The low, salty pool at Badwater, just beside the main park road is probably the best known and most visited place in Death Valley. The actual lowest point (-282 feet) is located several miles from the road and is not easily accessible - in fact its position varies, but a sign in front of the pool proclaims it too to have an elevation of -282 feet, and it is here that everyone comes to take photographs. An enlarged parking area and other new facilities were constructed in fall 2003 to cope with the ever increasing visitor numbers at the site. Sea Level: There is not much else to see apart from an orientation table, identifying many of the surrounding mountains. High in the rocky cliffs above the road, another sign reads 'SEA LEVEL', giving a good indication of just how low the land is. Far above this, the overlook at Dante's Peak has imposing views over Badwater and the surrounding desert.
As well as being a curious film by Antonioni (1970), Zabriskie Point is an elevated overlook of a colorful, undulating landscape of gullies and mud hills at the edge of the Funeral Mountains, a few miles from the edge of Death Valley - from the viewpoint, the flat salt plains on the valley floor are visible in the distance. In the past it was possible to drive right to the edge of the overlook, and several minutes of the film was set there, but since then a new larger car-park has been constructed lower down and visitors now have a short walk uphill. Most people do little more than briefly admire the scenery, which is best at sunrise, but it is possible to climb some of the adjacent hills to get a better overall view, or wander down amongst the variegated dunes. A foot-path leads through the mounds, down a ravine and into Gower Gulch after 2 miles, while another branch veers right into Golden Canyon.
Men in search of quick fortunes began drifting into Death Valley after the Civil War, hoping to find a lucky strike of gold or silver. In 1881, one such prospector, Aaron Winters, was living with his wife, Rosie, at Ash Meadows, a desolate place near the Funeral Mountain, on the east side of Death Valley.
According to one visitor, the Winters lived in a hovel, “close against a hill, one side half-hewn out of rock, with a thatched roof. The earth served as a floor.”
That visitor was Harry Spiller, who had come riding down from Nevada, looking for a mineral that men were cashing in on big there. “It lays in dry lake bottoms,” he told Winters, “white crystals like cottonball turned into mineral. They call it borax. Big demand for it.”
Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment. - Ansel Adams,
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