Patrick Dantressangle

Death Valley september 2000

The " Death Valley " encroaches both California and south-east Nevada. It was discovered in 1849. This valley is 86 meters below the sea level. An interior lake was there thousand years ago. Eruptions gave rise to the mountains, and water evaporated. The displacement of the earth's crust generated a lowering of the valley. Thus the mount " Telescope " takes its base 86 meters below the sea level to reach 3368 meters. One finds there oases of palm tree-date palms, sand dunes, marble canyons, a salt sea, craters... We can meet there coyottes, lynxes, tarantules, rattlesnakes, and the famous " Roadrunner ". Its ground contains Borax, still exploited nowadays. The pupfish is the fish that lives in the salted lake of Badwater.

A coyotte A barail cactus Datura is a poisonous plant A castel in the middle of the desert
Scotty's castle Around the building, the desert Along the wall runs a brook
Devil's corn field Wind phenomena : sand dunes Sand Dunes
We lost a few pounds ! These sand dunes are close of Stovepipe village
One more effort, the top is near
Some people can't resist:too hot! Mushroom Rock Sight of the salt sea from Dante's view (1670 meters) Badwater, Isabelle walks on the salt At Badwater, the lake never is dry, we can see algae and a fish: the pupfish
Devil's golf course These concretions are very sharp: don't fall! We can hear metal noises as the salt dialtes The Salt flats : at this place the salt had melted... and now the crust is reformed
Small balls of salt... are formed... and they are very fragile
Artist's palette Pigments are the source for these different colors
Mosaic canyon, the rock is made of pink marble Tormented ribbons of rock Multicolored stones agglomerate In rainy weather a stream falled from here Zabriskie point
Zabriskie point Craks in the ground Rhyolite, Nevada... The ghost city was once prosperous
The entrance of the village of Stovepipe beautiful quail Two others quails Joshua Tree with these fruits
Store : we find in dry meat, others food and antiquites Baskerfield I'm everywhere

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