EPOW Ecology Picture of the Week -- The World's Toughest Golf Course

Explanation: Welcome to the toughest golf course in the world! This is the "Devil's Golf Course" in the heart of Death Valley, California.

OK, it's not really a golf course, but is so-named for the nearly untraversable terrain. The dead silence adds to the mystique, appropriate for its location in the lowest-down valley in North America, Death Valley.

What you are seeing here are uncountable numbers of salt crystals adhered into lumps and sharp points that formed under continuing evaporation of salty ground water. This salt pan continues to form today, and currently constitutes a layer 3-5 feet (0.9-1.5 meters) thick of mostly sodium chloride (table salt).

Death Valley is not dead, however. Some of the isolated brine pools harbor amazing life forms, including desert pupfish. And there is more to a dried lakebed than first meets the eye ... or the golf club.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week