In January 2016, I took a trip out to Death Valley National Park, this time joined by my brother Mo. Death Valley is the hottest, lowest, and one of the driest places in the US. Because of its inhospitable nature, it is also the largest national park in the lower 48 states because few people have ever wanted to live there!
It's a long drive from Kansas to Death Valley, and I stayed here at this corny yet still kind of cool roadside attraction:
...A motel where you stay in a fake teepee, surrounded by old vintage cars. I believe this place is left over from when the road through town was Route 66.
Golden Canyon / Gower Gulch Loop
Mo and I began our exploration of Death Valley by hiking the Gower Gulch loop trail, a magnificent introduction to the area's vast, constantly changing, and very bleak landscape.
I love hiking in the desert, and people often remark that it doesn't sound fun to them because deserts are too desolate, with no life. I don't know where they get that - any hike in Saguaro NP, Big Bend NP, or Guadalupe Mountains NP has you, the hiker, surrounded by all kinds of plants and animals. They are brimming with life! Death Valley, however, is much more desolate. While there is both plant and animal life to be found, a lot of the park, including this hike, has very little of either. Gower Gulch loop begins in the wash you see above, called Golden Canyon, surrounded by white (or "golden") badlands. It's not a long trail: the whole loop is about 4 miles. Soon, the trail winds its way up out and above at the base of a cliff, and you can look back down on the area you came from (cliff behind the photographer and not visible):
Looking back at the towering, oddly shaped cliff walls:
This section of the trail has lots of interesting little hollows and ridges. Here's another cool shot out over the badlands:
Notice that they're mostly white, but there are odd streaks and stripes of darker browns. This view, by the way, is not from the famous Zabriskie Point but is in the area that it overlooks. I realize not everyone is going to agree with me, but I find this kind of scenery hauntingly beautiful in its bleakness and emptiness. I love the lush forests and streams in, say, the Rocky Mountains as well. But these unique stark landscapes move me in a different way.
The trail through the loop is a little difficult to find. We had to try several likely-looking paths until we found the way onward, and we weren't the only ones confused. Every trough looks like it could be the trail, so be careful! Once you find the right path, you'll head over to Gower Gulch, leaving the sandy badlands and entering a rugged canyon. This canyon is a wonderful hiking spot because the floor is smooth and very easy to traverse. It's also full of weird scenery. Here's a hill which is mostly white but has darker rocks spilling across it:
Here, Mo is admiring a huge green wall. That's not an artifact of the photograph: the rocks are actually stained green by something. A mineral? A plant, like algae?
Through this canyon we saw, high in a wall, an entrance to an old mine. Borax was once mined from Death Valley, and dangerous old mine shafts are still visible in some places. The path leads you down the canyon to the top of a tall, dangerous looking dry fall. Don't get too close! There's a side path to take you parallel to the road and back to the parking area.
Death Valley Buttes
After the Gower Gulch loop, which was not exceedingly long, we decided to try hiking up Death Valley Buttes, an informal trail that leads up to the top of some rolling hills. Mo, on the buttes, silhouetted against the setting sun:
Here's a clearer picture on Death Valley Buttes. The climb up is not difficult, but there are scrubby desert plants here, including very sharp cactuses. Watch out! You can just barely see the road far below.
Dante's View / Mosaic Canyon / Ubehebe Crater
I was hoping to take a hike from Dante's Ridge while in Death Valley - the hike looks like a spectacular, scrambling ridgeline trek, which I love. However, the weather was unusually chilly in the valley, and when we drove up to the Dante's View area (5000 feet or so higher), the temperature was viciously cold. We took a short walk instead! The view of Badwater Basin from high above:
One of my favorite photos, looking down from the Dante's View area into scattered clouds that obscured the ground completely. Someone with a more professional setup is also getting some photographs of this incredible, otherworldly view:
Here are a few shots of Mosaic Canyon, with its beautiful gleaming marble walls:
This was another hike we had to cut short. The weather this day was absolutely miserable - frigid and rainy, the exact opposite of what Death Valley is known for!
The difficult-to-pronounce Ubehebe Crater was a neat place to visit while the weather wasn't cooperating. We drove there and were able to hop out of the car and look around without staying out in the rain and cold. This volcanic crater was formed by steam and gas explosions and surrounded by black cinders. There are other, smaller craters nearby.
Fall Canyon
The breathtaking hike up Fall Canyon shouldn't be missed. This is a trek of six miles roundtrip, and there isn't really a trail per se. Instead, once you arrive at the mouth of the canyon, you simply hike up the canyon until, three miles in, you're stopped a by a dry fall that blocks your path. The hike, like many in Death Valley is stunning in its harsh, desolate beauty. The day we were there, heavy clouds and fog made the scenery even more alien. Here is the canyon's entrance:
Fall Canyon's towering walls get lost in the haze:
The standard trek ends here, at a dry fall of about 30 feet. Down the canyon a short ways, there is a way to climb up above and continue farther. We didn't do that, but other hikers in the canyon told me the next part past this dry fall is a stunning slot canyon. I'd like to go back and try it again!
Badwater Basin / Artist Drive
This is Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, 282 feet below Sea Level. (It is often called the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, but that's outdated: Argentina has discovered a lower place.) On the mountainside just east of the basin is a red line indicating sea level - the height of a skyscraper over our heads! Badwater Basin (named for the pool of undrinkable salty water nearby) is about five miles across here and covered with damp white sand.
Somehow, this is the only photo I got of the amazing Artist's Drive. This narrow, winding, one-way road takes you by stunningly colored rocks, with much more color variety than you see in this photo. The Artist's Palette (which I somehow did not get a picture of up close) lets you admire rocks of all different hues - greens, blues, oranges, reds - all together in one place.