Death Valley Visitors Guide - 11th Edition

10 Death Valley Vistiors Guide • 11th Edition Inyo County is home to the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, Mt. Whitney, at 14, 508 feet above sea level, and the lowest spot in the western hemisphere, Badwater, at 282 feet below sea level. In July of 1913, Death Valley was in the midst of a particularly brutal heat wave. On July 10, Furnace Creek Ranch foreman Oscar Denton recorded an air temperature of 134°F, which today, is still consid- ered the hottest temperature ever recorded and a world record. The weather station at Furnace Creek records an average of 1.5 inches of rain a year making it the driest spot in North America. Three times in the past 85 years, no mea- sureable precipitation was recorded for an entire year. From 1931 to 1934 only 0.64 inches of rain fell over a 40-month period. The largest escarpment in the U.S. rises from the floor of Death Valley to the top of Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range. Death Valley National Park, in Inyo County, is the largest national park in the lower 48 at 3.3 million acres. Inyo County has the lowest census- designated area in the U.S., Furnace Creek which is 179 feet below sea level. The lowest golf course in the nation is located in Inyo County. The Fur- nace Creek Golf Course is 214 ft below sea level. A castle built based on lies between friends is located in Death Valley. Death Valley got its name after a child, in an ill-fated party of set- tlers, died. The settlers escaped a grim fate and as they left the valley, one turned and said, “Good bye, Death Valley,” so naming it. The first European to enter Inyo County is believed to have been An- tonio Armijo who in the spring of 1830 tread the “Old Spanish Trail” between Santa Fe, NM and Spanish settlements in California. Legendary frontiersmen, John C. Frémont and Kit Carson passed through Inyo County on the Old Spanish Trail. Death Valley is 5,268 square miles making it larger than three US states and 33 countries! Its dimen- sions roughly equate to Santa Clarita to the Mexican border in length and from Santa Monica to Riverside, California in width. And with 91% of the Park designated as wilderness, a visitor to Death Valley is almost assured of a wild and un- crowded experience. Death Valley also possesses a long list of lesser known weather ex- treme and records. The greatest number of consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100 °F or above was 154 days in the summer of 2001. The summer of 1996 had 40 days over 120 °F and 105 days over 110 °F. The summer of 1917 had 52 days where the temperature reached 120 °F. On July 12, 2012, the day’s low temperature was 107 °F tying the record for the world’s hottest low temperature ever recorded. On the same day, the average temperature was 117.5 °F, which is the world’s hottest temper- ature averaged over 24 hours on record. Death Valley prospector and busi- nessman, Dad Fairbanks, founded Shoshone and is credited with hav- ing rescued 50 people from Death Valley. Fast Fun Facts about Death Valley