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I, for one, had no idea the devil played golf. It does seem fitting though.

This golf course isn't constructed of lush greens with crystalline lakes. Not even close. It's a salt pan that reaches 1,000' into the earth. A lake used to be here. Now it's a field of white, reaching spiky stalagamites covering the ground for as far as you can squint in the desert sun. It's alien and a bit hellish. Maybe Dante crawled through something similar around level five.



The fragile crystals crunch as you walk over them. It sounds like plodding across really hard-packed, wet snow. I cringed with most of my steps. It felt like I was destroying something precious. I kept looking for "don't walk on this" signs, but there weren't any. The salt pan is hardy though. It is crunched by the feets of thousands, and the dry heat sucks out any hint of moisture. The crystals dissolve at a fast rate. You can hear the crackling evidence of this moisture murder. But, they re-form.

The wisps of salt make for painful points and soft curls all at the same time. Be cautious of touching them, the salt crystals sting your fingertips. It's quite a surprise to be pricked when you reach out to touch something that looks like lace. Also, don't taste it. It's not like table salt or Kosher salt. It's just metallicy and bitter. Or so I've heard...



Apparently, it occasionally gets confused with the actual golf course in Death Valley. I'd love to see the look on golfer's faces when they climb out of their cars, clubs in tow, and realize that only the devil could play on this golf course.


The golf course (this one, the much cooler one) is about 13 miles south of Furnace Creek. The road is easy to miss. It's unpaved, and it's one mile to the parking area.