Golden badlands
Rippled clay.
David Zhang — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Christian David — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean-Christophe BENOIST — CC BY 3.0 · Alexey Komarov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mobilus In Mobili — CC BY-SA 2.0
Zabriskie Point is a viewpoint in Death Valley National Park overlooking rippling clay badlands in gold, brown and grey, carved by water and wind. A sharp yellow rock peak rises behind them, with the valley floor and mountains beyond. It is part of the Amargosa Range east of Death Valley and is made of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up five million years ago, long before Death Valley itself formed. Those sediments were mud, gravel and volcanic ash. It is named after Christian Zabriskie, a manager of the borax company whose twenty-mule teams hauled borax from the valley's mines. You walk a short paved path from the car park to the viewing platform; sunrise is the best time, when the hills take on the light. A trail starts here and winds through the badlands to Golden Canyon. It is about 6 km in a straight line southeast of Furnace Creek. Summer here is among the hottest anywhere on Earth, so visit between November and March.
Rippled clay.
Sharp and bright.
Through the hills.
Highway 190, Death Valley National Park, California
November to March, at sunrise.
No, a short path from the car park.