Death Valley

Tuesday, 30 March – Death Valley National Park, CA

1. House site at Rhyolite, NV. A ghost town east of Death Valley.

2. Another ruin at the Rhyolite ghost town east of Death Valley.

3. Hiking in Mosaic Canyon in Death Valley.

4. Marble rock formations in Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley.

5. Another look at the marble rock formations in Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley.

6. Mosaic Canyon.

7. Ray makes a friend in Mosaic Canyon.

8. Ray goes through a tight squeeze in Mosaic Canyon.

9. Marble strata in Mosaic Canyon.

10. Marble strata in Mosaic Canyon.

11. The road through Titus Canyon, Death Valley.

12. Rock formations in Titus Canyon.

We woke up this morning and it was considerably more windy. There is a lot of dust in the valley. We eat our oatmeal and drive out to Rhyolite off Hwy 374 to visit the ghost town. We take the opportunity of being close to Beatty, Nevada and drive into town for brunch at a casino. After eating, we drive back to 374 and consider the 30 mile Titus canyon drive. We conclude that this will take most of the day and will not allow us enough time to do the our planned hike in Mosaic Canyon.

We drive back to Stovepipe Wells village and take the dirt road south immediately after clearing the village. Mosaic Canyon was an interesting hike through marble canyons that were very narrow. The hike became increasing difficult as we ascended the canyon. This would not be a good place to be during the rains. The photographs speak for themselves.

After hiking, we took in a snack at Stovepipe Wells and then drove north through the valley to the terminus of the Titus Canyon road. We hike a mile of so up this canyon. Another interesting canyon. We consider driving the entire canyon in the morning before returning to the bay area.

When we return exit the canyon, the winds are still severe. The wind gusts are reported to be up to 50 MPH in the valley. The dust in the air obscures the views of the surrounding mountains. Ray and I stop along the road and take out the chairs and split our last beer. The wind blows the beer out of our cups. We hope the dust might make the sunset spectacular but clouds gather on the mountains and block the low light. We go to twilight immediately.

We arrive at Furnace Creek after dark. The wind is still blowing hard which influences our decision to have a steak dinner in the restaurant. After dinner, we return to the Texas Springs campground. We decide not to put up the tent and to sleep with the lid down. Ray builds a wind break with the food lockers and sleeps outside on the cot next the truck. The wind shakes the truck all night but I sleep pretty well. I don’t know about Ray.


Monday, 29 March – Pahrump, NV, to Death Valley National Park, CA

1. We arrive at Death Valley National Park via Hwy 190.

2. Looking into Death Valley from Dantes View (5475ft). The valley floor is below
sea level over 1 mile below. This view rivals that from the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

3. A look a Badwater, the lowest point in the US from Dantes View.

4. Joel takes in the view.

5. Ray celebrates life ....

6. ... from Dantes view.

7. Looking north up the valley from Dantes view.

8. The happy campers at Dantes view.

9. The west side road on the valley floor. This 40 mile dirt
road runs parallel to the Badwater Road.

10. The Coyote brings us a message ...

11. Flowers are in bloom on the Hanaupah Canyon road.

12. More flowers in bloom on the Hanaupah Canyon road.

13. A look at the Panamint Range looking west
from the Hanaupah Canyon road.

14. Another look.

15. The road to the Queen of Sheba Mine in southern Death Valley.

16. Looking out from the Queen of Sheba mine.

17. Mine production went down this shoot.

18. Another mine shoot at the Queen of Sheeba.

19. The road to the valley floor from the Queen of Sheeba Mine.

20. Joel goes to the light at Badwater, the lowest point in the US.

21. Ray is the light at Badwater.

22. The salt flat at bad water.

23. Rock cairns at a view on Artist Drive.

24. My rock cairn at sunset.

25. Sunset lights up the rocks looking east on Artist Drive.

Let me start by saying that I was not expecting the awesome grandeur of Death Valley. I have often gushed about the Grand Canyon. The views from Dantes View (5475 ft) looking into Badwater at almost 300 ft below sea level rival the views from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. So it was quite unexpected when Ray and I turned off Hwy 190 and drove the 13 miles out/up to Dantes View that we would encounter such a dramatic vista. I highly encourage one and all to add this to the “must see” places on their list. We toiled about walking out to different crags drinking in the scenery.

We continued on to the Furnace Creek area. We found camping sites available and checked ourselves into the Texas Springs campground for two nights. We unloaded much of the truck at the campground to get it as light as possible then set out to explore.

We had lunch at the Furnace Creek Village, filled up with gasoline, and went to the visitor center where we were given a guide to “backcountry roads”. We decided to drive down the West Side Road which parallels the paved Badwater Road and try some of the canyon roads heading up into the Panamint Range. We started up the Hanaupah Canyon Road. The road was rough with 10 MPH progress. We decided that this would eat up too much of our day and turned around sticking to our previous plan to get a good overview of Death Valley. The West Side Road was well graded and offered nice views of the mountains to the east and west.

Toward the southern end of the West Side Road, we decided to drive up to the Queen of Sheeba Mine. This mine operated in the first half of the 20th century. We walked around the old building, looked at the remaining mining equipment, and looked at the shafts. It also gave good views of the valley floor (lat: 35 59.983, long: 116 53.112, elev: 902 ft).

Returning to the West Side Road, we continued south until we found the pavement of the Badwater Road and then headed north. We stopped at Badwater and walked out onto the salt flat and the lowest point in the US. We continued north and drove artist drive just before sunset. We did not know that sunset at artist palette is the tourist draw and we stopped at some rock formation prior to this cutoff. We climbed the path to the vista point and found many rock cairns built in the overlook area. So as we waited for sunset, I built a cairn. The colors at sunset were vivid.

After sunset we continued on artist drive and found artist palette which was impressive even without the sun light. We arrived back at Furnace Creek at night. We bought deli sandwiches at the general store and cooked soup in the dark. The moonrise over the mountains was impressive.