One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: April 3, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1992_1218_CostaRica.htm)
Death Valley NP was one of my favorite places on Earth. [As of this writing] I'd visited there periodically for 19 years. One January week I gave myself a full five days to play alone in the Valley with a rental car and camping gear. It was great, very fun and full and rewarding... A hiking orgy... Nine significant hikes, about ten shorter walks, over 24 hours afoot, over 32 miles travelled.
Relax, this is not a regular trip report... It's not that organized (grin). I just want to ramble for a bit about some of the neater experiences I had there, for the pleasure of others who've been there and who can relate.
The Valley got a quarter of its annual rainfall the two weeks before I arrived -- all of 1/2"! (I got lucky and had clear though cold weather.) The salt pans were flooded! West of Badwater there was a reincarnation of Lake Manly. [Years later I learned that technically it's the return of Recent Lake.] It was four miles wide, ten miles tall, ten inches deep, and 280' below sea level! All saturated brine. I waded half a mile into it, barefoot. A bit out from shore the bottom turned from slippery mud to slightly silty salt plates.
What a kick! Standing in the middle of an enormous reflecting pond, surrounded by one-to-two-mile high mountains. I didn't dare sit down or drop anything. The water felt cool and thick and didn't burn (except for a few blisters from hiking).
There were ponds all over the valley floor. It was gorgeous. I'd never seen it like that before. At the south end of West Side Road, a mile from the paved highway, the river was flowing wide, deep, and noisy, north into the basin, a "bathtub without a drain."
I explored the colorful badlands between Golden Canyon and Zabriskie Point. I found two of the most incredible places I'd ever encountered at DVNM or anywhere else. One was on the north ridge of Manly Beacon late in the day -- a fun spot to seek as you walk through the gully maze below. The other was an awesome alcove nearby. (If you go there be gentle on the fragile terrain. Stick to beaten tracks and don't destroy nature's cathedral.)
I also spent a night atop remote Funeral Peak, 13 miles from pavement plus five miles cross-country with a 2500' gain... Wow.
(Next trip report: 1993_0619_MountNeva.htm)