Photos of Golden Canyon, Uebehe Crater and The Racetrack

The Racetrack in Death Valley National Park

It seems that foreign tourists know more about America’s national parks than Americans because almost every national park has more tourists from another country than people from here. This seems to hold true and account for the few Californians who visit Death Valley National Park. The guide who drove us to The Racetrack in his old Toyota without air conditioning gave us the low down about foreign visitors. He claims foreign tourists usually start in Las Vegas, do the loop to the Grand Canyon, then Death Valley and on up to Yosemite, stopping in Los Angeles and topping off the vacation in San Francisco.

Sacramento is not on the list for that loop. People also look at me funny when I try to explain it gets almost as hot in Death Valley as it does in Sacramento. I mean, come on, people, our temperatures have hovered at 115 for weeks at a time during the summer in Sacramento. OK, it’s not death-defining heat like 128 but hot is HOT.

Coming to Death Valley has made me wish that I had paid more attention in school to geology. This natural wonder formed by seismic forces separating and thrusting the Black Mountains apart from the Panamint Mountains, creating a valley floor.  Nearby to Furnace Creek, we have the Golden Canyon, which used to have a road running through it until it got washed out; then further up past Stovepipe Wells, huge mounds of sand dunes.

Even further, in another part of Death Valley National Park, past the Joshua trees and wildflowers at 5,000 feet in elevation is The Racetrack. Until recently, nobody knew what moved the giant rocks during the night, only that they moved, leaving long trails behind them. The working theory now is ice crystals form under the rocks, which reduce the friction on the surface, so when the wind blows, they glide across the dry lake bed.

Check out my video of The Racetrack

Below are photos by Elizabeth Weintraub of these Death Valley attractions, which I hope you will enjoy enough to visit in person yourself.

The Racetrack Grandstand at Death Valley National Park

Layers thrust upward in Golden Canyon, Death Valley

Uebehe crator at Death Valley National Park

Triple peaks in Golden Canyon, Death Valley

Angel fish rock in Golden Canyon, Death Valley