Post-Flood Pupfish at Death Valley: accessibility, and my notes on the salt creek population

This journal post dedicated to my recent experiences visiting the habitats of two rare pupfish species (The Salt Creek Pupfish, Cyprinodon salinus ssp. salinus, and Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis ssp. mionectes) will cover two topics: One, the accessibility and condition of three localities, and two, my notes and observations at the Salt Creek population. I hope to address the current scarcity of up-to-date info on these locations, and expand upon my posted observations regarding the unique and transient state of salt creek both as a habitat and as a tourist attraction.

After the destruction of the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail (boardwalk) by seasonal flooding, accessing rare pupfish habitat is no longer as straightforward as driving a few minutes from Stovepipe Wells. Over the past few days camping at Furnace Creek, I visited three pupfish localities (two of the Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish, and one of the Salt Creek Pupfish): Crystal Springs, Point of Rocks, and Salt Creek. Eventually, I hope to add another journal post regarding the Devil's Hole, Saratoga Springs, and Cottonball marsh pupfishes, as these locations were out of the scope of my recent trip.

The now-destroyed Salt Creek Interpretive Trail will be referred to as the SCIT for the sake of brevity.

Crystal Springs (Cyprinodon nevadensis ssp. mionectes):
This is likely the most obvious post-SCIT pupfish viewing location, across the CA-NV border and some 45 minutes away from Furnace Creek. The boardwalk loop is connected to the ash meadows visitor center, which is a good resource for information on the area's many endemic species. At the time of my visit, the attraction was not excessively crowded. However, this location has two main issues for discerning amateur naturalists hoping to watch or photograph pupfish. The first is that the boardwalk does not allow visitors to get nearly as close to the water as the SCIT once did, requiring the use of binoculars/telephoto lenses to get a detailed look at the best sections of the pupfish population. The main pool at Crystal Springs is beautiful, and densely populated with C. nevadensis mionectes, however the distance significantly restricted photography. The other issue with this spot was the dominance of invasive sailfin mollies-- side from the main pool, Crystal Springs is home to far more mollies than pupfish.

Point of Rocks (Cyprinodon nevadensis ssp. mionectes):
Also within Ash Meadows, Point of Rocks consists of a mixed boardwalk/dirt trail directly accessible from a parking lot and small picnic area. The central attraction of the location is Kings pool, a clear blue pond similar to Crystal Springs' main pool. However, Point of Rocks differs in that the dirt trail comes into direct contact with the edge of the pool for a short section, allowing for close up viewing and photography of the pupfish without disturbing the habitat. I spent a significant amount of time kneeling by the water's edge, and was greatly satisfied with the photos I could get with a macro lens from just above the water. In addition, I did not see sailfin mollies at Point of Rocks. There were a few introduced mosquitofish, however the Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish is very clearly the dominant species. Point of Rocks was not excessively crowded at the time of my visit, but did seem fairly popular.

Salt Creek (Cyprinodon salinus ssp. salinus)
Salt creek is located at the end of a currently unmarked 2.5 mile sandy road not far from stovepipe wells. This road is closed, however, according to attendants I talked to at the furnace creek visitor center, the road and creek are open to foot or bike travel. I opted to ride a bike to the creek, which may be more difficult than walking depending on the type of bike used. A mountain bike or fat-tire sand bike would be ideal, although I found that about 80% of the distance was bikeable with decently robust regular tires, as long as I rode on the rocky ground alongside the rode rather than the sandy road itself. Including short water breaks, the ride only took about 10-15 mins. On the way there, I encountered a few people exiting the area on foot, however while I was at Salt Creek I saw zero visitors. The boardwalk, parking lot and bathroom are reduced to ruins; only a few informational signs are left standing. In contrast, the creek is fast-flowing and teeming with pupfish. The area can be explored for as far as one would like to hike.

The single issue with salt creek is the presence of large, incredibly persistent horseflies (Tabanus punctifer). I was constantly bitten by these flies while photographing the pupfish, sometimes even bleeding through my shirt. I would strongly recommend wearing thicker clothing if anyone plans to visit the location, as they are more than capable of biting through fabric. Prospective visitors will likely be the only available human host(s) for a radius of multiple miles, and, like myself, find themselves constantly swatting at the prick of the flies' scalpel-like mouthparts.

Since there were no other visitors while I was at the location, I was able to observe the pupfish fully undisrupted. The creek was much wider, and more washed out than I had seen in 2018, with numerous branches and islands forming a flat expanse of sandy wetland. Aside from the fish, and clumps of algae along the edges, there is nearly no other life in the creek itself, although it is flanked by the occasional creosote or other desert bush. I did not observe any of the once-ubiquitous pickleweed (Allenrolfea occidentalis), nor the abundant aquatic insects of locations such as badwater. However, I did observe an impressively large Hogna wolf spider at the edge of the creek, which, in my brief experience, seems to be a species associated with high-salinity springs, or water generally, in Death Valley. The pupfish themselves seemed to be thriving-- large schools moved up and down channels of the creek, individuals could be seen scrapping in signature puppylike fashion. I often observed the fish feeding on algae at the edges of the creek, at times with their bodies mostly above water in order to access it.

The most fascinating behavior I witnessed at salt creek was the pupfishes' apparent affinity for isolated pools connected to the main creek only by narrow, winding corridors seven or so feet in length. These channels are barely wide enough for an adult pupfish, and in some sections only milimeters deep, forcing pupfish to wriggle through the sand rather than swim. Despite this, the channels saw much active use, with adult and juvenile pupfish traveling in both directions. Interestingly, the adult population of the pool I observed most closely (the one pictured in my observations of the channels) seemed to be majority female. Since there did not seem to be any increase in accessibility to food at the pool, its usage may be as a sort of sanctuary from the constant aggression and territorial behavior present in the running sections of the creek, insured by the greatly reduced adult male population. However, salt creek's ecology is unique and complex, and there may be other reasons to travel to these pools, perhaps differences in water chemistry/salinity or temperature, which I did not have the instruments to measure.

An adult female pupfish traveling through the channel.

The presence of these "highways" highlights the fragility of the salt creek pupfishes' habitat. While in its current state, the creek receives little traffic from visitors, it would only take a single misplaced footstep to trap schools of pupfish in detached pools. I fear that, in absence of a project to install a new boardwalk to contain foot traffic, reopening salt creek as a tourist attraction could be disastrous for the structure of the salt creek habitat. That said, the pupfish are an incredibly resilient and adaptable species, and I do believe that visiting the creek without the restriction of the SCIT is an incredible opportunity for amateur naturalists to observe and photograph this incredibly rare species freely, so long as great care is taken not to disturb their environment.

Attached are all of my observations at and around the mentioned locations on this recent trip.

Posted on April 4, 2024 07:23 PM by hsug1747