Devil's Golf Club (11 photos)
Devil's Golf Course is a vast valley of salt deposits in the Mojave Desert. 
Devil's Golf Course is a vast valley of salt deposits in the Mojave Desert in Death Valley National Park, eastern California, USA. It is essentially the bed of a massive prehistoric lake that once filled the valley. Experts believe the lake dried up between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago, leaving behind dissolved minerals that, over thousands of years, weathered into stunning crystals. These crystals are incredibly jagged, leading a 1934 National Park Service guidebook to write that "only the devil could play golf" on this surface. This is where the area got its name.
About 150,000 years ago, Lake Manly, a large lake with a depth of up to 600 feet, covered the salt basin. It received melting snow and glaciers. At the end of the last ice age (around 10,000 years ago), climate change contributed to evaporation and the subsequent drying of this lake. Then, for a brief period during the Holocene (2,000 to 4,000 years ago), the climate again became significantly wetter. Another shallow lake formed at this site, fed by meltwater from the surrounding mountains and runoff from the Amargosa River. Its depth reached approximately 30 feet.
As the climate warmed, precipitation decreased, and the shallow lake began to dry up. Evaporation of the water led to an increase in the concentration of dissolved minerals in the lake. Eventually, a thick layer of salt remained in the lowest part of Death Valley.
Devil's Golf Club is located in a section of Death Valley several feet above the Badwater Basin, which periodically floods. Capillary action lifts the water, which quickly evaporates, leaving a salt deposit and forming fantastically detailed jagged features. The crystals grow very slowly, approximately 2-3 cm every 35 years. Wind and rain continually shape them into intricate salt spires. 
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