A trip to the mountains west of Death Valley cont.

Uncategorized

Because we knew it was going to be hot, our strategy for the trip was to take hikes in the morning and evening and hangout or travel during the heat of the day. So, after a long lunch, our plan was to take a hike around the badlands above Ubehebe Crater in the afternoon.

But, when we got there, it was still hot and very windy. We pushed on to the valley above an area known as The Racetrack hoping the wind would calm down or we could find a spider hole where we could honker down. The road took us over a low pass and as we drove up and over the pass, we started running into my favorite cactus in Death Valley,  Echinocereus triglochidiatus var mojavensis. with its bright magenta flowers and green stigma. Usually, I am not a big fan of magenta flowers, it is the default color on a huge number of cacti and seems slightly too easy. But E. mojavensis is different; they just seem to be the perfect color combination.

,

When we got close to where we were going to camp, we came upon a herd – flock? – of big horn sheep. Ovis canadensis. It was my thrill of the day. I have been coming to the Death Valley area on an average of about once a year since about 1975 and have only seen one other big horn sheep and that one was so far away I was not sure – even with binoculars – that it was not a burro with horns pasted on. The burros were left by the prospectors about a hundred years ago and they are – were? – very cute and adapted to their new home with ease. I have seen burros almost every time I have gone into the desert mountains and never see sheep. Maybe about thirty years ago, the Park service started a campaign to rid the Park of burros on the theory that they were taking habitat away from the sheep by fouling their mutual water supply. This trip, for the first time, we saw sheep and not burros. I was not convinced the Park Service was right then, but I am now.

There are not the most handsome animals, at least the group that we saw, and certainly not as cute as burros, but it was amazing to watch them just walk up the side of a pretty steep rock face. About this time, Basha told us that she attracts animals. I am ready to believe that, too.

But one can only watch sheep eat for so long – even mountain sheep – so we moved on to find a place to camp. It took much inspection and discussion.

We had been driving up a main road – to use the term loosely – that had just recently been graded and we wanted to camp off that road to get away from traffic, although we only saw one car on that road in the two days we were in the area. We were planning to camp on a cross road near the Lost Burro Mine but, when we turned left and went away from the mine, it got windier. It was a great view, but pretty exposed. When we turned on the road towards the mine, it got calmer. It is not as easy to find a place to throw the bags down as it appears in these pictures. In the pictures, everything looks pretty much the same, but it isn’t. First, there are not as many flat spots as it looks and, second, the pictures don’t show the wind.

 

Usually the best bet is a slight draw.   As it started to get late in the day, we found a great place and set up camp. Basha set up her tent and the rest of us found little flat spots where we could throw down our bags and it had a great place to set up the table and barbecue.

 

 

 

 

To be continued.

 

 

 

 

A trip to the mountains west of death Valley cont.

Americana, Cactus & Succulents, California, Camping, Death Valley, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized

After driving all day Thursday, we all slept in on Friday.

But it did not take very long before the sun got bright enough and hot enough to wake us. After a quickie breakfast, we packed up


and hurried over to the Eureka Sand Dunes.

The Eureka Dunes are not very large or famous but they are among the highest dunes in the United States at over 650 feet above the valley floor. They look smaller because they are framed by the striped limestone cliffs of the Last Chance Range that rise up 3000 to 4000 feet higher. Sand dunes are caused by wind blowing across the valley floor and picking up fine dust and sand; as the wind hits the higher mountains, it slows down, loses energy, and drops its heavy load. One thing that I find interesting is that the the individual grains of sand are constantly changing but the size and shape of the dunes do not.

As an aside, after getting home I realized that, with four people on our trip, I took alot less pictures than I usually do when I am only with Michele. Among things I didn’t take pictures of were the beauty of the sand dunes. Fortunately, Kirk Moore has some wonderful sand dune pictures over at his website. I highly recommend that you take a look. End aside.

By the time we got to the dunes, it was starting to warm up and the dunes were getting very bright. We hiked up about half way, maybe 350 to 400 feet, on sand that got looser and looser.

About the time that the day starting getting really hot,  heading towards triple digits. We got back in the truck and looked for shade. First it was back to the main road and then over the Last Chance Range into Death Valley itself. As we started over the last pass before Death Valley, we started seeing more plants in bloom. First the Beavertail Cactus, also known as the Pricklypear Cactus and probably known as some other names which is why people who like plants and go looking for them in the wild end up using the botanical name. In this case, Opuntia basilarus.  Just as we got to the pass overlooking upper Death Valley, we came across lots of clumps of Desert Aster, AKA Mojave Aster, or Aster mohavensis.

Then it was down into Death Valley, past Crankshaft Crossing, and on to Scotty’s Castle where we had lunch in the shade.

 

 

A trip to the mountains west of Death Valley

Americana, California, Camping, Death Valley, Travel

Last Thursday I, along with my wife Michele and our friends Howard Dunair and Basha Cohen, spent the day driving down Highway 395.  Highway 395 runs from Canada to somewhere in the Mojave Desert.  Between Reno, where we got on to Big Pine, where we got off, 395 runs just to the east of the Sierras. Reno is at about 4500 feet and Big Pine is at about 4100,m but, from Reno, the road climbs to a pass of over 8100 feet so Big pine seems much lower.

The Mojave desert is the the UFO desert, the wacko desert, and it seems to have seeped up the 395 corridor.  About an hour south of Reno, we ran into a guy who was pulling a cross from San Francisco to, I think, St. Louis. He had been saved by Jesus and wanted to save others. Like other people I have met who have been saved, he was sincere, open, passionate, and living so far from my reality as to be incomprehensible. I do admire his conviction, however.

 

Miles later, web got to an overlook and view spot with a guard rail. The guard rail has become a poster board for – for lack of a better word – travel stickers. I think that I first saw a bunch of travel stickers stuck on the windows of a a store – for foreigners – at the edge of the Sahara desert. Now I notice them anywhere tourists pass by, such as a guard rail at a view spot. Here – as Michele poinbted out – was an interesting group that showed one evolution of the Keep Tahoe Blue sticker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we moved south, after crossing the high point of Highway 395, we dropped from one basin to another, each one lower and warmer with the Sierras on our right getting higher and higher. Mile after mile.

 

Finally, at Big Pine, we turned left off of the highway and drove towards the deep desert.

And once we reached Eureka Valley, we stopped to drink a toast to the road.

To be continued….