VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP

Death Valley is perhaps the most geologically diverse region in the world. In terms of petrology, landforms, geologic structures, stratigraphy and tectonic history, the region has geologic variety matched only by its geographic extremes of topography and climate. As such, the Death Valley area has been a popular destination for geology field trips for many years. There are many geologic guides available for the Death Valley region that range from extremely technical refereed journal articles to pamphlets written for the general public. We have attempted to summarize this information as well as include some information not always found in other guides. First, since the advent of GPS tracking devices, the exact location of a particular geologic feature is easy to locate. Secondly, color photographs are now easily transmitted via computer. Thirdly, detailed location descriptions should also include timing and access information for the best time (in terms of weather and lighting) and route to visit a particular site. This virtual field trip and guide is an attempt to offer these last items for some of the better geologic sites in and around Death Valley National Park. Thus each location described is given the latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes, road directions, best time of day and year to visit, an explanation of what is there, a photograph of the site and a few pertinent references.

We have been using many of these sites for field trips for our students for many years. Others have been added because research by many of the authors cited in the references has revealed their significance only in recent years. The references cited for each are not meant to be exhaustive. We have tried to list references that should generally be obtainable at any university library. For a general overview of the geology of Death Valley, we recommend Wright and Miller (2004), Miller and Wright (2004), the Death Valley National Park website, and Sharp and Glasner (1997). For more detail on each selected site, please refer to the references cited for many of the locations.

The organization of the site descriptions generally starts in the far south of the national park and then proceeds north. We have provided mileages to each site from major, easily locatable landmarks such as towns and major road intersections. Latitude and longitude locations are given in degrees, minutes and decimals of minutes rather than seconds because that is the system that seems to be used by most people navigating in their vehicles using GPS. Speaking of vehicles, some of these sites are quite remote from pavement and thus if any high clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicle is needed, it is so noted this in the description.

To best use this guide in the field, one will need a good map. We recommend the Automobile Club’s Death Valley National Park Map. Also, the Trails Illustrated and other topography-based general maps are also very useful. While most of the locations are obvious once you are within a few hundred yards, the GPS coordinates will help you find the location more precisely if you are unsure of what you’re looking for. Of course, with the GPS coordinates, one can input the data into a good mapping program and obtain an exact location. Many will prefer this method. The National Park Service’s Death Valley Website contains some good information on geology (there is a joint USGS field trip available) and this site is most useful for current road information. We have included a very general satellite map with the site locations at the end of the website after the references.

Special thanks are due to the following people who pointed things out to us in the field or otherwise: Tom Clements, Bill Fischer, Carl Hansen, Robert Pease, Bob Reynolds, Larry Spear, Zeke Snow, Dick Stone, Alan Swarm, Bennie Troxel, Brian Wernicke, and Lauren Wright.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact us.

Dr. Steve Spear

Geology Program

Earth, Space and Aviation Sciences Department

Palomar College

1140 W. Mission Rd.

San Marcos, CA 92069

(760) 744-1150, x2513

sspear@palomar.edu

The Far South (FS)

The three sites in this area lie in the extreme southeast corner of Death Valley National Park immediately west of California Highway 127 which provides the best access from Baker and I-15 or from Furnace Creek or southern Nevada. A visit to all three should be avoided in the heat of mid-summer because they are 6 to 10 miles off the pavement. Except following infrequent rains (usually in winter) which may make the roads impassable for several weeks, access to sites 1 and 2 can be accomplished in most any vehicle. Site 3 requires high clearance if the road has been maintained by a four-wheel group on a recent visit but usually four-wheel drive is required because of a severe washout about a mile and half east of the site.

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FS1. Amargosa River Crossing

Location/Access: (35^o 39.123’N, 116^o 23.618’W) From the junction of CA 127 and the Harry Wade Road, 30 miles north of I-15 at Baker (there is a large stone monument at this intersection near the extreme southeast corner of Death Valley National Park), go west on the Harry Wade Road 5.8 miles. This road is usually well-graded gravel. At 5.8 miles, you will come to the junction to Saratoga Springs. Turn right (north) and continue for approximately 0.5 miles. You will cross several channels of the normally dry riverbed of the Amargosa River. Stop anywhere convenient as you approach the hills to the north.

Best Time: The lighting is best in the early morning in the cool half of the year. The river may be flowing a few inches deep between December and April for weeks at a time but it is usually easily crossed with a high clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Geology: The view of the near hills to the northwest includes the various members of the middle Proterozoic Crystal Spring formation, the oldest sedimentary rock in California. Although it first appears to be folded into anticlines and synclines, the rock is actually striking north and dipping towards you. Differential erosion is only giving the impression of folding. The formation contains sandstone, shale and some carbonate layers all of marine origin and all are often slightly metamorphosed. Also, you will notice dark zones which are diabase sills. These sills are also apparent to the northeast as you look beyond the Saratoga (Ibex) Dune field where a few mines are visible. These are talc mines that were last active in the 1950’s. This mining activity is better seen at Sites FS-2 and FS-3. The dunes are transverse dunes composed mostly of sand blown east from the floodplain of the Amargosa River. At this point the Amargosa River flows west just before it turns north to flow to the bottom of Death Valley and has just come south from the Amargosa Desert to the northeast. For more detail on the history of the river’s course see Butler (1982), for the talc mining and general geology see Wright (1950) and data on the dunes can be found in Garrett (1966).

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FS2. Saratoga Springs

Location/Access: (35^o 40.868’N, 116^o 25.310’W) Saratoga Springs is located about 3½ miles northwest of Site FS1 (the crossing of the Amargosa River) or about 4 miles northwest of the Saratoga Springs turnoff from the Harry Wade Road. As you head north from the Harry Wade Road, you will cross several small dry channels of the Amargosa River. The northerly track of the excellent gravel road ends at a T-type intersection. The left fork is signed and heads to Saratoga Springs. This section of road may be muddy after rain.

Best Time: Late morning in the cool half of the year.

