Long-time Death Valley residents say that daily temperatures at Badwater are consistently higher than at Furnace Creek. There is abundant life in what many consider to be a desolate wasteland. The life is subtle, and tolerant of the arid and saline conditions, but it is there. More than 900 kinds of plants are found within the boundaries of the national park, ranging from saltbush and cacti on the valley floor to juniper, pinyon pine and mountain-mahogany, with bristlecone pine at the top of the Panamint Mountains. Spring wildflowers wave delicately on the gravel fans, roadsides, and in mountain valleys.
Animals run, skitter and scrape as they cross the salt pan and the sandy dunes.
Bighorn sheep graze on the mountainsides. Because of the tremendous variation in elevation between the valley floor and the top of the mountain ranges, there is a great diversity in ecosystems. The highest biotic zone in the park is the Canadian, characterized by limber and bristlecone pine. This zone is restricted to the topmost parts of the Panamint Range, north and south of Telescope Peak. The spring-fed oases should be considered an anomaly.