rats and lizards. Among the Castle: Open daily. & 8
Devil’s Golf Course is an region’s other, mainly nocturnal, Grounds: Open daily.
expanse of salt pinnacles,
located 12 miles (19 km) south Death Valley Scotty
of Furnace Creek, off Hwy 178.
Until about 2,000 years ago, a Walter Scott, would-be miner, beloved charlatan, and sometime
succession of lakes covered performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, liked to tell visitors that his
the area. When the last lake wealth lay in a secret gold mine. That “mine” was, in fact, his friend
evaporated, it left behind Albert Johnson, a Chicago insurance executive, who paid for the
alternating layers of salt and castle where Scott lived and received visitors. Built in the 1920s by
gravel, some 1,000 ft (305 m) European craftsmen and Native American labor, the castle has a
deep and covering 200 sq miles Moorish feel. Scott never owned the building, and Johnson
(520 sq km). The ground is 95 paid all his bills. “He repays me in laughs,” said Johnson.
Although Johnson died in 1948, Scott was allowed to
percent salt, and visitors can remain here until his death in 1954. The
actually hear the salt expand edifice is still known as Scotty’s Castle.
and contract with the continual
change of temperature. New
salt crystals (identified by their
whiter hue) continue to form.
The multicolored hills known
as the Artist’s Palette are to
the north. Created by mineral
deposits and volcanic ash, their
hues are at their most intense
in the late afternoon.
Located northwest of the The grandiose, Moorish-style Scotty’s Castle
visitor center, the village of

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