Salt Creek Boardwalk Reopens

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. – Death Valley National Park is pleased to announce the reopening of Salt Creek Boardwalk, three and a half years after it was destroyed by flooding. This wheelchair-accessible trail provides easy access to view Salt Creek Pupfish.

A flash flood in August 2022 destroyed the boardwalk, interpretive signs, and vault toilet. The parking lot and road were further damaged during the remnants of Hurricane Hilary in August 2023. The Salt Creek recovery project included reconstruction of the boardwalk, improved parking area and trailhead, new vault toilets, flood cleanup and debris removal, and signage.

The National Park Service and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) designed the replacement facilities to be flood-resistant. For example, some of the boardwalk footings are up 20 feet deep. The parking area facility is armored to protect the facility during future high water events. Multiagency coordination and environmental review ensured that the design, materials, and construction methods would minimize damage to the sensitive ecosystem and endemic fish while supporting disaster recovery.

Five pupfish species or subspecies live in Death Valley National Park. These fishes’ ancestors lived in large freshwater lakes. As Lake Manly dried up at the end of the last Ice Age, the Salt Creek Pupfish found themselves in a short creek that is sometimes saltier than the ocean. Male pupfish are known for their spirited courtship displays, defending their territories to attract females.

Interpretive signs describing the fish’s ecology and history will be installed in a few months.

The project was funded by FHWA’s Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads Program (ERFO) and Federal Lands Transportation Program (FLTP), NPS Disaster Supplemental, and donations from Death Valley Natural History Association and The Fund For People in Parks.

Death Valley National Park is the homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone and preserves natural resources, cultural resources, exceptional wilderness, scenery, and learning experiences within the nation’s largest conserved desert landscape and some of the most extreme climate and topographic conditions on the planet.

The boardwalk allows the public to see the Pupfish while preventing damage that would be caused by people walking on the streambank. The new Salt Creek Boardwalk has concrete footings to keep it secured during future flood events.
NPS photo

NPS photo
A park ranger stands on a section of the old Salt Creek boardwalk. In 2022, a flash flood transported this section of boardwalk about ¼ mile before depositing it.

NPS photo
In 2022, a flash flood pushed a section of the wooden boardwalk against the restroom building, causing damage. The restroom was replaced as part of the recent project.