Death Valley USA Name history

Such severe name of Death Valley is carried not because of the heated lifeless desert. There is a legend how gold diggers at the time of Gold Rush gave to this place the name, having decided that it is an excellent short way to California. In 1849 the big group of the gold diggers went from Solt Leyk City to look for happiness to the gold mines which have been recently found in California. The group decided not to winter in Salt Lake City as the majority did. From this group, a small group decided to reduce a way through Death Valley. According to one version almost all group was lost and died in Death Valley. Another version says that the group passed through Death Valley in December, having found water already in three places and only a seriously ill old man died. Death Valley USA: the destroyed and thrown ghost cities People tried to extract gold, silver and talc here, but all of them gave up this dirty business, leaving the mines and the ghost cities.

What to look and to visit on the historical route 66 USA

Route 66/the Highway 66/Ruth 66 - the earth of cemeteries of the thrown cars and the empty cities ghosts. The well-known Route 66 highway (officially on the US 66 cards) connected the West and the East of the USA in 1926. Route 66 (also known as - the main road of America or the "Mother Road" - the road mother) passed from Main Street of America" through all the continent, covering a set of states, the cities of gold diggers, the desert: from Chicago Illinois piece through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to Los Angeles. About Ruth 66 is told in the animated film "Wheelbarrows" (“The Cars”) - the roadside small towns which have acquired fillings and little shops, began to decay and be closed, when the new modern highway which simplified and has accelerated a way from the East to the west and back, nullified all stream of cars on the road 66. Death Valley USA: the roast and the driest place on the planet

Now the Death Valley is the biggest park in America, 95 which % consists of wild, not populated places. Visits here are recommended only in winter months as in summer the temperature rises above 120 Fahrenheit (49 C). Only Sahara managed to beat only once these temperatures on 2 degrees. The Earth heats up to 80 (27 C) Fahrenheit stronger than the air and rises sometimes to 200 (93 C) degrees! The dry air and the poor vegetative life allow the sun to heat up constantly the desert, the surface gives heat to the atmosphere. Having fallen, these air masses are compressed by atmospheric pressure (the valley is below sea-level), heating up even more strongly and the heated winds travel on the desert. Sometimes there is rain (no more than 2 inch = 5 cm a year), but the earth is so dry that it simply doesn't accept water. Water mixes up with sand and rocks and all flows down the huge dirty rivers down, crumpled on the way. It occurs very quickly, on roads it is possible to see the Flash Flood Area badges (a zone of instant flooding). Then the water very quickly evaporates, without having brought release to these dry lands. Traces of these dried rivers leave people emotional and even impress. Many travelers who for the first time have got to Death Valley, are surprised that they don't see the sand sea before themselves, after all dunes cover less than 1 % of the valley.

The dunes of Death Valley can be counted on fingers:

1. Mesquite Flat Dunes at Stovepipe Wells

2. Eureka Dunes

3. Saline Valley Dunes

4. Panamint Dunes

5. Ibex Dunes

Mesquite Flat Dunes at Stovepipe Wells 

The Sand Dunes which are settling down directly near Stovepipe Wells, is a must-see place, one of the most photographed places on the territory of the USA. In spite of the fact that the dunes don't exceed 100 feet in height, they cover a rather big territory, and the most important, they are unusually picturesque. It is fashionable to see the dunes of three types: bow-shaped, linear and in the form of a starfish.

Eureka Dunes in Death Valley, USA

Eureka settles down in a remote valley with the name with the same name at a height of 3000 foots. This oldest and possibly still the highest (680 feet = 214 meters) a dune in North America covers a space in 3 miles in length and 1 in the width. Despite the grandness, the dune seems the dwarf against Last Chance Mountains in height of 4000 feet. From the Ubehebe Crater to Eureka Dunes lies a way to 44 miles on a dirt road. If you go from Big Pine small town, you grasp 28 miles of asphalt and 21 first coats. Be reserved by water as on the way to extract it there will be no place. The bottom of a dune has parking and a toilet, the dune is fenced by nothing and on it is possible to wander, having been presented the gold digger who has appeared in heart of the desert.

The Mysterious desert phenomenon - musical sands (singing sands)

Climbing up a dune during dry time, it is possible to witness to how the dehydrated sand generates very strange mysterious desert phenomenon - musical sands (singing sand) if sand though slightly damp, doesn't occur. Still the reasons of this sound aren't clear, but it is considered that when the sand falls down on an abrupt slope of a dune, the friction of smooth grains of sand from each other causes a sound similar to bass notes of body or a remote rumble of the plane.

The Badwater Basin

One of local sights of Badwater Basin – is of 282 feet (86 m) below the sea-level, this is the lowest place on all western hemisphere. Lifting up your head up the rocks, you can contemplate the plate showing where there is the sea level. The landscape reminds the alien world, the world deprived of life. Once (2-4 thousand years ago) there was a huge salty lake - Lake Manly, but now it isn't present more, there is only a valley covered with a carpet from white brilliant and even of very tasty salt, the thickness of a layer is from 2-5 feet to 60-150. People say that if you are not too lazy to pass deep into the valley 500 meters on the white road, you contemplate the dark blue and the snow-white colors of the soil under feet and 2 - 3-meter hydrochloric. But we didn't try to find oozy islands with hydrochloric patterns.

Racetrack Playa and the Mysterious sliding stones

In the valley there are the Mysterious Sliding Rocks which secret geologists can't already solve some decades! Huge boulders, it is powerful to 700 pounds (318 kg), somehow travel on the desert, fidgeting, creeping, floating, sliding, dancing, reserving traces in the form of paths, zigzags and even circles on sand!

Teakettle Junction

On the way on Racetrack Playa you will meet the well-known index covered with teapots, a must for the photos. The index settles down at a height of 4,150 feet (1,260 m) and settles down near to Racetrack Playa and Ubehebe Crater. The sign covered with teapots of travelers says "Teakettle Junction".

Ubehebe Crater

Ubehebe Crater in diameter in half-miles (804 m) depth in 600 feet, settles down about 47 miles (75 km) from Stovepipe Wells. In total 300 thousand years ago the volcano-maar here blew up, having formed a crater wrapped up with black volcanic sand and decorated with being poured layers of multi-colored sand.

Artists Drive and Artists palette

While a trip on the 9-mile asphalted road beginning from Badwater Road, grasps your spirit. When you approach the Artists palette (a palette of the artist), it becomes clear why is a palette!

Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point's town is called in honor of the Polish engineer, extracting at these edges by order of cheap work of the Chinese mercenaries. Zabriskie Point consists of "remains" of firm particles of the lake Furnace Creek which has dried 5 million years ago, long before the emergence of Death Valley and even during much more age-old times of the disappearance of the Lake Manly.