Locrwln's Death Valley Trip

[locrwln1]

So we headed out Friday night to try and get as far along as we could. Since my day started at 4:00 am and Darcie's started at 4:30, we weren't going to be pulling an all nighter. We drove down 95 and called it quits about 9:30 pm at 95 and the junction with US 6. We pulled in behind those old motel buildings away from the traffic.

We got up on Saturday and headed south. We stopped in Beatty and topped off the fuel tank ($4.04/gal vs $5.77/gal in Death Valley). We headed in, planning to give Titus Canyon a try, unfortunately, it was closed. We drove down to Furnace Creek, we decided to make Furnace Creek our base because everything we were going to be doing was on that side of the park. As we were getting there we noticed that two of the CG's were full. We decided to grab a spot in Sunset CG. It sucked, $12 a night for no hook ups, no electricity, nothing, so yeah we paid to boondock. One night was enough.

Once a spot was secured, we drove down the Badwater road, hooked a right onto the West Side Road and turned right again onto the Trail Canyon road. We drove up a couple of miles until we felt like we had reached the sensible limits of the truck/cabover, stopped, had lunch and went for a walk. We hike up and turned left into a canyon marked Wilderness and had the area to ourselves.

Lunch, looking up into the Trail Canyon.


The canyon we hiked into.


Some wildlife we ran into in the canyon.


This is were we called it quits on driving up the canyon, looking back down towards Badwater.


We drove down and went for Dante's view.

Looking down at Badwater.



Looking towards Furnace Creek.


That's it for day one.

Jack

 

[locrwln1]

Day two.

We got up and headed out early for Golden Canyon. We went for a great hike up and around the canyon and ended up coming down some spines that were only as wide as the footpath.



Didn't get any pics of the spines, but at the top we found from fresh scat and hoofprints from a Bighorn.

Next we drove down to Badwater and walked out to the "lowest point" in North America. Had to get obligatory picture looking up toward "Sea Level."



We continued down the Badwater road and turned left and called it the end of Death Valley. We drove through Death Valley Junction and back into Nevada. We noticed and decided that we had never been to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Really cool little oasis.

These are the whole reason it is protected, the Devil's Hole Pup Fish. It's only about 2" long and the males are bright blue. Very cool.


Another pic.


One of the springs, located in the area.


We finished up and rolled out to Beatty to refuel and head north. We found a little road that went west from US 95 north of Scotty's Junction and south of Lida Junction. We turned off of that and found a spot for the night.


We had turned around at that point.

That was it for Day two.

Jack

 

[locrwln1]

Day Three.

We got up and wanted to follow the main road up to a town site that was at 7000'. Back to the main road.



We got denied due to snow.

After that, it was time to head for the barn.

Made it home after a great weekend of hiking, walking and sightseeing.

Gotta love it.

Thanks for looking.

Jack

 

[spressomon]

Nice photos and story line Jack!

 

[chicago]

Gotta LOVE IT!
Thanks for the write up and pics Jack. Cant wait to go myself in May!
Never have been down into furnace creek, titus canyon and bad water.

 

[locrwln1]

Thanks guys, forgot to mention, we saw Bighorn sheep along the rocks/cliff on US 95 along Walker Lake.

Dan,

For you, we saw chukar both in Ash Meadows and on the rocks next to Walker Lake.

Jack

 

[spressomon]

Thanks guys, forgot to mention, we saw Bighorn sheep along the rocks/cliff on US 95 along Walker Lake.

Dan,

For you, we saw chukar both in Ash Meadows and on the rocks next to Walker Lake.

Jack

I had Chukar run right in front of the LC in Rhyolite just above the Bottle House. Screeched to a stop, popped the tailgate open and had Sieg on them in a flash.

Then we had them talking to us over above Bullfrog where we camped on an old railroad grade: They were clucking in the rocks above us and then below camp in the sage flats! They started just before dawn and they continued laughing at us until we left around 9-ish.

While Ali was winching himself out of the snow and ice above Chicken Bridge I noticed all kinds of fresh fresh Chukar tracks in the snow...and Sieg went nuts!

We also saw a few up in Johnson Canyon. And we saw them in Echo Canyon as well as other places on this trip too. Weird.

