Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point, a prominent viewpoint in Death Valley, reveals a deeply eroded badlands landscape cut into sediments laid down in an ancient lake about nine million years ago. Saline muds, mountain gravel, and volcanic ash accumulated there and later formed the Furnace Creek Formation, preserving fossils and animal tracks from a less extreme environment. As the climate grew more arid and Death Valley sank, widened, and tilted, erosion carved the ridges and gullies seen today, with some capped by dark lava that helps features like Manly Beacon stand higher. Named for Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, the site also connects geology, borax mining history, and modern popular culture.

California · United States