What to see and do in Death Valley, 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, riding a California.

Death Valley, 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 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 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.

Gold Rush in Death Valley

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

In this regard it is worth highlighting Rhyolite, now a typical ghost town which in the last century had up to 10.000 inhabitants.

Located on the borders of the national park, it was born in 1904 when a quartz mine was discovered. But decay soon set in and in 1916 the electricity supply was cut off.

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 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