Stop 12 Mushroom Rock
Location: Death Valley National Park, CA.
Date: March 9, 2007

Mushroom Rock is an example of a hoodoo, or pillar of rock left by erosion, located off of California State Road 190 just south of Furnace Creek Junction in Death Valley National Park.  Wind-blown sand has abraded the rock, carving the unique formation.  The lower portion of Mushroom Rock has a smooth surface, but the more-resistant rock at the top exhibits a rough texture.  This difference in texture occurs because wind can only lift sand approximately 1-1.5 meters high, so the upper portions of Mushroom Rock have not been subjected to the scouring of the wind-blown sand.

By Jennifer Mikolajczyk