Geology: Saratoga Springs is probably the best spring in Death Valley. The large pools are partially the result of talc miners adding a berm (probably in the 1950’s) but all of the buildings and non-native vegetation were removed by the early 1970’s. The flow of the springs was once measured to be 48,000 liters per day (Robinson, 1957). The flow of underground water in the Death Valley-southwest Nevada region is very complex, but with the large quantities of fractured limestone, faults and gravel-filled basins, long distance migration of groundwater is quite possible. As Death Valley is the lowest land around and Saratoga Springs is at the bottom of the southern end of the valley with the geologic requisites mentioned above, its existence should not be a surprise. The ponds are the home of a species of pupfish, Cyprinodon saratogensis (Miller, 1950). The existence of these small fish (Brown, 1971) in diverse localities throughout the Death Valley region establishes both dramatic recent climate change and the existence of a significant system of desert lakes and rivers that were present as recently as the most recent glacial maximum approximately 18,000 years ago. The springs were a major locus of talc mining after World War Two (Wright, 1950). This is one of the best places to closely examine the 1.08 billion-year-old diabase sills (Heamon & Grotzinger, 1992) and the Crystal Spring formation. The best access is just northeast of the large ponds, a very short hike from the parking area.

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FS3. Ibex Springs/Talc Mines

Location/Access: (35^o46.244’N, 116^o 24.638’W) This site is located approximately 9.8 miles north of Saratoga Springs and 5.3 miles west of Highway 127. Coming from Saratoga Springs, one needs to keep left at the junction of the main road back to the Harry Wade Road. This road is very sandy and four-wheel-drive is a must. This route gives you the closest access to the Saratoga (Ibex) Dune Field (see Site FS1). The other road, westerly from highway 127 near the microwave tower is shorter and of better surface. However, west of the junction of these two routes, there are several severe washouts which have at times been repaired by four-wheel-drive- clubs to a passable state for such vehicles.

Best Time: Any time of day in the cool half of the year.

Geology: There are a few old buildings left from this camp’s high point as a talc mining center in the 1950’s. You may even notice a few patches of asphalt left as roadbed on the way in. If you continue up the road, keeping the camp on your right, one can gain access to several talc mines further up the canyon. If you proceed up the road east of the camp, one can gain access to the diabase sills that are near vertical due to post-injection folding and faulting. A fair amount of non-native vegetation is still around the springs at the head of the wash near the camp. Geologically, the area is nearly identical to Saratoga Springs (Site FS2) (Wright, 1968).

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Southeast (SE)

These sites are all outside of Death Valley National Park and can be reached easily from Shoshone.

SE1. Dumont Dunes

Location/Access: (35^o 41.296’N, 116^o 13.803’W). The dunes can be reached by traveling 4 miles north of the Harry Wade Road junction with CA 127 and turning east for 2.7 miles. After this, there is a junction and the main road curves to the right over the Amargosa River and the GPS coordinates are located 1.8 miles past the river on the mesa upon which the dunes sit. Any vehicle can make it but good traction may be needed because of the sand and water crossing. The area is currently experiencing an explosion of off-road vehicle use. Be careful. Access to the dunes themselves will cost you. As of early 2008, the charge was $30 for a pass to access the dunes by vehicle. This can be avoided if you park before the entrance shed and hike south up the hill.

Best Time: Late afternoon, all year.

Geology: The Dumont dunes are about 400ft high and extend for nearly 12 miles. They have been estimated to contain 6.8 billion cubic feet of sand (MacDonald, 1970). Most every dune type exists here in the dune field including barchans, transverse, star and longitudinal dunes. The source of the sand is predominantly from the west and south probably derived from alluvial fans and the floodplain of the Amargosa River. The dunes most likely postdate the last high stand of Lake Manly, probably about 18,000 years ago. The Dumont Dunes are one of several dozen dune fields in that that are classified as "booming sand dunes". While the best sounds in the California desert can be heard at the Kelso Dunes some distance south of here, these and the Eureka Dunes offer some noise under favorable conditions. The noise in generated when sand grains slide against one another during a sand cascade or rarely during sand storms. The frequency seems to be controlled by the depth and thickness of the sliding dry sand layer (Vriend, et. al, 2007).

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SE2a. Sperry Wash/Thrust & Unconformity

Location/Access: (35^o 42.080’N, 116^o 14.681’W) Just north of the Dumont Dunes. Take the left fork 2.7 miles in from CA 127 and travel 0.5 miles up the Amargosa River, keeping to the left at first and then heading to the right bank. You will probably need four-wheel-drive. Or you could walk as it isn’t very far.

Best Time: Anytime, all year.

Geology: In the cliff face on the south side of the canyon, the Precambrian metamorphic complex is thrust over the Crystal Spring formation and on the hillside on the north side of the canyon; the Noonday Dolomite sits in an angular unconformity over the Crystal Spring formation.

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SE2b. Sperry Wash/Weird Basalt

Location/Access: (35^o 42.412’N, 116^o 14.503’W) This site is on the north side of Sperry Wash just 0.3 miles past the previous stop. You are still driving up the riverbed so you will probably need four-wheel-drive.

Best Time: Anytime, all year.

Geology: This is a basalt porphyry of Pliocene (?) age. The white crystals are plagioclase that were apparently distorted during the early phases of crystallization while slowly flowing. We're hoping for more data on this one.

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SE3. Shoshone Road Cut

Location/Access: (35^o 59.810’N, 116^o 13.164’W) This spectacular road cut is on CA 178 3.7 miles east of the junction with CA 127 which is just south of Shoshone. There is a very large parking area on the right.

Best Time: Anytime except early morning.

Geology: This is a very popular site for geology field trips and classes. Most of the rocks visible in the road cut are Tertiary and volcanic. The exceptions are the small blackish mass just to the right of the main fault at road level and the rock on the right skyline. The former rock is a mass wasting deposit composed mostly of Cambrian Bonanza King formation fragments and the skyline thin layer is a tuffaceous sandstone conglomerate. The rest of the rocks are volcanic. The dark black band is a vitrophyre and the rocks above and below it are welded rhyolite tuffs. The layers further above and below the black band are also rhyolite tuff but are not welded. The source area is probably from the late Miocene-Pliocene Timber Mountain caldera complex just northeast of here in Nevada. The main fault and its parallel and smaller sympathetic faults are all normal that strike northeast and show just a few tens of feet of displacement (Troxel and Heydari, 1982).

