page_title: Racetrack Playa
section_title: The Racetrack
hierarchical_section_title: Racetrack Playa / Features / The Racetrack
caption_attribution_description: English: The Racetrack in Death Valley, Ca
context_page_description: The Racetrack Playa, or The Racetrack, is a scenic dry lake feature with "sailing stones" that inscribe linear "racetrack" imprints. It is located above the northwestern side of Death Valley, in Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California, U.S.A.
context_section_description: Racetrack is dry for almost the entire year and has no vegetation.  When dry, its surface is covered with small but firm hexagonal mud crack polygons that are typically 3 to 4 inches (7.5 to 10 cm) in diameter and about an inch (2.5 cm) thick.  The polygons form in sets of three mud cracks at 120° to each other.  A few days after a precipitation event, small mud curls, otherwise known as "corn flakes" form on the playa surface.  Absence of these indicates that wind or another object has scraped away the tiny mud curls.
  During the bimodal rainy season (summer and especially winter) a shallow cover of water deposits a thin layer of fine mud on and between the polygons of Racetrack. Heavier winter precipitation temporarily erases them until spring when the dry conditions cause new mud cracks to form in the place of the old cracks. Sandblasting wind continually helps to round the edges of exposed polygons.  Annual precipitation is 3 to 4 inches (75 to 100 mm) and ice cover can be 1 to 2.5 inches (2.5 to 6.5 cm) thick. Typically only part of the playa will flood in any given year.
  The Racetrack was vandalised in late 2016.
caption: Sailing stone in Racetrack Playa
exif: {"Image Make": "Noritsu Koki", "Image Model": "QSS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.6", "Image DateTime": "2009:04:16 13:33:28", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.4.9", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "486", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5191", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": ":  :     :  :", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": ":  :     :  :", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3087", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048"}