Death Valley in March

[chomp]

Death Valley in March - Photo Trip Report

Hey All -

Well, I finished up my photos from Death Valley this weekend. Two weeks ago, VSA and I flew out to Vegas with the intention of spending a week in the southern desert canyons of Utah. However, several storms and lots of snow made that plan a little infeasible. So, instead, we planned on traveling all around in an attempt to avoid the bad weather. Our first planned stop was Death Valley, but instead of staying for a couple of days and moving on, we fell in love and spent a whole week there.

Death Valley is amazing - its the largest National Park south of Alaska; there is just so much to do and so much varied terrain. It is the forth lowest point in the world, Badwater, at -282. However, just four miles away is Telescope Peak at 11,049. Make no mistake - Death Valley is everything you think it is, but it is also so much more than that. We easily spent a week there, and could have spent another week if we have a 4WD car. If you wanted to backpack (you have to carry all of you water since there is almost no water), you could spend a month.

The highlights? Tons of canyon hiking. Considering my only experience with this was The Narrows in Zion, I was blown away. We did hike 2 peaks. The trailhead to Telescope Peak was to rugged for our rental, but we did bag Wildrose peak at 9000+ and right next door. Also, we hiked the 5,678 Ubehebe Peak which towers over 2000 feet about a dry lake called "The Racetrack". We hiked in 2 sand dunes, one of which had a 3500 peak. We hiked around 1 volcanic crater. And a we got a tour of a castle in the middle of the desert. Oh yea, we hit Zion and Bryce for 1 day just to see them covered with snow. Good times. Here are the photos. The full journal will be on the way:

http://gallery.backcountry.net/chomp-deathvalley

chomp

 

[Pete_Hickey]

Nice.

I was there for a few days last June... I was acclimating for Whitney. In June, Telescope Peak still had snow. It was interesting, in that one day, I was cold and in snow on the summit of Telescope Peak, at 10:00AM, then at 2:00 in the afternoon, I was below sea level with temperatures of 110F in Badwater Basin, watching someone trying to clean their car, after frying an egg on it.

Photos brought back memories.

If this link works, here are some of my photos. Some will be familiar to you.

http://community.webshots.com/album/400927452

 

[JohnL]

Chomp,

Very nice photos. I agree that Death Valley is an amazing place. While I only did a day trip into the Valley from Vegas last May, we covered a lot of territory and I was amazed at the variation of the landscapes. So much of it has that burned up tortured look to it that creates so much of its character. Certainly a place I'd like to spend more time.

JohnL

 

[king tut]

Those are some gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[bubba]

Nice photo journal! Looks like you made the best of it and learned plenty. Love the dunes, man!

But... wasn't it great to get back to the "green" northeast? (well maybe green soon, after the bla late winter colors).

So you sleep with Patriots garb... Like I should be surprised!

 

[sli74]

wonderful pictures !!!

sli74

 

[Mike P.]

Nice pix Tim, as usual

 

[Bristol]

Great pics. On our trip to Vegas last year April we attemped to enter the park. When we went to fill up at the last gas station for 75 mile, the price of gas was almost $4.00 a gallon so we turned back. Bummer now I wish we didn't.

 

[Gris]

My sis lives out that away and i've often thought of doing something off road out there. Didya see any wildlife - pumas, coyotes, rattlers, scorpions...?

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Great pics. On our trip to Vegas last year April we attemped to enter the park. When we went to fill up at the last gas station for 75 mile, the price of gas was almost $4.00 a gallon so we turned back. Bummer now I wish we didn't.

Was this the gas station at Furnace Creek? If so, it's always wicked expensive. If it's any consolation - there's also a big golf course at Furnace Creek. Isn't that incredible? Creating a golf course in the middle of one of most arid places on the planet ... your tax dollars at work. So, maybe the logic is - if you're dumb enough to spend your money on green fees, then ... But, if you need gas, what are you going to do? When I encounter something like this I try to get past it by thinking "OK, I've traveled 3 billion miles to get here. And it's going to cost me an extra $10 for gas. It sucks, but ... what are the alternatives".

 

[Bristol]

Kevin,
I don't remember the name of the town. All I know is that it was in the middle of nowhere and a bit creepy. The one thing I do remember was that there were the letters DV branded on the side of a mountain.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Kevin,
I don't remember the name of the town. All I know is that it was in the middle of nowhere and a bit creepy. The one thing I do remember was that there were the letters DV branded on the side of a mountain.

Hmm ... there's a little town called Death Valley Junction - maybe?

Sometimes gas is expensive is remote places. I've learned that if I'm remote areas of places like Wyoming, Utah or Nevada, am approaching half a tank and see a gas station - I fill up and hope for the best. Sometimes it will be 100-150 miles before you get another chance. And carry 3 or 4 gallons of water. Always.

 

[audrey]

Chomp,

Loved your pics! Pat and I made popcorn and enjoyed the memories of all the familiar places we'd been and had yet to go. If you go again, don't miss Corkscrew Peak.

 

[chomp]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. As much as we loved it out there, it was nice to get back to a lot of GREEN. Actually, we did the Darwin Falls hike just to see some WATER - its bizarre to hike all day long and not see a drop of water anywhere. Doing Wildrose was a great treat, going from wide open landscapes to tall pines and joshua trees.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but jackrabbits seem to do just fine in the desert - we must have seen over a dozen of them. And in the canyons, we saw tons of lizards, most of them pretty small. There were a lot of color variations, including "Bob the Lizard" - his tail was alternating black and orange.

Thanks for the tip, Audrey. We will in fact be going back to Death Valley at some point, only next time with a 4WD vehicle. There are tons of hikes that we wanted to do that we just could not get near. The book that we bought, Hiking in Death Valley, is the BEST hiking book that I have purchased - by a long shot. Its a thick book, and heavy to carry, but well worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/09...f=pd_bbs_2/104-8885925-2223145?_encoding=UTF8

Not only does his list hundreds of hikes with several options for each hike, but he provides in-depth historical and geological information as well. He even details possible backpacks which are only limited by the lack of water. I could go on and on (PM me if you want more info), but let me just say, if you are thinking about heading to death valley, I wouldn't go without this book.

(BTW - I have no affiliation with the book or the author or amazon.com )

 

[audrey]

I also have the Digonnet book, which I ordered in 2003 while it was out of print with no guarantee that it would arrive on time or ever. So, everyone, if you think you'll be visiting Death Valley - buy the book while it's available. It is a book to dream on, in conjunction with a good map like the National Geographic!

By the way, there's no trail up Corkscrew, just a herd path. As you're coming down the hill over the pass from Beatty, park at the Corkscrew Peak sign. Walk towards the peak about a quarter to a half mile till you get to a very wide wash.Turn right, stay in the wash, on the right, and you'll pick up the herd path when the wash narrows. We took a lot longer than necessary because we wandered over some ridges on the left of the wash - it was all good.