Eventually, only a briny soup remained, forming salty pools on the lowest parts of Death Valley's floor. Close-up of delicate lacework edges decorating salt pinnacles. While the saltpan at Badwater periodically floods, then dries, Devil's Golf Course lies in a part of the Death Valley salt pan that is several feet above flood level. Without the smoothing effects of flood waters, the silty salt at Devil's Golf Course grows into fantastic, intricately detailed pinnacles. The pinnacles form when salty water rises up from underlying muds.
Capillary action draws the water upward where it quickly evaporates, leaving a salty residue behind.
The pinnacles grow very slowly, perhaps as little as an inch in 35 years. Wind and rain continually work to erode and sculpt the salty spires into an amazing array of shapes. This site is a cooperative endeavor of the US Geological Survey Western Earth Surface Processes Team and the National Park Service .