I definitely heard more on this trip than I did this past hunting season! Go figure huh?!

 

[WILLD420]

Nice. Someday I definitely have to go there.

BTW, get some 19.5's on that thing. Those Michelin Man donuts are looking flat on the bottom...

 

[DiscoveredLC]

Nice little trip you guys had there! I really need to find the time to make it down there. Talk about a surprise for someone who didnt know those fish were there. Its amazing that they can survive in those conditions.

 

[locrwln1]

I had Chukar run right in front of the LC in Rhyolite just above the Bottle House. Screeched to a stop, popped the tailgate open and had Sieg on them in a flash.

Then we had them talking to us over above Bullfrog where we camped on an old railroad grade: They were clucking in the rocks above us and then below camp in the sage flats! They started just before dawn and they continued laughing at us until we left around 9-ish.

While Ali was winching himself out of the snow and ice above Chicken Bridge I noticed all kinds of fresh fresh Chukar tracks in the snow...and Sieg went nuts!

We also saw a few up in Johnson Canyon. And we saw them in Echo Canyon as well as other places on this trip too. Weird.

I definitely heard more on this trip than I did this past hunting season! Go figure huh?!

Well I have seen more Chukar this year just being out than I ever have, so that's a good thing. Should be a stellar hunting season next year.

Nice. Someday I definitely have to go there.

BTW, get some 19.5's on that thing. Those Michelin Man donuts are looking flat on the bottom...

Thanks and yes you do.

Sure, just spot me the $3-4k and I will gladly spring for the 19.5's. I have seriously thought about it numerous times, but (knock on wood) in over 50k miles of driving the rig around, I have yet to have a tire failure (yep, just jinxed myself). Hard to spend that kind of money, when so far, I haven't needed to. I can buy about three to four sets of 16" tires for one set of rims/tires in the 19.5's.

Nice little trip you guys had there! I really need to find the time to make it down there. Talk about a surprise for someone who didnt know those fish were there. Its amazing that they can survive in those conditions.

Thanks, it was a great weekend, saw some new stuff, got in quite a bit of hiking and just had a good time.

And yes you do, you will go back if you ever go. It's nice to go where it's warm during winter.

It is very impressive. Those males are very territorial and it was fun to watch them protect their area. Amazing little guys/girls.

Jack

 

[450 DUDE]

Excellent! Thanks for the pics!

ken

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Great pics Jack. I'm not much for t.v. but there was a great special on National Geographic about those fish and the under surface lake they live in. The water was as clear as any I've ever seen.

 

[locrwln1]

Great pics Jack. I'm not much for t.v. but there was a great special on National Geographic about those fish and the under surface lake they live in. The water was as clear as any I've ever seen.

Do you happen to know what it was callled? I may have to search around for it, I would like to see what they had to say about it. Pretty facinating stuff about the underground lake.

Jack

 

[450 DUDE]

I believe I saw that one as well. It was extremely cool, had no idea about the underground lake. They were full on cave diving.

ken

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

I believe I saw that one as well. It was extremely cool, had no idea about the underground lake. They were full on cave diving.

ken

That's the one. I knew it was on Nat Geo, but the name escapes me.


But hey that's what Google is for. First it was my recall of phone numbers, don't recall them anymore due to cell phones storing them. Now it's other sh$t...

From google.


America`s Wild Spaces Event
Death Valley
Thursday November 26, 2009 at 6 PM

Death Valley National Park is a land of extremes. Its the driest place in the United States, the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere and, at one time, the hottest single location recorded on earth. Yet here, in this seemingly inhospitable chasm, life thrives. More than 1,000 species of plant call this park home. Several animal species here live nowhere else on earth. Journey with JT Reynolds, Death Valleys larger-than-life superintendent, from the parks highest peak, at 11,049, to its lowest point, a staggering 282 feet below sea-level, and meet the scientists who are working to protect this wild place as the mercury rises.

Also airs:
No additional dates planned.


They started at the highest place in the park with a Jeep Rubicon and traveled down to the lowest point.

 

[rusty_tlc]

I saw that one. They were with a Ranger who was about to retire and was taking his last back country tour of the park.