There are a lot better ways to make eggs. — Dan
Do Not Fry This At Home
Furnace Creek, California is a community in Death Valley National Park. (Here’s a map.) It’s home to about 136 people as of the 2020 census, and that seems like 136 too many, because — if the name (Furnace! Death!) didn’t give it away — Furnace Creek gets really, really hot. On July 14, 1972, the temperature of the air there topped out at 128° Fahrenheit (53.3° Celsius), and the temperature of the ground was a record-setting 201° F (93.8° C), according to the National Park Service (via CBS News). As they saying goes, it was so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.
Which proved to be a big problem for the Park.
July 2012 wasn’t quite as hot in Death Valley as July 1972, but it was close, with air temperatures reaching 120° F. The Death Valley National Park Service wanted to warn would-be visitors of the dangers of such extreme heat, so they turned to YouTube for a little demonstration. An employee took a cast iron pan, placed it on the ground, cracked an egg, and then covered the pan. And, just like the saying suggested, the egg began to cook. (According to Tasting Table, “egg whites begin to set at around 140 degrees Fahrenheit,” so that shouldn’t be a huge surprise.) The video — which is no longer online, but there’s a screen capture above — racked up more than a million views is short order.
Unfortunately, the video had the opposite effect of what the Park Service had intended. The opportunity to crack an egg on the ground and watch it cook was too enticing for many tourists (and very bad chefs) to pass up. (And note, it doesn’t quite work, either. The ground typically isn’t conductive enough to cook eggs — you almost always need a pan.) Many, many people came by, cracked some eggs, and left a mess. The problem got so bad at the Park Service posted a cry for help on Facebook, asking people to stop. Here’s the text of the now-deleted post, via USA Today and NBC News:
An employee's posting of frying an egg in a pan in Death Valley was intended to demonstrate how hot it can get here, with the recommendation that if you do this, use a pan or tin foil and properly dispose of the contents. However, the Death Valley NP maintenance crew has been busy cleaning up eggs cracked directly on the sidewalk, including egg cartons and shells strewn across the parking lot.
This is your national park, please put trash in the garbage or recycle bins provided and don't crack eggs on the sidewalks or the Salt Playa at Badwater.
Unfortunately, the post didn’t help much. Many park goers who were willing to brave the heat continued to find not-quite-cooked eggs in their path. One told NBC News that she and her party “looked down and saw this disgusting thing. It was an egg lying there in the asphalt. It wasn’t frying; it was just this dribbly mess.” Another complained about the smell — eggs, even if they don’t cook in 120° degree heat, still go bad.
Thankfully for those who care about a good park experience, the weather cooled down a bit, making Death Valley a little more hospitable — and making the likelihood of cooking an egg on the ground zero. The egg frying attempts stopped, and the Park Service never suggested frying an egg on the pavement again.
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More About Death Valley
Today’s Bonus fact: “Heat Kills. Don’t Do This.” is a really bad tagline for an event, but if you’re looking to participate in the Darth Valley race, that’s a fair warning. And no, that’s not a typo — I meant to say “Darth” there. The race — well, it’s not really a race, because there’s only one competitor — is an annual event where a guy name Jon Rice “waits for the hottest day in the weather forecast, dons his multilayered outfit and sets out for Death Valley, where he runs a mile as fast as possible at the hottest time of day,” as reported by the Washington Post. In the FAQ on his official website, DarthValley.com, he answers the question” why do you do this?” thusly: “When George Mallory was asked why he planned to climb Mount Everest, he replied simply, ‘Because it’s there.’ So why does Jon do this? ‘Because he’s an idiot,’ is probably the right answer, but it doesn’t sound so noble.” (The site was last updated in 2024, with no race recorded for that year, but hopefully, no one will pick up the mantle.)
From the Archives: The Mystery of the Sailing Stones: “Sailing” isn’t really accurate because this is happening in the desert, and there’s no water, and the stones have no sails.
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And thanks! — Dan