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SE4. Emigrant Pass

Location/Access: (35^o 53.063’N, 116^o 03.865’W) From the CA 127-178 junction near Shoshone, go 5.1 miles south. Turn east towards Tecopa and through the Hot Springs to the junction in Tecopa (now 4.3 miles from CA 127). Turn east and go 1.4 miles to the Old Spanish Trail/Furnace Creek Road junction (the main road actually curves to the left). Continue 8.6 miles towards Nevada on the Old Spanish Trail Road and stop before the summit of the pass on the right shoulder.

Best Time: Anytime, all year.

Geology: The GPS coordinates are set on a small outcrop of the Cambrian Carrara formation. You can find some decent trilobites here (at least 6 species of Olenellus and several others). There is a good detachment fault visible to the northwest (see photo) and algal laminated bodies (Girvanella) can be found in the Zabriskie quartzite 0.4 miles back down the hill (Licari, 1999).

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SE5. Noonday Dolomite “Worm Tubes”

Location/Access: (35^o 48.750’N, 116^o 05.020’W) From the junction of Furnace Creek Road and the Old Spanish Trail Road, 1.4 miles east of Tecopa, turn right on Furnace Creek Road and go a total of 8.0 miles. You will pass the turnoff to China Ranch and the road will slowly deteriorate as you head towards the Noonday Mine area. Just after passing the Western Talc Road, you will cross a cattle guard (this is at the 8.0 mile mark). Turn left up the deteriorating paved road and go 0.9 miles to reach the GPS coordinates.

Best Time: Anytime, all year.

Geology: These “peculiar tubular features up to several feet long, parallel to the bedding” (Wright, 1974) (see photo) in the lower member of the Noonday dolomite have variously been explained as filled worm tubes or organic degassing vents. If indeed, they are worm tubes, they are the oldest metazoan fossils in California. Just up the road is the War Eagle Mine. The dump has been prospected indicating it was a silver mine. The mine was still open last time we were there (2007) and you can see some good malachite on the walls and ceilings several hundred feet in. It is a very large mine but its safety is suspect. Lastly, from near the worm tubes, you can walk over to the saddle and get a good view of the Crystal Spring Canyon area of the Kingston Range, the type locality of the Pahrump Group formations which are all visible from this location.

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SE6. Shoshone Fossil Footprints

Location/Access: It must clarified that these footprints are on private land, a short walk from "downtown" Shoshone. Therefore, the GPS coordinates are not given. Permission can be obtained at the Shoshone Museum (which has great copies of various prints) or sometimes from the main office next to the store across the street from the Museum.

Best Time: Any time, all year.

Geology: The surface shown is an volcanic ash bed of Pliocene age on the floor of a quarry (Chesterman, 1973; Hillhouse, 1987). The prints shown in the photo are horse prints but other species, such as those from the elephant family are a few feet away. There are other examples of mammal tracks in the vicinity (e.g.: Reynolds, 2001).

Pliocene Horse Tracks

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Southern Central Region (SC)

Sites SC1-8 can be found in the southern part of Death Valley and in the area immediately west in the southern portion of the Panamint Mountains. Site SC1, Ashford Mill and Shoreline Butte is well marked, on the main paved road and thus serves as a good point of geographic reference from which to calculate distances and locations. Site SC2 is also on the main southern road and thus also easily accessible (but may be the most geologically complex and confusing part of Death Valley). Site SC3 is visible from the highway and is accessible by most vehicles as long as the Amargosa River isn’t running. Site SC4 is quite a few miles up Warm Springs Canyon but is accessible with a high clearance vehicle. Site SC5, a truly lovely mountain valley, is quite remote and a portion of the road beyond Site SC4 has been extremely rough for many years. Thus four-wheel-drive is required for access to Site SC5. These sites offer a great variety of geology from mining to Pleistocene features to current and past tectonic processes.

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SC1. Ashford Mill & Shoreline Butte

Location/Access: (35^o 55.135’N, 116^o40.995’W) Ashford Mill, which also has a good view of Shoreline Butte is just west of the main eastside paved road in southern Death Valley. It is about 27 miles west of Shoshone and about 45 miles south of Furnace Creek. It is clearly marked on nearly all maps of Death Valley.

Best Time: All year. The shorelines are best viewed in the late afternoon.

Geology: The Ashford Mill processed gold for a very brief time in the early 1900’s. The source was a mine in the southern Black Mountains to the east of the site. There is a road that ascends the alluvial fan east of the main road but it soon stops and access to the mine itself requires a steep hike of several miles. From the mill site, one can look east and view the Pahrump group of Precambrian rocks well exposed on the mountain front. Farther north, one can see the Black Mountain metamorphic complex which makes up the bulk of the Black Mountains and are the oldest rocks in California. The view to the west is Shoreline Butte. Shoreline Butte is a badly eroded basaltic cinder cone that has been shaped by wave erosion from Pleistocene Lake Manly. These shorelines (wave benches) are clearly visible from the parking area at the mill site. Depending on the time of day and shadow angles, the shoreline may actually be clearer if viewed from about 1.3 miles north of the Ashford Mill. The elevation of Shoreline Butte is 663ft and the most obvious high strandline is at an elevation of 285ft (Sharp & Glasner, 1997). Thus from this location, since the floor of Death Valley at Badwater is 282ft below sea level, Pleistocene Lake Manly must have been at least 567ft deep. For a good comparison of age and level assessments over the years, please see Machette, et. Al. (2001, p. G146). Lake Manly was fed primarily by local runoff. It was probably connected to the Owens River via the Panamint, Searles and Indian Wells Valley in the Illinoisan but probably not in the Wisconsin Ice ages (Adams and Redwine, 2007). Between the parking area and Shoreline Butte lies the floodplain of the Amargosa River which on rare occasions flows this far downstream.

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SC2. Amargosa Chaos

Location/Access: (35^o 55.409’N, 116^o 38.255’W) Approximately 3.5 miles east of Ashford Mill. Stop anywhere directly along the main highway and look to the north. Direct access to the rocks will require a moderate hike north across the alluvial fan to the mountain front.

Best Time: All year in the morning.

