Death Valley '49ers group—the Jayhawkers—wanted to stay with the original plan of traveling west. The group eventually split and went their separate ways but they both were to have two things in common. They were both saved from dying of thirst by a snow storm and they both ended up meeting again at Ash Meadows in the Amargosa Desert of the Amargosa Valley located east of Death Valley. From here they continued on, following the Amargosa River bed to present-day Death Valley Junction, California, and then along the same route followed by current California State Route 190 past the Funeral Mountains. On Christmas
Death Valley pupfish is 4 times more saline than the ocean, hot water up to , and cold water down to . This species is known from only two locations in Death Valley: Salt Creek (subspecies "salinus") at about 49 meters below sea level, and Cottonball Marsh (subspecies "milleri"), at about 80 meters below sea level. They are thought to be the remainders of a large ecosystem of fish species that lived in Lake Manly, which dried up at the end of the last ice age leaving the present day Death Valley. The Salt Creek subspecies is also found at River Springs and