Places of interest in the Death Valley area when gas escaped from the cooling lava. Some of these have been expanded or even merged by sandblasting. Non-stop winds on this ridge are concentrated and compressed at the top of the hill and are very fast as a result. These strong winds pick-up dust and sand (mostly from the two closest alluvial fans), which literally sand-blast exposed surfaces. Winds strong enough for sandblasting come from the north and the south. Places of interest in the Death Valley area Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Artist's Drive
Death Valley Grapevine Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries, respectively. It has an area of about . The highest point in Death Valley itself is Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range, which has an elevation of . Death Valley is an excellent example of a graben, or a downdropped block of land between two mountain ranges. It lies at the southern end of a geological trough known as Walker Lane, which runs north to Oregon. The valley is bisected by a right lateral strike slip fault system, represented by the Death Valley Fault and the Furnace Creek