Geology: For professional geologists, this is one of the most famous geologic locations in the world. Although completely obscure to lay people and confusing for many years to all but a few insightful geologists, this area is a type locality for understanding extensional tectonics. Building on the work of other geologists, Wright and Troxel (1984, and many other prior and later publications) conclusively demonstrated that the southern portion of the Great Basin has undergone profound extension, perhaps as much as 100%, in relatively recent (Miocene) times. In this area, the Precambrian rocks mentioned at previous sites have been faulted, rotated, attenuated and in some places completely turned upside down by forces related to extension. It is a highly confusing site and when visiting the area one should have a copy of Wright & Troxel’s 1984 map as well as a copy of the diagram on page 721 of Wright & Miller (2004) and a copy of page 71 of Miller & Wright (2004). Good luck.

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SC3. Split Cinder Cone

Location/Access: (35^o 56.399’N, 116^o 49.950’W) Split Cinder Cone is a low, reddish hill located 3.5 miles northwest of Ashford Mill and 1.7 miles west of the main paved road in southern Death Valley. It requires a very short hike south from the West Side Road. There may be rare occasions in winter when the Amargosa River is flowing and thus cuts off the road. However, considering that it is not that far, one could walk in from the main highway.

Best Time: Anytime.

Geology: Split Cinder Cone composed of middle Pleistocene basalt that has been eroded. The fact that it has obviously been offset right-laterally several tens of feet by the Death Valley fault zone since its formation provides strong evidence that the nature of tectonic activity in Death Valley may be quite different now than in the Neogene. The Death Valley fault zone extends up the entire length of Death Valley and on north into the Fish Lake Valley of Nevada except for a pull-apart segment between Mormon Point and Furnace Creek. This is the best place in the southern part of the valley to see the fault. Features in the far north of Death Valley are much more numerous. Earthquake activity along the Death Valley fault zone is minor and sporadic. Earthquake activity along the extensional faults in Death Valley is virtually non-existent. Death Valley is a classic region of tectonic transtension. That is, some of the tectonic movement in the area is right-lateral and some is normal thus pulling apart Death Valley and the rest of region from Death Valley westward to the Sierra Nevada in a northwesterly direction. This whole area, the northern part of the Eastern California Shear Zone, probably accounts for 20% of the movement between the North American and Pacific plates (Oldow, 2005) See site FN1 for amounts of right lateral slip north of this location. Due to this site’s central location in center of Death Valley’s south end, this is a good place to view both the Panamint and Black Mountains from a distance and to get a sense of the “pull-apart” tectonic origin of Death Valley itself.

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SC4. Warm Springs Talc Mines

Location/Access: (35^o 58.099’N, 116^o 55.746’W) The talc mines are located along the Warm Springs/Butte Valley road 10.8 miles up the canyon from the West Side Road, or 13.6 miles from the main paved highway just north of Ashford Mill. This site is the entrance to the largest mine in the area. You will actually pass the first mines at 8.7 miles up from the Westside Road. The Warm Springs/Butte Valley Road was in excellent condition until the mines closed in the 1980’s. Since then, a high clearance vehicle would be best and four-wheel-drive is needed for travel up canyon from the mines.

Best Time: Any time in the cool half of the year.

Geology: The Warm Springs talc mines are the most recently active talc mines in the area and were a major U.S. supplier of talc until the mines closed. The mines closed not due a lack of talc but the fact that a form of asbestos was found in the talc (Van Gosen, et. Al., 2004), although apparently not a form that is injurious to health. Wright (1968) contains an excellent geologic map of the Warm Springs area showing the relationship between the Precambrian diabase sills and the intruded Crystal Spring formation (see Sites FS1-3). In this area, the total thickness of the formation is in excess of 4200ft (including the diabase, 2800ft without) (Wright, 1968). Although there are many mines in the area, the main adit at the GPS coordinates makes it clear that these were very extensive operations. Just up canyon from the main adit is Warm Spring itself, with several buildings that were constructed a few years before the mines closed.

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SC5. Butte Valley

Location/Access: (35^o 56.583’N, 117^o04.383’W) Approximately 7 miles further up the Warm Springs Canyon Road from Warm Springs. After crossing the washouts immediately up canyon from Warm Springs and the talc mines, the road improves and is a track passable to high clearance vehicles. The washouts however require four-wheel-drive. One can also get to Butte Valley from the west via Goler Wash and Mengel Pass. This route, although scenic and historic, requires four-wheel-drive much of the way and is sometimes impassable.

Best Time: Anytime in the cool half of the year.

Geology: Butte Valley is one of the more isolated parts of Death Valley National Park. There are several isolated cabins in around the valley (Including the infamous Barker Ranch, used by the Manson Family, which lies just over the hills to the south) which are used by back country park rangers and visitors. The bedrock geology of the Precambrian rocks of the Warm Springs area gives way to Jurassic quartz monzonite (a granitic rock) in the southwest part of the valley and Miocene volcanic rocks to the south. The east side of the valley is composed of Jurassic volcanics and Triassic marine sedimentary rocks. The rocks of the mountains forming the northern margin of the valley are uppermost Proterozoic in age. The dramatic butte in the center of the valley is composed of up-tilted beds of the Permian Butte Valley formation which are of marine origin. A large fault runs down the trend of the valley behind the butte (Walker, et. al., 2002). Some of these rocks outcrop nowhere else in Death Valley. The Jurassic volcanic rocks are common south of the national park but the Butte Valley formation and the Triassic sediments occur nowhere else. Butte Valley is a wonderful place, especially in mid-week to enjoy the peaceful nature of this isolated desert landscape.

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Badwater Region (BW)

Sites BW1-8 are all very easily accessible, generally close to the village of Furnace Creek and are thus quite popular with tourists and geologists alike. Sites BW1-3 are directly on the main paved road. Site BW4 is a short walk from the end of a steep dirt access road. Site BW5 is accessible from a well-graded, virtually level gravel road. Site BW6 is off a paved loop accessible to all but the largest of vehicles. Site BW7 is also directly adjacent to the paved road but the more fascinating features require a steep several hundred yard hike up from the pavement. These sites can be visited while in transit between Furnace Creek and Shoshone or are all within a short easy drive from Furnace Creek. Most of the sites contain features of tectonic, topographic or geomorphic significance.

