Crumbling canyon on Artist's Drive in Death Valley, CA
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Death Valley, California
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2009. All Rights Reserved
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- Search LEARN NC for arid, badlands, Badwater Basin, California, Death Valley, Death Valley National Park, deserts, dry, erosion, lowest point, mountains, rain, rainstorm, salt, salt flats, sedimentary, and volcanic.
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Crumbling canyon on Artist’s Drive in Death Valley, California. Visitors can take this 9-mile paved loop to see lovely volcanic and sedimentary rock hills. Artist’s Drive is named for rich variation in the hue of its rocks, but its colors appeal even to the layman’s eye. The park recommends that visitors take the loop in the late afternoon, when low sunlight further enlivens the area’s color.
Death Valley National Park is located east of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It is home to the lowest point in North America at Badwater, which is 282 feet below sea level, but it also encompasses parts of several mountain ranges. Its highest point is Telescope Peak, at 11,049 feet. Located in an rainshadow exaggerated by the presence of four major mountain ranges between it and the ocean, Death Valley receives less than two inches of rainfall a year and is famous as one of the hottest and driest places in North America. Summer temperatures often hover around 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
