Jimmy and I live and work in Las Vegas, Nevada. Working for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), we are fortunate enough to get to see amazing and beautiful places every day, in the vast deserts surrounding Sin City. However when the sweltering summer heat of Las Vegas became too much for us, we decided to take a road trip and get out of town for a few days. Logically, we chose to go to an even hotter and dryer place—Death Valley. Death Valley’s beauty and close proximity to Las Vegas made it an obvious choice for a trip. We decided to travel through Death Valley and then head north to take in the majesty of the Eastern Sierra’s and finish our trip at Mono Lake in California. Please join us on a photo tour of the sweltering inferno of Death Valley and the unique and beautiful Mono Lake.

Lying in the  western Mojave Desert and straddling Nevada and California, Death Valley is known for being the hottest and the driest—the highest and the lowest. This land of superlatives is a beautiful thing to behold. With summer temperatures frequently soaring above 120º F and evaporation rates at the highest levels in the world, Death Valley is a harsh environment for all life that calls it home. In 1913, Death Valley set the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded on earth at 134º F. This was  a world record until 1922, when it was surpassed by a 136º F temperature in Libya. Winter on the other hand, is a different story. When the sun dips down behind the Sierra Nevada’s, the temperatures can plummet down to below freezing in a short span of time.

Death Valley is also known as the driest climate in the country. Death Valley lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada’s. Storms moving inland from the Pacific ocean must first cross the massive Sierra Nevada range. As the air rises and cools, it releases all it’s moisture as precipitation on the western side of the mountain. When the air passes to the eastern side of the range it has already released its moisture. As the air warms, it sucks all the moisture from the ground below, creating high evaporation rates and some of the most arid environments known to man.

Death Valley is also home to Badwater Basin, the lowest point of elevation in North America, and Telescope Peak, the tallest mountain in Death Valley. (Nearby Mount Whitney holds the record as the tallest peak in the contiguous United States.) The snow-capped mountains provide stunning contrast with the surrounding browns of the desert below.

Despite Death Valley’s harsh conditions, it is home to an amazingly diverse array of plants and animals that are specially adapted to survive in these conditions. Even human beings, the Timbisha Shishone, learned ways to survive and even thrive here. However, the perils of Death Valley are not to be taken lightly. Death Valley is aptly named  after a group of 49′ers who passed through the valley in attempts to take a shortcut to California and to the riches they had heard about. Without adequate preparation, some members of their group perished in Death Valley’s unforgiving landscape. In the late 1800’s, discoveries of silver and borax brought people into Death Valley, along with the famous twenty-mule teams which were used to transport minerals out of the valley. These miners are responsible for the development of a road system in Death Valley.

Death Valley was named as a National Monument in 1933, setting aside 2 million acres to protect the historical and cultural resources in the area. In 1994 the monument was expanded by 1.3 million acres and converted to a National Park by the passage of the Desert Protection Act.

Take a look at some of our favorite places in this strange, beautiful, and unforgiving landscape:

Artist’s Palette is a particularly colorful alluvial fan on the face of the Black Mountains. The strange colors seen here are caused by oxidation of metals in the soil.

Overlooking the Badwater Basin from over 5,000 feet above, Dante’s View is one of the most breathtaking views in the park. From this summit you can see many miles of Death Valley, including the salt flats of Badwater Basin.

At 282′ below sea level, Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in North America. The white surface on the ground is pure table salt, left behind after an inland salt lake dried up about 2,000 years ago.

Badwater Basin was said to have gotten its name from the small spring-fed pools of water that can be found around the salt flats. Due to the high salt content, the water is undrinkable. Towering behind Badwater Basin you can see Telescope Peak, which rises to 11,049′. Telescope Peak is the tallest peak in Death Valley.

One of the most beautiful features of Death Valley is the pristine Mesquite Sand Dunes. These sand dunes have been filmed in several Hollywood movies, including the Star Wars series. The dunes are formed from the mountains that are seen in the background, as large rocks break down into tiny grains of quartz.

The bizarre arrow weed plants of Devil’s Cornfield have a large portion of their roots above the ground due to erosion of the sand around them. This forms the strange & straggly formations that are said to resemble a cornfield from certain angles.

Jimmy and I are enjoying the view from Dante’s peak. It was surprisingly cool up here compared to the inferno below in Badwater Basin.

Early morning is the best time to view the sand dunes, as the morning light creates these fantastic shadows.

From the middle of the dunes, the sand resembles a vast ocean.

 

Despite the heat and extreme aridity, the Mojave desert is full of all kinds of wildlife. Shown here are the zebra-tailed lizard (left) and the chuckwalla, an iguanid lizard (right). The chuckwalla is listed as a BLM sensitive species because of population decline due to habitat loss as a result of human development.

Even in the driest of places, there are small oasis where water can be found, such as Darwin Falls. These areas are critical for wildlife that live in the region. Darwin Falls originates deep in a slot canyon from an underground spring.

Being in the midst of such a vast landscape makes you feel really small.

Early morning light displays our shadows on the sand dunes.

Wind creates these interesting patterns on the dunes.

Just a short distance from Death Valley and Badwater Basin, you will find Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states. Towering above the Sierra Nevada range and the desert below, Mount Whitney tops out at 14,505′. This view is from Bishop, CA.

Once out of the heat of Death Vally we drove north, skirting the Eastern Sierra’s heading for Mono Lake. If you have never taken a drive along the Sierra’s, I highly recommend it.

Mono Lake, nestled on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range, is extremely saline. It is nearly twice as salty as the ocean. Due to the salinity, the lake does not contain fish but supports a large population of brine shrimp.This oasis in the dry Great Basin Desert is vital for millions of migratory birds.

Mono Lake has a sad environmental history but a hopeful future. In 1941, the Los Angelas Department of Water and Power began diverting water from Mono Lake’s tributary streams to meet the water needs of the city. The salinity of Mono Lake doubled while the water level was cut in half. The ecosystem was not able to adapt to these changes quickly enough and began to fall apart. As the lake level dropped, islands that once protected nesting birds from predators became peninsulas. The chemistry of the lake changed so drastically that even the brine shrimp could not reproduce.

In 1978, the Mono Lake Committee was formed to address these problems. The committee has provided much needed legislated protection to the lake and its tributaries. The lake level has since begun to rise again, and migratory and nesting birds have returned.

  

The majestic Eastern Sierra’s provide a beautiful backdrop to Mono Lake.

 

Mono Lake is also well known for these strange formations called tufas. Tufas form around underwater springs that are rich in calcium. The calcium reacts with carbonates in the lake water and forms calcium carbonate, or limestone. The limestone settles around the spring, and over time forms a tube. Some of the tufas in this area are over 30′ tall!

If you crouch next to the lake and stare in for a while, as Jimmy is doing here (right), you can see the brine shrimp swimming around.

 

Panum Crater (left) formed alongside Mono Lake as cooling lava formed a plug in a volcanic vent. Panum Crater is full of obsidien and pumice stones (yes the kind you use on your feet).

This section of tufas (right) is known as South Tufa.

I am fortunate that amazing places such as these are within a weekend’s drive of where I live. This area is home to some of the most  unique and beautiful places on earth. It is also one of the most fragile ecosystems and must be protected. The biggest threat comes from irresponsible development and  unchecked use of natural resources.

If you have not had the opportunity to travel to this part of the world, I highly recommend you make the trip!

Photos by Jimmy Linares and Lauren Brown