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Zabriskie Point

Artists Palette is an area in the Black Mountains of Death Valley National Park where different metal oxides have created a remarkable variety of rock colours in close proximity to each other.

Looking back toward Coffin Peak from far out on the salt flat in Badwater Basin. It was a truly bizarre experience to walk over what looked very much like compacted snow when the temperature was well over thirty degrees Celsius.

Artists Palette is an area in the Black Mountains of Death Valley National Park where different metal oxides have created a remarkable variety of rock colours in close proximity to each other.

A view of part of the Black Mountains in Death Valley National Park, as seen from Artists Drive.

A view of part of the Black Mountains in Death Valley National Park, as seen from Artists Drive.

Badwater Pool is the only permanent body of water in Badwater Basin. The pool is spring-fed, and despite its salt content hosts several forms of life, including pickleweed, insects, and the Badwater Snail, a species endemic to Death Valley.

The sign just visible high up on the side of Coffin Peak, overlooking Badwater Basin, indicates the position of sea level. This was a low point in my life.

The dark, pointy outcrop in the middle of the photo is called Manly Beacon; the reddish outcrop to its right, further away, is called the Red Cathedral.

The badlands at Zabriskie Point are eroded sediments that were laid down in Furnace Creek Lake, a prehistoric lake which dried up 5 million years ago.

The short walk from the parking lot to Zabriskie Point, an elevated point overlooking badlands in the Amargosa Range in Death Valley National Park.

The sloping rock face overlooking Badwater Pool.

The badlands at Zabriskie Point display a chaotic variety of shapes and colours. The black layers are lava deposits.

In the distance is Death Valley itself, and behind it, the Panamint Range.

Multicoloured rock outcrops at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park.

The slopes of Coffin Peak, which towers above Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park.

The mountains in Death Valley National Park can look dreary and lifeless from a distance, but the closer you look the more varied the rock formations get. This is a part of the Black Mountains above Furnace Creek Wash.

Badlands along State Route 190, a few kilometres east of Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park. In the distance is the Panamint Range, which lies to the west of Death Valley.

Rock formations in the Funeral Mountains above State Route 190 in Death Valley National Park.

Furnace Creek Wash, an intermittent stream, with the Black Mountains in the background, in Death Valley National Park.