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BW1. Detachment Fault

Location/Access: (36^o 02.757’N, 116^o 45.636’W) 10.2 miles north of Ashford Mill and 16.5 miles south of Badwater. Although this site is located within yards of the main highway, there are no signs, parking areas or other hints of its location. There is a yellow “curve” sign northbound on the highway just north of this location. The detachment fault is in a very small side canyon out of which comes a very small faulted alluvial fan. This is just north of a place where the highway practically reaches the near-vertical front of the Black Mountains.

Best Time: Afternoon, all year.

Geology: This small, west-dipping fault is probably not a major detachment surface but is more likely a small sympathetic fault sub-parallel or listric to a major detachment surface related to the Mormon Point turtleback. Once in the canyon, the low angle of the fault, slickensided surfaces and contrasting rock types in the upper and lower plate make it obvious that a detachment-style of motion created the fault. Neither of the rocks exposed above or below the surface represents bedrock in the area and they both appear to be Quaternary deposits that have been offset along this small fault. For over 20 years there has been a debate as to whether these small and the large detachments (such as visible at Site BW2) are active or not; or whether or not these angles represent the angle at the time of motion (Hayman, et. al., 2003). Many have suggested that as the Black Mountain front rose, the inactive fault surfaces rolled back from more vertical active faults located more towards the mountain front. This last hypothesis seems tenable from the data at this location because as you return to the canyon mouth, you will notice that there is a vertical fault scarp in very recent gravel deposits striking parallel to the mountain front as one descends to the highway. If one could excavate the fan gravels to see the cross-cutting relationship between the two faults, this relationship would be clearer. When visiting this area in the late afternoon, as one looks west across the valley, on can see Pleistocene lake shorelines on the bajada surfaces coming down from the Warm Springs Canyon area. The oldest fan surfaces on the Warm Springs Canyon alluvial fan were likely deposited between 860,000 and 390,000 years ago and the youngest deposits are probably between 60,000 and 240,000 years ago (Duhnforth, et.al., 2007). This is also a good location to view the southern end of the Death Valley playa.

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BW2. Mormon Point

Location/Access: (36^o 03.509’N, 116^o 45.882'W) Located 15.7 miles south of Badwater directly on the main road, there is a small sign that denotes Mormon Point although the best place to stop is slightly around the corner north of the actual sign and point.

Best Time: Mid- to late afternoon all year.

Geology: The most striking thing about Mormon Point is the view to the northeast into the Black Mountains (see photo). In the foreground is a small spring at the corner of the Death Valley playa. Most of the mountain mass in the distance is the Black Mountain metamorphic complex. The sloping skyline is the actual (but eroded) detachment surface of the Copper Canyon turtleback. The multi-colored rock that makes up the mountains on the left is the upper plate that has moved relative to the lower plate which is the metamorphic complex on the right. Thus the top edge of the complex which descends down to the left marks the rough trace of the Copper Mountain turtleback (detachment) fault as viewed in cross section. Mormon Point itself is the nose of another northwest plunging turtleback. The lake sediments and gravel which cover the hillside to the south rest in detachment contact with the metamorphic rocks underneath and visible higher on the hill. There are some Pleistocene lake shorelines visible in these rocks and a faint shoreline marked by tufa is noticeable above the playa on the metamorphic rocks making up the lower plate of the of the Copper Canyon turtleback. Notice also the pegmatite dikes cutting these same metamorphic rocks. There are also several small faults in the fan gravels between here and Site BW1 (Sharp & Glasner, 1997).

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BW3. Badwater

Location/Access: (36^o 13.800’N, 116^o 46.056’W) 17.4 miles south of Furnace Creek and 30 miles north of Ashford Mill. Badwater is located on all maps, has a wide parking area and is one of the most popular locations in Death Valley.

Best Time: Morning all year.

Geology: Badwater is one of the most important geographic and geologic places in the world. It is the lowest land in North America (282 feet below sea level). It is also the driest place in the United States, receiving just over one inch of average precipitation per year. It is probably the world’s most continuously hot place in the summer with maximum temperatures over 134^oF (Spear, 1992). The actual spot with lowest elevation is some yards west of the parking area out on the playa surface. It actually moves around a bit with new sedimentation, precipitation and salt expansion and contraction. To get any lower, one would have to go the Dead Sea or the Qattara Depression in Egypt. Rainfall has only been measured here sporadically over the years but it is definitely less than that measured 17 miles north at Furnace Creek which has received more precipitation during those years when it has also been measured at Badwater. Also, since Badwater is about 100ft lower than Furnace Creek, the temperature under most conditions should always be slightly warmer. Telescope Peak (at 11,049ft) is just across the playa thus producing a dramatic topographic rise. Badwater and all of Death Valley is dry because of the mountain barriers of the Panamints, Inyo Range and Sierra Nevada which block the westerly flow of moisture from the west. It is interesting that Badwater and Mt. Whitney (the highest mountain in the contiguous United Sates are only 80 miles apart and it the same county! Badwater is especially warm because all air moving into Badwater must move downhill and therefore heat adiabatically. That, added to clear skies and a relatively high angle of incidence of sunlight, produce the very high temperatures. The pond at Badwater is there all year and is partially fault controlled. Being the lowest land around, both surface and groundwater naturally head for this general region of the valley. This is a good place to view the playa, the bajadas that make up the west margin of the valley and the Black Mountain front with the oldest rocks in the state. An important thing to remember about Death Valley’s climate, topography, exposed rock types and geomorphology is that all of these aspects of the region have been directly caused by faulting as the dominant control.

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BW4. Natural Bridge

Location/Access: (36^o 17.103’N, 116^o 45.936’W) Natural Bridge is located about 5 miles north of Badwater and 15.4 miles south of Furnace Creek. The last several miles is a steep gravel road that can be negotiated by most vehicles. If the road is in severe condition, the gate at the bottom of the hill at the turn-off from the pavement may be closed. After you reach the parking area, it is about a 1/3 mile moderate hike to the natural bridge.

Best Time: Afternoon, all year.

