Death Valley National Park was created by Congress in 1994. Previously, Death Valley had been designated Death Valley National Monument since 1933. The Park has grown in size from 1.6 million acres to 3.4 million acres. It is one of the largest protected desert environments in America. The Park is over 150 miles from north to south and more than 50 miles across at the middle. Huge segments of the Park are inaccessible or accessible only by foot or high clearance four-wheel drive vehicle.
The Park is one of the driest places on the planet, averaging two inches of rainfall annually. Because so much of the Park is mountainous, any rain can result in widespread flash flooding. Vast areas of the Park are made up of alluvial fans washed down out of the mountains by these floods. Death Valley is the hottest, driest, lowest national park in the U.S. Summer daytime temperatures often reach 120 degrees and may not drop below 100 degrees at night.
Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level. (Note the Sea Level sign high above Badwater Basin). The snow-capped mountain which you see in the background rises to 12,000 feet above sea level. The Park is in an active earthquake zone and over the eons has been heavily affected by volcanic activity. The most recent volcano, which formed the Ubehebe Crater near the northern end of the Park, erupted about 2000 years ago.
In spite of the extremes, Death Valley has attracted some interesting people and within the Park there is a diversity of interesting places, which we will feature in additional blogs.
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