Death Valley, what to see and do in Death Valley in California

In your trip along the west coast of the United States You will also have the opportunity to visit one of the hottest desert areas in the world, the Death Valley National Park, California.

Death Valley, the death Valley, is a large desert area located east of the Snowy mountains which in 1994 was declared a national park, and which you can visit in the route from the coast to Las Vegas, or vice versa.

At the Death Valley they have beaten world heat record, like the 58 degrees Celsius that was reached in July 2006 in the depression of bath water.

This is Badwater, the lowest area in the United States

This is easy to explain considering that bath water It is considered the lowest area in the entire United States, as it is 85 meters below sea level.

Its location after the discharges Snowy mountains causes all the clouds coming from the west from the California coast to dry out.

In this way the death Valley becomes one of the areas in the world with the least amount of rainfall, in addition to being the hottest in the United States.

History of the Death Valley Gold Rush

Despite this enormous aridity, in the latter part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, in the Death Valley There were numerous mining prospections, from salts and borate, to copper, lead and silver.

And even in 1903 there was a brief “Golden fever“, although it declined after a few years.

Curiously, it was a Basque butcher who started the Gold Rush in Death Valley.

Domingo Etcharren He was searching for silver with an Irish miner, when in December 1903 the latter discovered a large vein of gold in the area where they were working.

That unleashed the arrival of many more miners in search of the long-awaited gold, but only in three mines was gold actually extracted.

The result is that, after a few months in which numerous mines were opened, everything finally had to be abandoned.

What to see when visiting Death Valley

During your Death Valley visit You are going to visit desert places like the aforementioned enclave of bath water, which surrounded by mountains It appears as a large sea covered by plates of salt.

In fact, with its 300 square meters, it is one of the largest salt seas in the world among those included in protected areas.

At the death Valley You will find reminiscences of said past mining activity.

Rhyolite, ghost town in Death Valley

In this regard it is worth highlighting Rhyolite, now a typical ghost town which at the beginning of the last century housed up to 10.000 people, making it the largest city in the entire area.

Rhyolite you actually find it northeast of Death Valley, outside the margins of the national park, 52 kilometers from Furnace Creek Visitor Center, which is close to the connection with Route 95, already in the state of Nevada.

Rhyolite was founded in 1904, following the discovery of a quartz mine.

As the mining activity Around the area, Rhyolite It expanded with shops, hotels, schools and banks.

Specifically, the tallest building that was built, with three floors, was the headquarters of a bank, and the town had two churches and 50 halls.

In April 1907 electricity came to Rhyolite, but the financial crisis that broke out that same year was the beginning of the end of the rise of this town.

Economic activity fell drastically and in 1910 Rhyolite It only had 600 inhabitants.

In 1911 the main mine in the area was closed, Montgomery Shoshone, and in 1916 the electricity supply to the city was cut off.

Currently, in the ghost town by Rhyolite, at the gates of Death Valley, you will only find remains of some buildings, the most notable being the aforementioned three-story one, as well as the old prison.

Scotty's Castle in Death Valley

Another notable corner of Death Valley is the Mediterranean-style Badwater mansion in Death Valley National Park, which a wealthy investor in mining prospecting built in said desert enclave.

He was an adventurer, Walter Scott, who was previously working as cowboy at the show Wild West de Buffalo bill.

Walter Scott He got financing from a Chicago tycoon, Albert Johnson, to search for a gold mine in Death Valley.

But after several years without results, Albert Johnson decided to visit the prospecting, and finally established a great friendship with Walter Scott and decided to build a ranch to go to Death Valley vacation.

La Great Depression of 0 meant that the ranch could not be completely finished, but that did not prevent it from functioning in later years as a hotel and as a tourist attraction for visitors to Death Valley.

Finally, in 1970, the National Parks department I buy Scotty's Castle, which currently maintains as a tourist attraction.

However, keep in mind that due to recent flooding, the access road to this mansion has been affected in such a way that it is announced that it will not be possible to visit the mansion until 2019.

Map: how to get to Death Valley in California