La valle della Morte è stata così soprannominata perchè
nel 1849, emigranti interessati alle risorse d’oro della California, si
smarrirono dentro al bacino profondo 193 chilometri, trascorrendo
drammaticamente due mesi di “fame e sete e un inquietante silenzio”.
Uno degli ultimi uomini a lasciare il luogo, guardò verso
il basso da una montagna, e disse: “Arrivederci, Valle
della Morte”.
Qui si registrò la temperatura più alta mai avuta sulla
Terra: 134 F, ovvero 56° C.
È anche il punto più profondo del Continente sotto il
livello del mare: 282 piedi, ovvero 86 metri.
Death Valley is known for extremes: It is North
America's driest and hottest spot (a record high of 134°F), and has the lowest
elevation on the continent—282 feet below sea level.
In 1849 emigrants bound for California's gold fields
strayed into the 120-mile long basin, enduring a two-month ordeal of
"hunger and thirst and an awful silence."
One of the last to leave looked down from a mountain
at the narrow valley and said, "Good-bye, Death Valley."
As night falls, Death Valley's elusive populations of
bobcats, kit foxes, and rodents venture out. Far above on steep mountain
slopes, desert bighorn sheep forage among Joshua trees, scrubby junipers, and
pines, while hawks soar on thermals rising into vivid blue, cloudless skies.
Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the U.S. The
vertical drop from the peak to Badwater Basin is twice the depth of the Grand
Canyon.
Thickly clumped stems of arrowweed (Pluchea
sericea) form the "corn shocks" of the Devil's Cornfield in
Death Valley National Park. A popular nearby area is the Devil's Golf Course, a
rocky, salt-encrusted area where "only the devil could play golf."
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