Gower Gulch loop-Death Valley, California

Keith Lawlor

This week I decided to visit Gower Gulch in Death Valley. We all wondered why this section of Gower Gulch looks so remarkably different from the surrounding landscape and later on I learned that it’s the result of human activities the gulch was breached on its eastern reaches to divert the flow of Furnace Creek away from the Inn during flash floods. So, as a result, the upper reaches of Gower Gulch are now far more eroded than they should be and they have those foreign rocks lining the wash instead of pieces of the surrounding badlands.

This wash is at first rather wider than Golden Canyon but has similar bright colors and stark, eroded formations. For about half a mile the floor is flat and sandy, bordered by sloping sides beneath more polychromatic dunes, then the gulch becomes more enclosed, rocky and steep-sided, with one narrow place and a four foot dry fall. Around here are a number of tunnels, relics of borax and calcite mining from the early 20th century. This man made breach seems to be eroding Gower Gulch loop at an incredible pace. But my question is what effect is it having on the eastern valleys, as the flood water is diverted into it?