Photo Essay: Secrets of Death Valley

There's an area of Death Valley National Park that's so fragile, so archeologically significant, that the National Park Service has erased any trace of its existence. They've removed it from the maps. They've omitted it from the guides. They've filled in the roads leading to it and dismantled the signs pointing to it.

But every now and then, a park ranger or a paleontologist takes a small group of people through the area, and points out what the casual traveler might miss, or accidentally step on and destroy forever.

As it is, the dryness of the desert, the hotness of the sun, and the erosion of time has rendered the rock paper-thin, peeling away in layers of time.

For the preservation of the area, I'm not going to say what it is, where it is or how to get there. But I will show you what I saw.































Life was once more robust in Death Valley, around its many lakes, than one can ever imagine. And few traces remain of it...but not for long.

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