"Sergiuz's Death Valley Page " a Death Valley National Park Travel Page by Sergiuz

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<B><EM><FONT SIZE=5 COLOR=BLUE>...feeling thirsty?</FONT></B></EM>
<P><EM><FONT SIZE=6 COLOR=BLUE>M</FONT><FONT COLOR=BLUE>y friend Alessandro hardly has faced the fact that in this area annually fall less than 5 cm of rain :))</EM>

Indeed, <B>Death Valley</B> definitely deserves a leading place in nature's book of records: from <B>282 feet below sea level</B> (<B>Badwater</B>, the lowest point in the western emisphere) the park tops out nearby at a remarkable 11,049 feet (Telescope Peak). Moreover, a <B>record temperature of 134° F (57° C)</B> was recorded there in 1913 (it's the second highest temperature ever recorded on earth), and a ground temperature of 201° F degrees was also registered in
the past.

With this environmental conditions, Death Valley clearly displays its name origins; it was named this way by gold-seekers, some of whom died crossing the area during the 1849 California gold rush.

Despite it, different <B>forms of wildlife</B> have been able to adapt to the extreme conditions. The variety of animals that live in the desert are primarily nocturnal and are, therefore, not easily observed. Lizards are numerous, but snakes comparatively rare. Several forms of desert pupfish live in Salt Creek near the visitor center, Saratoga Spring in the southeast corner and other permanent bodies of water in the valley. Rabbits and several types of rodents, including antelope squirrels, kangaroo rats and desert wood rats, are preyed upon by coyotes (they miss roadrunner indeed:))), kit foxes and bobcats <EM>(huh, how hard is life sometimes :))</EM></FONT>
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<FONT SIZE=6 COLOR=BROWN>D</FONT><FONT COLOR=BROWN>eath Valley, the largest national park outside Alaska, is located on the <B>eastern border of south-central California</B> <EM>(see map above)</EM> and includes a small area of Nevada, running more than 50 miles southwest-to-northeast and more than 150 miles northwest-to-southeast; from a geological point of view, <B>it's considered to belong to the southeastern Great Basin Desert</B>.</FONT>