April 7-13, 2002: Death Valley, California
One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 27, 2024
(Previous trip report: 2001_1213_SouthPlatteKayak.htm)
This report consists of a couple of saved, edited emails I sent...
From: Alan Silverstein <ajs@fc.hp.com>
Date: 15 Apr 2002 18:36:22 -0600
Subject: Death Valley NP report
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
...There's a lot more to the rest of the story of course, about our visit to
Death Valley NP,
but in brief overview the actual order of events was:
-
Sunday, April 7:
I flew into
Las Vegas.
After waiting about an hour and a half in hot sun, I obtained a Suzuki
XL7 SUV instead of a compact car when Dollar was out of compacts. We
made good use of it.
-
I met
Jenny Pruett
and
Greg Carr
in the moonless dark at 8:45 pm at
Texas Spring
campground near
Furnace Creek.
-
Monday:
The
Badwater
hike (see below), about 9:15-11:00 out,
12:00-1:15 back, and a family from LA with two little kids tagged along
with us! Also lots of scenery stops like
Devils Golf Course,
Mars Hill,
and
Artists Drive.
We swam at
Furnace Creek,
watched sunset at
Salt Creek,
and camped at
Stovepipe Wells
(SPW; bad gnats this time).
-
Tuesday/Wednesday:
I started up
Tucki Mountain
from
Mosaic Canyon
at 7:15 am (see below). I kept in touch with J+G by ham radio while
they toured and hiked, until I was down at 2:22 pm the next day. I met
them back at a rented room at the SPW motel. Later we went to
Aguereberry Point
for sunset, and laid in the
Mesquite Flat sand dunes
near SPW under the stars.
-
Thursday:
We piled into the SUV to visit
Teakettle Junction,
Ubehebe Lead Mine,
the
Grandstand,
Racetrack Playa,
Lippincott Lead Mine,
the
Lippincott
4WD road, the
Saline Valley
road, the hot springs (which are incredible but don't tell anyone, it's
a secret), and drove all the way back; out about 10:45 am to 00:05.
-
Friday:
J+G headed home, and I climbed
Tucki Mountain
the back way, by the "Telephone Pole" 4WD road, 1:15 pm - 6:06 round
trip, and later camped at
Texas Spring
again.
-
Saturday:
Sunrise at
Zabriskie Point,
and back to Las Vegas for my flight home.
From: ajs@fc.hp.com (Alan Silverstein)
Date: 16 Apr 2002 00:24:03 GMT
Subject: Death Valley NP report
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
More tidbits from last week there:
-
Low point on the salt flats (-282', 361431N 1164932W WGS84),
shown on the Badwater 7.5 minute topo, was 3.3 miles out from
Badwater.
This time, the second time, I took a GPS so I could confirm my location.
But there was really nothing special out there, no markers or obvious
relief seen. It was cool to know I was at the lowest point in the
western hemisphere, but the scenery looked the same 20 minutes out from
Badwater.
Distance from the low point to the
West Side Road
is about the same... If I hike to the low point again, I'll go from
Tule Spring
on WSR next time. [2023: Haven't yet, maybe never.]
-
Tucki Mountain,
6726', south of
Stovepipe Wells
(at sea level) was an amazingly massive and tedious hill. The trail up
and out from the 920'+ trailhead past the large dry fall in
Mosaic Canyon
(about two miles in, look back on river right) led to a higher part of
the same drainage, thence up a ways to a fork, thence no further signs
of trails or cairns (although I saw a few much higher). The ridge to
the right at this fork led up to steep but straightforward access of the
west ridge of the
Mosaic Canyon
bowl.
After 10+ hours and 5000' with a full backpack, including 20 pounds of
water, I was spent, so I overnighted at the 5920'+ high point at the
head of the canyon (last 400' steep and tough), with a tremendous view
especially down to the north to
Stovepipe Wells
and beyond. There was still 2.1 miles direct and ~1200' more gain to
the true summit!
The next day I spent nearly seven hours descending the west ridge to the
Mosaic trailhead, taking great care to read the map and stay on or near
the correct ridge as drainages appeared -- there was only one way
down here!
Tucki was almost all limestone/marble, in dozens of colors and patterns,
sharply weathered.
-
Tucki Mountain's
easier route was an unnamed 4WD road that takes off at about 2600' on
the
Wildrose
road, when it entered a canyon itself. Look for an unmarked turn left
across the wash, then downhill a mile or so before heading up the
unnamed canyon into which
Telephone Canyon
drains. Good high-clearance road, under an hour to go 9.5 miles to a
fork, and a left here takes you another 1.9 miles over a ridge
(very steep up and down) to the closest departure point at 5450'.
Tucki was still a long hike from here, with difficult
route-finding on ridges and/or lots of sidehilling and/or drops into
drainages (upper
Tucki Wash).
It took me 1:52 up for "only" 1300' gain. Nice view from the top, and
seldom visited.
Around Tucki's summit there was a lot of mineralized white quartz, sort
of anomalous mixed in with the limestone.
-
Racetrack Road
was in better shape than it was five years ago, pretty easy going. The
Racetrack had fewer rocks on it this time, and many of the tracks were
southbound toward the source cliff (north winds?) Also lots of "fossil"
footprints in the playa that weren't there five years ago.
Walking from the
Grandstand
to the south end (while friends commuted in the vehicle) was 2.13 miles
direct (GPS), took 0:50, and was interesting, including a serpentine
swale of darker dirt in the playa with some vegetation (mostly
tumbleweed).
-
Lippincott
road (about seven miles from south of Racetrack to Saline Valley road) was
serious 4WD but passable. It took us about 1.5 hours in the rented
Suzuki SUV. As the sign at the top said, don't try it unless you have
4WD experience. Some spectacular views.
-
Saline Valley Road
was remarkably rough from the Lippincott junction north to the warm
springs turnoff; better south of the junction. Road grading equipment
was parked along it but had done nothing useful (grin).
From the lower springs back to Stovepipe Wells was 37 miles GPS direct,
98 miles odometer, and via the south pass with minimum stops, it took
3:05! This was an amazingly remote area, except for the China Lake jets
that thundered by occasionally.
-
Mars Hill
still had no marker sign, probably never will, but it was at the right
spot on the AAA map now, across from the Artist Drive exit and worth a
short walk to the top to admire. Imagine orange sand instead of brown,
and it's like a Viking Lander photo. [Heard later that the DVNP
superintendent petitioned the USGS Board on Geographic Names to
delete this feature name, to avoid drawing people to the area!]
-
Camping at Texas Spring or Stovepipe was now $10/site/night. Upper TS
(loop B) was closed (plumbing problems?)
A number of other places I revisited really hadn't changed much, which
is something I really like about Death Valley! (grin)
(Next trip report: 2002_0808-11_CataractCanyon.htm)