Demonic names misrepresent Death Valley

This view from West Side Road shows Badwater just below the Black Mountains. Photo by Jerry Bunin

Hell's Gate, Starvation Canyon, Devil's Cornfield, Coffin Peak, Furnace Creek, Funeral Peak, Badwater, The Devil's Racetrack, Dante's View, Dry Bone Canyon, Devil's Golf Course.

Death Valley doesn't sound appealing. But the names given to its striking geologic features are misleading. Deserts aren't barren, even when under intense summer heat. Nature adapts to her environment.

Flashfloods that come with the winter bring water that spring turns into brightly colored wildflowers. In the fall, the skies are crisp, yet warm and blue.

The 2 million-acre national monument is more fragile than foreboding. The air is still, not silent.

Night times echo with the "Yip! Yip! Yowl!" of coyotes roaming for food and water, leaving tracks and scat to mark their paths. Dawn breaks with the "Caw! Caw!" of large black crows scanning from bushes and treetops that grow in what seems like the driest of places.

More than 900 different species of plants live inside the park, including 20 that grown nowhere else and some, like pickleweed, that are quite comfortable drinking salty water.

This is aptly named Cottonwood Canyon near Stovepipe Wells, where springs keep trees green despite Death Valley's heat. Photo by Jerry Bunin

Nearly 400 springs dot the 49-year-old monument. Creeks run year-round on the valley floor. Snow falls in the park, less than 20 miles from the lowest and hottest spot on the planet.

And even the 49ers who entered the desert domain by mistake 150 years ago escaped with only one death, although that was enough earn Death Valley its name.

From its low point at Badwater to Telescope Peak, 11,049 feet, Death Valley's elevation range more than two miles, covering everything form pine forests to totally barren salt flats.

Rabbits, kit foxes, bobcats and burros share space with 17 species of lizards 19 species of snakes, 230 species of birds and tarantulas, who stroll across roads and through campsites during the fall mating season.

True to its stereotype, however, Death Valley isn't an attractive place to pass a summer. Between June and August, average daily air temperatures top 110 degrees with highs reaching 134 degrees, the second-hottest temperature ever recorded in the world. Ground level temperatures have hit 190 degrees.

Rainfall is scarce. Nestled beneath the Panamint Mountain Range just east of the Sierra Nevada, Death Valley is the driest spot on earth, averaging 1.69 inches of rain a year.

Summer heat is so intense, it could evaporate a lake 12 feet deep across the whole valley in one year.

The rain that does fall can be dangerous. Flashfloods are a constant winter-time threat as steep, narrow canyons can fill with raging torrents up to 8 feet high in less than an hour.

Death Valley was a huge lake 10,000 years ago - when the last Ice Age was ending. Rainwater doesn't flow out. It picks up minerals off the steep canyon walls and washes them out across the floor.

The mineral washes create giant salt pans. At places like Badwater and the Devil's Golf Course, the white crusts are up to 6 feet thick, reflecting the heat and making the sunlight even brighter.

At 280 feet below sea level, Badwater is the lowest spot on the Earth's surface you can drive to, and maybe the hottest. The salt pan spreads out like some huge, shimmering sea.

While Badwater is flat and you can walk on it, the Devil's Golf Course is nearly impassable. The rain that washed the salt down from canyon walls also shaped it into jagged, rock salt spikes that make hiking treacherous.

The Bennett-Long 49ers who mistakenly wandered into Death Valley in 1849 couldn't move their wagons after encountering the Golf Course. They camped by a spring for 26 days that winter while two young men walked 600 miles to bring back supplies.

Despite managing to avoid the intense summer heat, the 49ers were only too glad to escape their predicament, turning back to wish "Good-bye Death Valley" when they hiked out over the Panamint Mountains.

There were wrong.

The valley wasn't and isn't dead.

Plants grow almost everywhere in Death Valley except for the salt pans.

Trees, like the mesquite, have roots stretching 60 to 125 feet down and plants can spread roots over 30 square feet in order to find water below the surface or capture every possible drop that falls in the infrequent rains.

Plants developed leaves designed to maximize water intake and minimize losses. Leaves can have small surfaces and waxy covers so they retain water, and light colors to reflect sunlight and minimize evaporation.

Most desert animals are nocturnal, hunting in the cooler evening air. Howling coyotes are a nightly reminder. Some larger animals, like the desert bighorn sheep, live in higher elevations and in the canyons ringing the valley floor. Kangaroo rats have adapted by learning to produce water from seeds they eat.

Man isn't as resourceful, yet Death Valley can be explored.

Many sights are located along main roads. Others can be reached by short hikes, ranging from a half to three miles. Longer hikes lead backpackers into magnificent solitude.

Backcountry roads, including 140 miles recommended for four-wheel-drive only, can take you to remote campgrounds and rarely seen spots.

Everyone can drive to Scotty's Castle in sublime Grapevine Canyon, where a legendary valley figure and a Chicago merchant he charmed erected a home anyone would love to have.

Paved roads and short hikes also lead to craters formed by volcanic eruptions earlier in the land's development.

Most people visit Death Valley between the fall and late spring, when high temperatures range between the 90s and 60s and lows dip into the upper 40s.

Those who make the pilgrimage return often.

Once you see the desert what it is, you know it's worth seeing again and again.

More general information on Death Valley is available by calling 786-2331.