Geology: Unlike the natural bridges of the Colorado Plateau which are carved out of hard sandstone, the natural bridge in this canyon is eroded in poorly indurated Pleistocene alluvial fan deposits. Thus, it is probably not long for this world and could collapse with any significant earthquake. It has noticeably eroded over the past 40 years. The bridge has been cut within an alluvial fan channel. This probably occurred as water seeped through the fan gravels under the canyon bottom, sapped the finer grained and precipitated materials and eventually opened a small passageway through which infrequent rain water could travel. As time passed, this passage enlarged and became the main channel bottom. At the mouth of the canyon, there is a good view of the Badwater turtleback surface and remains of the upper plate sediments are “schmeered” over the metamorphic complex. The actual contact can be accessed in the next small canyon south (Sharp & Glasner, 1997). There are also numerous small faults in the lower canyon wall gravels which reveal a down-to-the-west sense of motion.

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BW5. Devil’s Golf Course

Location/Access: (36^o 17.150’N, 116^o 49.574’W) The Devil’s Golf Course is located in the center of the Death Valley playa 13.1 miles south of Furnace Creek. The last 1.3 miles is over a level well-graded gravel road. On rare occasions, the road may be closed if the playa is flooded.

Best Time: Late afternoon, all year.

Geology: The Devil’s Golf Course is the best place to examine the salt pan or playa surface that makes up the floor of Death Valley. The floor of the valley is not truly flat and is actually composed of three very shallow basins. The lowest and southernmost area of the valley floor is the Badwater Basin. This site is at the northern edge of this basin. Any playa, or desert dry lake bed, is composed of the material that have weathered out of and washed down from the surrounding mountains. If the surrounding mountains are composed of granite or other rocks that breakdown by chemical and physical weathering into quartz, clays and other materials, the playa is usually covered with a hardened mud (clay). If the surrounding area is composed of material that weather chemically by solution, then the playa is covered with halite (rock salt) and other evaporates. The playa in Death Valley is a mixture of both. At this particular location, the evaporate materials dominate because the Pliocene Furnace Creek formation (the yellow rocks to the northwest) are a major source of borates and other evaporate minerals. Many studies have attempted to determine over the years exactly how thick these playa deposits are. As Death Valley has dropped over the past 20 million years, various basins have formed and filled with sediment. The current valley in this area has at least 2,000ft of sedimentary deposits composed of fan gravels, silt, mud and evaporate minerals (Hunt, 1976 and others). Since this area is lowest land around, it serves as a local base level for all water. Thus it is no surprise that a large variety of fine materials ends up mixed on the playa. Erosion of these deposits by wind and wind mixed with rain has produced some wonderful small-scale erosional towers and surfaces.

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BW6. Artist’s Palette

Location/Access: (36^o 21.674’N, 116^o 47.922’W) Located south of Furnace Creek on a one-way loop road east of the main east side paved highway. Go 8.4 miles south of CA 190 on the Badwater Road and turn left onto Artist’s Drive. Continue for 3.7 more miles. The actual site located above is before the small turn-in for parking because the overall view of the Artist’s Palette is better and the fault zone is more obvious.

Best Time: Very late afternoon, all year.

Geology: This is one of the most colorful sites in Death Valley. The rocks exposed here belong to the Miocene Artist’s Drive formation. The formation consists of a lower sedimentary member with volcanic tuffs dated to approximately 13Ma and an upper member composed of pyroclastic deposits, sedimentary deposits and basalt flows. The whole formation exceeds 4,000 feet in thickness (Wright, et. Al., 1991; McAllister, 1970). The lower pyroclastic member and the upper sedimentary layers are the most colorful throughout the formation’s outcrop extent. The varied colors are due to trace elements within this predominantly volcanic formation, especially those associated with the more felsic rocks. At the GPS coordinates location, one can get a good view of the Black Mountains frontal fault which is oblique (right lateral and normal) slip. At this point, you are standing within a small north-south oriented graben (Miller & Wright, 2004).

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BW7. Mushroom Rock & Lake Manly Terrace

Location/Access: (36^o 23.207’N, 116^o 51.092’W) Located approximately 5.6 miles south of Furnace Creek just north of the exit of the one-way Artist’s Drive. Parking is best just south of the site and north of the junction if you are northbound as the parking area which was located at Mushroom Rock for many years has been removed.

Best Time: Morning, all year although the hike up to the Lake Manly terrace is very steep and should probably be avoided in mid-summer heat.

Geology: The origin of Mushroom Rock has been debated for many years. Generally, most people thought it was a ventifact as these are quite common on the low hill on the west side of the main highway across from the exit of the Artist’s Drive. However, as pointed out by Meek and Dorn (2000), and obvious to anyone standing there, there are no other ventifacts in the immediate vicinity. Thus more recent researchers have ascribed its origin to weathering either by salt expansion or other weathering processes. If you look carefully, you will notice that it has been repaired after vandals damaged it some years back. If you climb the hill directly behind (east) Mushroom Rock, you will ascend quite a few wave benches before you arrive at a rather broad mesa which is a large terrace built by shoreline processes of Pleistocene Lake Manly. These smaller benches you cross on the way up are quite obvious once you have reached the top. This is one of the two largest shoreline features created during the existence of Lake Manly (see Site CD3) and it would be interesting to know the exact elevation difference between the two to help to determine Quaternary uplift rate differences between the two sites. Using GPS, we have determined the elevation of this terrace to be 25 feet below sea level, plus or minus 4 feet (-25ft +/-4ft). If you look down below to the playa surface just northwest of Mushroom Rock, you will notice man-made scratching and lines of small piles on the playa surface. These are raking marks from when the playa was mined for borax. There is also a great view of the Panamint Range and its bajadas from this vantage point. Note that the gravels of the bajadas have about four distinct colors with the younger gravels being the lightest gray and the oldest being darker brown. Notice also that the lightest (youngest) gravels are within the washes indicating that the bajadas and alluvial fans in Death Valley are being eroded. This may be due to the relatively recent drop in base level due to the evaporation of Lake Manly. In any case, the major fan and bajada surfaces in Death Valley are generally inactive.

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BW8. Hanaupah Canyon Fault Scarp

Location/Access: (36^o 13.119’N, 116^o 53.574’W) From the Badwater Road, take the West Side Road south 10.5 miles and turn up the Hanaupah Canyon road and proceed 0.8 miles up the fan to the bluffs where the road turns south.

Best Time: Anytime, all year.

