Racetrack Playa 2019

Racetrack Playa is a usually dry desert lake bed in a remote part of Death Valley National Park.  It is famous for the rocks that have left tracks indicating that they have somehow moved across the lake bed.  Since we hadn't been to the Racetrack in several years, we decided to take the long drive out there from Stovepipe Wells via the "easiest" route, northwest to Ubehebe Crater (47 miles of paved road) and then south on the Racetrack Road (27 miles of dirt road).

Ubehebe is a Maar volcanic crater created by a phreatic (steam) eruption.  Rising subsurface magma had super-heated the groundwater until steam pressure built high enough to blast the overlying rock away.

Twenty miles along the Racetrack Road is Teakettle Junction.  Many visitors have left teakettles on the signpost as mementos of their visit.  The rangers periodically remove kettles, but there were a fair number during this visit.

We even witnessed an addition being made to the sign.

At the northern end of the playa, an outcrop of rocks named the "Grandstand" pokes above the surface of the playa.

Since the vast majority of the rocks' tracks are at the southern end of the playa, we continued to a parking area at that end and discovered a new information sign had been erected there to reflect the latest understanding of how the tracks are made.  It is now known that under the right conditions, ice sheets driven by wind push rocks around.

The surface of the playa is a fine silty clay material.  On the rare occasions when enough rainwater collects to flood the playa, the surface becomes a slick mud.  When the playa dries out again, the mud shrinks, cracks and forms a surface of fairly uniform polygons typically about 1 to 2 inches across.

Some of the first visible rock tracks during our walk out onto the playa.

At the southern end of the playa where it ends at a rock slope, is an area called the "nursery".  Here rocks erode from the hillside and roll down onto the playa surface.  Many of these rocks show tracks in the playa surface.

Some idiot appears to have driven a vehicle on the playa!

Crossing tracks

This rock may have a groove in its bottom.

Evidence for "rock rustling"?

Looking north across the playa

Headed back to the parking area
(click on the image to get the larger version to see
the details which help show the size of the playa)

Our lunch spot

Another view of the Grandstand

On this visit, the tracks seemed much less defined than in previous visits.  My guess is that the playa has flooded a number of times without the right conditions to allow rock movement.  This cycle would probably slowly erase the tracks.  Below are images from previous years.

2002

2007

2010