Kangaroo Rat in Death Valley

Every night after sundown a little visitor came around camp. Not pesky like a ground squirrel or chipmunk looking for handouts.  Read more.

Trying to hide

Death Valley National Park Day 1 - Part 2

Highway 190 and the Panamint Range
After we left Mosaic Canyon (yesterday’s post) we drove out of the valley floor into Emigrant Canyon.

Emigrant Canyon
There are many rough looking gravel roads which we passed being in Jeremy’s overloaded Subaru. Yet the road was paved into much of Wildrose Canyon where trails begin up to Wildrose Peak at 9064 feet (2762.7 meters) and Telescope Peak the highest peak in the park at 11049 feet (3367.7 meters). We hiked neither and instead explored the charcoal kilns.

Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
Ten perfectly-aligned stone charcoal kilns each standing 25 feet high with an average diameter of about 31 feet.

Charcoal Kiln
Designed by Swiss engineers and built by Chinese laborers in 1879, these kilns produced charcoal for Modoc Mine smelter, about 30 miles west of here. The kilns closed after only three years of use.

Charcoal on inside of kiln
Workers filled the air-tight kilns with pinyon pine logs and fired them. Stumps can still be seen on the hillsides. The burning, which reduced the wood to charcoal, took 6-8 days. Cooling took another 5 days.

View NW from kilns toward the Sierra Nevada Range
As we headed back down Wildrose and Emigrant Canyons a side trip attracted us. Of course, that’s another post.

Death Valley National Park Day 1 - Part 1

Sunrise from Stovepipe Wells campground
Being in California put me in a different time zone so I awoke early enough to greet the day.

View north of camp
Although the campground itself is just a big desert gravel parking lot the views from the valley floor are breathtaking at $12/night.

Ranger Glenn
First thing, we attended a Ranger talk about adaptation for survival by animals in the extremes of Death Valley, like living without water and hiding underground or in shade from the scorching sun.

Jeremy at the mouth of Mosaic Canyon
Only a few miles away, we next explored Mosaic Canyon with a short hike.

Conglomerate
Eroded basement rock transported by water has been re-cemented together.

Marble
Old limestone from ancient lake bottoms was metamorphosed into banded marble worthy of nature’s sculpture.

Gaelyn in Mosaic Canyon
I could have hiked here all day enjoying the narrow canyon with new sights around every bend.

Leaving Mosaic Canyon
But we had more to see in this vast place of outstanding beauty. More posts coming.

On the road to Death Valley National Park

Joshua Trees along Hwy 93
It was chilly as I headed north on Highway 93 for Death Valley Thursday morning at 9:30.  Read more.

Good Bye Death Valley

Just a quick hellow from a hotspot in Shoshone, California. Don't blink or you'll miss this place.
On my way to historic Tecopa Hot Springs to camp for the night.
Death Valley for three days barely scraped the surface of an extreme place, in every way.
On the way out of the park today I met Mark Alan Meader at Photographic Aspect. What a great surprise.
Still haven't decided where to next.
I'll try to keep you posted.
Sorry I haven't gotten to reply to comments or read blogs, I'll be buzy with that after I return home.

MWT - Last day hike out of Grand Canyon - Part 8

Amy and Jan Indian Garden Camp
I left camp first, but it wasn’t long before they passed me. We had 4.6 miles (7.4 km) to hike with a gain of 3100 feet (945 meters).

Morning light on canyon wall above camp
We met again at 3-mile house.

View south to Plateau Point from Bright Angel Trail
This trail has been used by people for hundreds of years. Native Americans first made the trail to access the spring fed Indian Garden where they farmed. In the late 1800s the trail was widened for tourists and Ralph Cameron charged $1 for its use. In the 1930s the National Park Service improved the trail.

Three-mile house above Jacobs Ladder along Bright Angel Trail
Water and restrooms are provided here and at One-and-a-half mile house.
The steep cliffs of the Redwall Limestone present a major obstacle for trail building.

South Rim at top of fault
However the Bright Angel Fault makes a natural break. The rocks to the west (right) are uplifted 189 feet (58 meters) higher than those to the east.

Second tunnel (from the top)
At this point I am standing at the top of the buff-colored Coconino Sandstone seen in the photo of the South Rim above.

Native rock art
Just before the next tunnel and above the trail is a panel of pictographs.
From here I could tell I was almost to the top because the women coming down had on makeup and smelled like perfume.

Gaelyn, Jan and Amy
Amy and Jan topped out of the canyon about one hour before I did. And I broke my own time out by almost half. Guess I’m in better shape after a summer season of hiking than for the spring hike during training after a lazy winter.

Maggi’s house on South Rim
Ranger Maggi let us stay at her house that night and she drove us to Sophie’s Mexican Restaurant in Tusyan just south of the park where we bought her dinner.

Jan and Amy with Prickly Pear Cactus Lemonade cocktail on El Tovar porch
In the morning we did some South Rim sightseeing and bought a few souvenirs.

Gaelyn with same
Then we boarded the TransCanyon Shuttle at noon which returned us to the North Rim about 5pm.

In total we hiked 24 miles (38.62 km) over four days, a mile down and a mile up. It was awesome!
So would anyone like to join me next fall for a bloggers hike across Grand Canyon?

To see more interesting places from around the world, or to share your own, go to My World Tuesday by clicking here.

Plateau Point Sunset Day 3 - Part 7

Jan and Amy
After dinner at our Indian Garden Camp we hiked out 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to Plateau Point.

Plateau Point Trail
I’d seen an amazing sunset from there during my spring hike.

Jan at Plateau Point
The end of this relatively flat trail offers spectacular views of the inner canyon gorge, North Rim, Bright Angel Trail and the Colorado River.
(Check out the giant cow shadow walking up Bright Angel Canyon towards the North Rim.)

Colorado River
Pipe Springs Rapid at mile 89 is rated a 3 on a 1-10 scale (1 is easiest) and has a 7 foot (2.13 meter) drop. One of the little rapids.

Evening light on Cheops Pyramid (left), Brahama and Zoroaster Temples (right)
Canyon geologist Clarence Dutton gave names from Asian religions to some topographic formations during his 1882 survey of Grand Canyon from the North Rim.

Sunset over the Colorado River
Without clouds the sunset was limited to the west.

Sunset on Brahama and Zoroaster Temples
But the colors of the canyon sang under the evening light.

Last light on Brahama and Zoroaster Temples

Morning light on Bright Angel Trail to South Rim
This is the view of the last stretch of our rim to rim hike across the Grand Canyon. But guess what, that’s another post.