Geology: This bluff marks the trace of the Hanaupah Canyon fault. At this point it is trending N 17^o E but it swings more northerly just north of here. You are near the southern end of the scarp. The fault offsets all but the most recent gravel deposits. In addition to tectonic disruption of the fan surface, many alluvial fans and bajadas on the west side of the valley have been studied in terms of their erosional and depositional history (see for example, Duhnforth, 2007). Email us for directions to something really interesting in terms of history that lies within feet of here.

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Furnace Creek Wash Area (FC)

Sites FC1-5 are located just southeast of the central headquarters and village area of Furnace Creek. Sites FC2, 4 and 5 are all very readily accessible on paved or level, well-graded dirt roads. Sites FC1 and 3 can be reached by rougher gravel roads that require high clearance and often four-wheel-drive depending upon conditions.

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FC1a. Echo Canyon/Arches

Location/Access: (36^o 27.820’N; 116^o 45.916’W) The turn-off to Echo Canyon is located 2.1 miles southeast of the junction of CA 190 and the Badwater Road. Turn left, northeast, on the gravel road and continue up the alluvial fan surface. The first arch is located at the GPS coordinates stated above, 4.2 miles from Highway 190. The first portion of this road has deep gravel so four-wheel-drive is advisable. The second, and much larger arch is located 0.5 miles further up the canyon (a total of 4.7 miles from the highway)(at 36^o 28.037’N; 116^o 45.605’W). A better view of the larger arch can be seen by continuing a short distance up the road as the canyon bends around behind the arch. A much smaller, third arch is located at 0.6 miles past the larger one (5.3 miles from the highway) at 36^o 28.242' N; 116^o 45.190' W.

Best Time: Any time of day, avoid mid-summer.

Geology: The first portion of this trip is mapped on McAllister (1970), a useful map for most of the sites in the Furnace Creek Wash area. The route travels over Quaternary fan gravels and then enters Echo Canyon proper. There are some Ordovician rocks and then a long traverse through the Cambrian Bonanza King formation. The arches have been weathered out of the Bonanza King limestone; the larger one at a bend in the wash in the hour-glass portion of the canyon and the smaller ones along sharp ridge crests. Like most desert canyons, Echo Canyon has a dendritic drainage pattern above this narrow section of the drainage and a distributary pattern below, hence the name hour-glass. In the immediate vicinity, check for stromatolites within the limestone and you will notice there are several very small caves high up on the cliffs on the north side of the canyon 0.4 miles past the arch. Other fossils have been reported in the immediate vicinity including trilobite cephalons and oncolites on the north wall within the tan shale underlying the dark gray limestone of the lower Bonanza King Formation. There are also some marvelous dendrites in the shale. This locality is just above the hourglass portion of the canyon and is quite obvious as the canyon opens up here and the tan shale on the north side is markedly different than the dark limestone through which you have been traveling. On our last visit, in October, 2007, we found a rock hammer at this location (36^o 28.284' N; 116^o 45.190' W). This is a NO-NO. Never collect fossils in a national park. Continue up the canyon to Site FC1b. After 1.2 miles past the third arch, there is a large debris flow on the right.

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FC1b. Echo Canyon/Thrust Fault

Location/Access: (36^o 29.723’N; 116^o42.831’W) The thrust fault is located 4.2 miles up the canyon from the biggest arch at stop FC1a. This is 8.7 miles from Highway 190. The fault can be seen on the southeast wall of the canyon.

Best Time: Late afternoon but avoid summer.

Geology: The thrust faults in the Funeral Mountains are mostly of Paleozoic Age and have been used to demonstrate the amount of tectonic motion laterally along the Death Valley Fault Zone by matching these thrusts with those in the Cottonwood Mountains northwest of Stovepipe Wells (Snow & Wernicke, 1989, and others following). For example, the Schwaub Peak thrust (in the upper Echo Canyon area) (Wright and Troxel, 1993) can be matched with the Marble Canyon thrust. Both thrusts have in excess of 3km of throw (Wernicke, et. Al., 1993). The total amount of displacement between these two localities is a matter of great debate among geologists working in the region because some of the motion is taken up by lateral movement along the Death Valley fault zone and probably much more by northwest-southeast Tertiary extension. The amount of displacement along the Furnace Creek-Death Valley fault zone has been calculated by many authors to be between about 15 and 65 km, however Cemen & Baucke (2005) measured offsets of the Clery thrust in Furnace Creek Wash just southeast of here to be about 35km. The actual mining camp of Schwaub, where you are now located is long gone, but by continuing a short distance further up the canyon, you arrive at the Inyo Mine which has several old buildings left from the early 1900’s. The road ends just past the mine area but there is a terrible jeep road that leaves from the vicinity of the fault and heads towards Nevada.

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FC2. Zabriskie Point/20 Mule Team Canyon

Location/Access: (36^o25.206’N; 116^o 48.745’W) Zabriskie Point is located just off Highway 190, 3.6 miles southeast of the CA 190 junction with the Badwater Road. This is a very popular location and very well marked.

Best Time: Early morning, all year.

Geology: Zabriskie Point and nearby 20 Mule Team Canyon are the best places to see the upper Miocene-lower Pliocene Furnace Creek formation. The yellow rocks in the foreground as one looks west from the viewing area at the GPS coordinates compose part of the over 5,000ft of lake sediments and underlying other rocks of this formation. The formation is dominantly composed of mudstone and sandstone with minor amounts of volcanic ash and other rocks and is the major source of borax minerals in the central Death Valley region. Lower members include gypsum, conglomerate and volcanic rocks (McAllister, 1970). The rock unit below this is the Artist’s Drive formation (Site BW6) which forms the near skyline to the south. The unit above is the Pliocene/Pleistocene Funeral formation which forms the near skyline to the northwest. This is a classic example of “badland topography” wherein the landscape shows a densely spaced dendritic drainage pattern, intricately eroded hills and practically no vegetation. The lack of vegetation is due both to the alkaline chemistry of the rock and its high clay concentration which inhibits the infiltration of infrequent rain. Although rain is infrequent here, major floods in 1939, 1941, 1985 and 2004 have caused the highway to be re-aligned and diversion dams to be built (Troxel, 1974; Snyder & Kammer, 2008). After the first flood, Furnace Creek Wash was diverted away from Highway 190 and sent down Gower Gulch to the main valley floor. This drop in base-level has caused a dramatic up-canyon migration of a nickpoint to 20 Mule Team Canyon. In addition to significant channel deepening due to the relative base level drop, numerous other changes to the channels have occurred (Snyder & Kammer, 2008). Spectacular distance views to the west include Telescope Peak and the northern Panamint Range with descending bajadas and the playa floor. To the east the Funeral Mountains are quite dramatic. Nearby 20 Mule Team Canyon offers an opportunity to closely examine the upper portion of the Furnace Creek formation.

