At 11,049 feet (3368 m), Telescope Peak is the highest place in Death Valley National Park. It was named in 1861 by Dr. Samuel George, who said that looking from the peak was like looking through a telescope. Known for its great and rapid vertical rise above the valley floor (it is only 20 miles (32 km) away from the low-lying Badwater Basin), it has been compared to the sudden rise of Mount Everest. A dramatic rise of mountains without time to erode speaks of recent formation and is consistent with Psalm 104:8, which describes the mountains rising at the end of the Flood.

At 282 feet (86 m) below sea level, Badwater Basin is not only the lowest place in Death Valley National Park; as a result of the area being pushed down during the massive earth movements during the global Flood, it’s also the lowest place in North America. Once part of a lake that dried up at the end of the Ice Age, this basin was left with a high concentration of salt in a shallow pool of water.

Amazingly, this hot, salty basin is home to the Death Valley pupfish that can survive in 112ºF (44ºC) water, which is also three times as salty as ocean water. The pupfish is a remnant of a fish species that once lived in Lake Manly after the Flood.

From Zabriskie Point, you can see the layers of light-colored muds and silts that were produced after the Flood, when sediments eroded from the adjacent mountains and filled in parts of Death Valley.

Between other layers, you can see dark-colored basalt layers made from lavas. These represent early post-Flood volcanic activity in the area, as molten rock (magma) found its way to the surface as a result of the earth movements opening up passageways. This shows how the earth was still in a dynamic state of readjustment in the few years following the Flood.