Panamint Valley is a long basin located east of the Argus and

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

ranges, and west of the

Panamint Range The Panamint Range is a short rugged fault-block mountain range in the northern Mojave Desert, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. A small part of the southern end of the range is in San Bernardino County. Dr. D ...

in the northeastern reach of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, in eastern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Geography

The northern end of the valley is in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern sect ...

and

Inyo County, California Inyo County () is a County (United States), county in the Eastern California, eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the po ...

. The valley lies in a north–south direction, and stretches from the Panamint Dunes in the north to the

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Instal ...

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of th ...

in the south. The valley is approximately 65 miles (105 km) in length, and is more than 10 miles (16 km) wide in the Hall Canyon area.

Features

* The ghost town of

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

is located in Panamint Valley about three miles east of Trona Road, near Happy Canyon. * The Panamint Springs Resort, on Highway 190 west of Panamint Valley Road near Rainbow Canyon, provides the only lodging, dining, and gas in the area. *The former Epsom Salts Monorail crossed the valley on a wooden trestle. * A radar station is located near the town of Ballarat at the south end of the valley. *

Barker Ranch Barker Ranch is located inside Death Valley National Park in eastern California. Used as a mining and recreational property from the 1940s to the 1960s, it is infamous due to its association with Charles Manson and his "family". It was the family' ...

, the last hideout of

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal, cult leader, and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some cult members committed a Manson ...

and the site at which he was arrested in 1969, is located at the southern end of the valley off Goler Canyon Road. *The valley is an internally drained

endorheic basin An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

and its central salt flat/hardpan can contain an

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

lake, like it did after unusually heavy rains in the spring of 2005. During

pluvial In geology and climatology, a pluvial is either a modern climate characterized by relatively high precipitation or an interval of time of variable length, decades to thousands of years, during which a climate is characterized by relatively high ...

periods of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

, inflow from a chain of streams and lakes to the northwest sustained a large lake known as Lake Panamint that overflowed into

Lake Manly Lake Manly was a pluvial lake in Death Valley, California. It forms occasionally in Badwater Basin after heavy rainfall, but at its maximum extent during the so-called "Blackwelder stand," ending approximately 120,000 years before present, the ...

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

. Image:PanamintLake.JPG, 'Panamint Lake' in 2005, view near Ballarat Image:DeathValley66.jpg, State Route 190 crosses Panamint Valley File:Death Valley exit SR190 view Panamint Butt flash flood 2013.jpg, View on Panamint Valley from SR190 with flash floods and reflections in the water

Military use

The airspace over Panamint Valley is part of the U.S. military's vast R-2508 Special Use Airspace Complex. The Panamint Military Operating Area (MOA) covers the entire valley north to Hunter Mountain from 200 ft AGL (Above Ground Level) up to FL180

flight Level In aviation, a flight level (FL) is an aircraft's altitude as determined by a pressure altimeter using the International Standard Atmosphere. It is expressed in hundreds of feet or metres. The altimeter setting used is the ISA sea level pressur ...

(flight level is approximately altitude above mean sea level in hundreds of feet), therefore, FL180 would be 18,000 feet) with an Air Traffic Control Assigned Airspace ( ATCAA) located above the same area from FL180 up to FL600. The airspace is primarily used by military aircraft from Nellis AFB, Edwards AFB, NAWS China Lake, and

NAS Lemoore Naval Air Station Lemoore or NAS Lemoore is a United States Navy base, located in Kings County, California, Kings County and Fresno County, California, Fresno County, California, United States. Lemoore Station, California, Lemoore Station, a cen ...

for high and low altitude mission training. Military aircraft utilize radio communications on 291.6 MHz or 120.25 MHz while operating in the Panamint MOA; however, military aircraft throughout the R-2508 complex often use 315.9 MHz when conducting low altitude operations below 1500 ft above ground level. PanamintValleyCA

References

External links

R-2508 Panamint MOA/ATCAA Operating Procedures

{{Authority control Valleys of the Mojave Desert Valleys of Inyo County, California Valleys of San Bernardino County, California Death Valley National Park Panamint Range Endorheic basins of the United States Valleys of California

Geography

Features

Military use

References

Further reading

External links