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FC3. Hole-in-the-Wall

Location/Access: (36^o 24.902’N; 116^o 43.536’W) The road to Hole-in-the-Wall is located 1.8 miles past the turnoff to Zabriskie Point or 5.4 miles up Highway 190 from the Badwater Road turnoff. The turnoff lies between the entrance and exit of 20 Mule Team Canyon. The GPS coordinates are 3.6 miles up the wash from Highway 190. The road is gravel and travels up the wash. High clearance is needed and four-wheel-drive may be required if it has not been beaten down by enough vehicles traversing the route since the last washout.

Best Time: Afternoon, except mid-summer.

Geology: This site affords a spectacular view of Quaternary tectonics as the upper members of the Furnace Creek formation have been tilted to a near vertical dip since the Pliocene along the Wall Fault (see cross sections D and E in McAllister, 1970). This uplifted rock has been eroded by water and debris flows thus producing the “Hole-in-the-Wall”. The exact sequence of erosion and tectonics is not clear. If you continue through the gap, you will enter a small valley which forms a graben-like structure between the Wall Fault and the main trace of the Furnace Creek fault zone just beyond at the base of the Funeral Mountains.

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FC4. Billie Mine/Ryan

Location/Access: (36^o 20.043’N; 116^o 41.335’W) This site is directly on the Dante’s View Road 2.4 miles southeast of Highway 190. There is a long gravel shoulder on the east side of the road on which one can park.

Best Time: Afternoon, all year.

Geology: This site is located in the center of the main borate mining district of Death Valley. The actual national park boundary is directly along the road at this point so both the abandoned mining town of Ryan and the Billie mine visible in the near distance to the north are outside of the national park. Most of the borax minerals mined in Death Valley come from the Pliocene Furnace Creek formation. Here at the Billie mine, and previously at Ryan, these minerals are mined from shafts within this formation. West of the highway you can see a poor job of reclamation attempted to return the area to a natural condition after open pit mining was undertaken here in the 1970’s. Specific minerals mined here include mostly proberite, ulexite and colemanite. One of the main reasons the Billie Mine was allowed to tunnel under the national park at this location is because of the relatively rare form of ulexite found in these deposits. The origin of the minerals is thought to be from hydrothermal fluids circulating through the Furnace Creek formation. As you look towards the abandoned mining camp of Ryan, the rocks to the left of the camp are the Artist’s Drive formation, to the right, the sediments of the Furnace Creek formation and on top, the basalt flows of the Funeral formation. Looking beyond the Billie Mine to the Funeral Mountains, one can see a sequence of upper Precambrian to lower Paleozoic strata tilting eastward.

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FC5. Dante’s View

Location/Access: (36^o 13.582’N, 116^o 43.545’W) Located at the end of the Dante’s View paved road, 13.2 miles south of Highway 190 or 24 miles southeast of the Highway 190/Badwater Road junction. The actual GPS coordinates are a short hike north of the parking lot (1/3 mile) which affords a better view, especially to the north. The road is rarely closed by ice or snow.

Best Time: Early morning, all year but best in the winter.

Geology: Dante’s view is one of four relatively accessible high points that offer truly amazing views of Death Valley (see also Sites GF1, NP6 and CM3). Of the four, Dante’s view is the most accessible and most popular. After leaving the area of the Billie Mine and Ryan (Site FC4), the road travels over Quaternary fan gravels and then through volcanic rocks of the Miocene Greenwater formation which intertongues between the lower and upper units of the Furnace Creek formation (Greene, 1997). En route and near the viewpoint, most of the rocks are felsic tuffs and volcanic breccias. Near Dante’s view, these rocks form the upper plate of the Badwater Turtleback. From Dante’s View at approximately 5,500ft elevation, one has a terrific view of the floor of Death Valley over one mile in elevation below you. Looking past the Black Mountains metamorphic complex forming the cliffs below, one can see the playa surface near Badwater. The light areas of the playa are evaporates such as salt and borate while the dark areas are silts and clays washed down from the surrounding mountains or brought in by the Amargosa River whose small delta is sometimes visible. Note that the east side of Death Valley has alluvial fans while the west side is bordered by a large bajada draping down from the Panamint Mountains. Telescope Peak dominates the horizon to the west. Looking a little farther northwest, the high crest of the Sierra Nevada can be seen peeking over the Inyo Range beyond the Panamints. Although one cannot see the exact lowest point at Badwater because of the slope, one can see the highest and lowest areas in the 48 contiguous states at the same time! When looking northward up the axis of Death Valley, the Artist’s Drive area, Furnace Creek and the Cottonwood and Grapevine mountains are all visible. From the vantage point of the GPS site north of the parking area, there is also a good view of the Funeral Mountains and the Billie Mine/Ryan area. To the east one can see the Spring Mountains which lie just west of Las Vegas. Southward, especially if one walks to the point at the end of the trail leaving the parking area, there is a good view towards Mormon Point and the southern reaches of the valley. The elevation at the parking lot is 5,475ft and the elevation on the hill top at the GPS coordinates is 5,703ft.

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Central Death Valley (CD)

Sites CD1-5 are generally located between Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells and all are easily accessible by most any vehicle and with one exception, very easy to locate. Sites CD1, 3 and 5 are immediately adjacent to paved roads. Site CD2 is at the end of a short, flat well-graded gravel road. Site CD4 is at the end of a slightly rougher and steeper gravel road that is accessible to most vehicles with a modicum of clearance. The sites emphasize mining history, evidence of climate change since the Pleistocene and Neogene extensional tectonics.

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CD1. Harmony Borax Works

Location/Access: (36^o 28.801’N, 116^o 51.398’W) The site is located on the west side of CA 190 just a mile north of the National Park Service Museum and Visitor Center, it is well marked and very popular as it is an easy walk or bike ride from Furnace Creek.

Best Time: Morning, all year.

Geology: For a few yea