Racetrack Playa

A playa is a desert basin that periodically fills with water to form a shallow lake. This playa lies nearly thirty miles off the beaten track in northern Death Valley. It is called the Racetrack because stones from the surrounding mountains mysteriously move across the playa when it is wet leaving the tracks of their movement (see inset). Actually it is no longer mysterious since someone figured out that it was the wind which moved the stones across the mud. Appropriately, the rocky formation out in the playa is known as the Grandstand. We arrived here on the evening of our first day in Death Valley National Park and spent the night there sleeping in the back of our minivan. Should add that we are home again after three weeks on the road. We visited four national parks, two national wildlife refuges and several state parks, put 4000 miles on the car, and spent sixteen nights sleeping in the back of the van.