Trip Report: Spring Break in Death Valley 2007
During the past few years I’ve become addicted to Spring Break Death Valley trips. Two years ago I was there briefly during the historic wildflower display that drew thousands of visitors. Last year I spent a longer time there and managed to get out to the Racetrack. (See Trip Report: Spring Break in Death Valley 2006. This year I left the SF Bay Area for Death Valley and returned four days later, having taken over 500 photographs. (Some of them will appear hear and at my photography web site over the next few weeks.) Here is a brief report on my trip…:
***Sunday
– I departed reasonably early, though not before the crack of dawn. In truth, dawn may have actually cracked a few minutes before I left the garage. I followed I-5 down the San Joaquin Valley, heading east through Bakersfield and climbing over the southern end of the Sierra at Walker Pass. After a stop for lunch in Ridgecrest I headed on up toward the Panamint Valley via Trona, taking a brief side excursion out to the Trona Pinnacles. (Note to self: Return to the Pinnacles with camera equipment very early/late in the day or during interesting weather conditions.) I turned right at Hiway 190 and crossed Towne Pass and descended to Stovepipe Wells. During the drive I had given some thought to heading straight out to the Racetrack (that’s what I did last year) but decided that I would likely arrive to late for late afternoon and evening photography. Instead, I stuck to my original plan and got a campsite at the Texas Springs Camp, the cheaper tent campground near Furnace Creek. After getting my crude camp set up and having some dinner I headed out to try to photograph sunset back near Stovepipe Wells and to try my hand at night photography on the sand dunes.
The dunes were an interesting experience. Although there was a full moon, it was obscured by clouds – so it was pretty dark hiking out the dunes. Fortunately I could see the lights of Stovepipe Wells 90 degrees to my left, and I kept encountering other night hikers. I finally reached the top of one of the dunes, though not the highest one, and stopped to take a few long exposures before heading back to the car and then back to camp.
***Monday
– The big goal for the day would be getting out to the Racetrack, but there was plenty of time in the morning to do other things. As I do when I’m looking for morning photographs, I got up before the sun rose, ate a snack, and headed over to Zabriskie Point to photograph sunrise. For photographers Zabriskie Point at sunrise is to Death Valley what Wawona Tunnel View at sunset is to Yosemite – basically a very popular place to shoot. It was a wonderful sunrise – better than I expected – but I was surprised that there were few photographers. In fact, I was the only one in the area below the overlook where many photographers wait for the sunlight.
After most of early light opportunities had faded here I went down to Badwater and took some photos there – nothing really astonishing, but I did get out onto the salt flats far enough to photograph the salt formations in soft light under some overcast. On my way back toward Furnace Creek I detoured though Artist Drive, but by now the light was becoming pretty difficult so I didn’t stay long. (This is probably best shot in the late afternoon, but before the sun drops to the top of the Panamints across the valley.)
Finally I arrived back at Texas Spring and quickly broke camp and loaded the car. By now it was definitely time for a real breakfast, so I treated myself to one at Furnace Creek before heading up the Valley toward Scotty’s Castle. I stopped there briefly to check my maps and take care of some final business before heading out to the Racetrack.
The Racetrack is famous for the “moving rocks” that leave tracks across portions of the playa. Although many people drive out there and back in the middle of the day, they are really missing the beautiful light of evening and morning, the best times to photograph the area. My plan was to arrive early enough to begin shooting in the late afternoon, continue with some night photography under the full moon, and then get up early the next morning and shoot the sunrise.
The route begins on the paved road to Ubehebe Crater, but after that a 27 mile gravel road begins. It isn’t the worst road in the world, but it is pretty rough. I’m glad that the Park Service keeps it that way – otherwise the area would probably be overrun in no time. In fact, after driving the horrible washboard surface of the first few miles, I am suspicious that they are happy to let it deteriorate a bit to discourage at least some of the drivers. In any case, after two hours of difficult driving I arrived at the Grandstand, the rock formation at the end of the Playa. I photographed there a bit before driving to the small parking lot at the far end of the Playa near where the largest collection of “moving rocks” is located.
Although there is a “campground” a few miles further, many people simply sleep in their cars at one of the turnouts at the Racetrack. Frankly, the campground is little more than wide spot in the road – it has no water and it adds another 6 miles of driving on the gravel road. I was lucky enough to meet two interesting groups of fellow visitors. One was a group of Death Valley hikers who make a habit out of hiking and backpacking all over the Valley. The second consisted of June and Bob, trombonist and photographer respectively, who parked next to me and we kind enough to share their dinner and their company.
As expected, I spent a few hours photographing on the Playa as late afternoon light faded to darkness. After a short break I returned to the Playa to make a few photographs under the full moon.
***Tuesday
– I got up before dawn, grabbed my camera gear and a bottle water and headed back out onto the Playa. The morning light goes through a whole series of interesting phases at the Racetrack. First there is the subtle pre-dawn light. Then, since the sun risen behind a range of peaks to the east, higher peaks to the north and west pick up the sun. Eventually the light starts to shine across the far end of the playa and works its was towards the south end. Finally, in full sun many subtle rock tracks become visible and the Playa takes on a more stark appearance. Then it becomes too bright and too hot to continue.
I headed back to the car, packed up, and made the two hour return drive to Ubehebe Crater and then stopped at Scotty’s Castle to eat lunch on the shaded lawn there. I more or less made a decision to head back to Texas Springs, but having quite a bit of time to get there I made a number of stops on the way. I visited several places I had passed by previously, including the mouth of Titus Canyon and Salt Creek, where the thousands of pupfish were swimming madly in the shallow water. I got my campsite at Texas Spring, ate dinner, and did a brief jaunt down to Artist Drive, getting there just in time to shoot an interesting rock formation before losing the light. I headed back to Furnace Creek and had a chance to see the “American’s Best Idea” photography exhibit, featuring photographs from al 58 national parks. Before going back to Texas Springs I tried to photograph Zabriskie Point under moonlight, though a strong wind made it difficult.
***Wednesday
– After getting up early and photographing at Zabriskie Point one more time, I went back and broke camp and started to make my way out of the Valley. I did stop to visit Mosaic Canyon, taking long enough to hike up to the first big bend in the slot canyon and take a few pictures before returning to my car and starting the long drive home. Funny moment: As I was setting up to take a photo looking back down the canyon a woman in a group from American River College started to upbraid me for taking unnecessary risks. I decided that she probably meant well – even though she was way out of line – so I just made a friendly reply and went about my business.
I headed out via Hiway 190 to Owens Valley and Hiway 395. Although I knew already that this has been a poor snow year in the Sierra, I was somewhat stunned by the extremely thin snowpack in the southern part of the range. After a stop in Bishop for my first espresso in several days, I continued north, eventually crossing the Sierra via Monitor and Carson Passes.
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Summer 2007 Starts to Take Shape
(An old article – posted here so as not to lose it during the site transition.)
Every spring (I know, it isn’t spring quite yet) I start to look forward to a summer (and fall!) of trips into the Sierra Nevada.
Some of my favorites are short, relatively spontaneous trips, often lasting only one to three days. Fortunately, I’m close enough to the Sierra that I can actually get to some quite interesting places and back home in one (very long) day. I often do one of these in late May or early June – my so-called “Waterfall Trip” to Yosemite Valley. I’ll likely do something similar once Tioga Pass opens and that part of the high country becomes accessible.
I usually also do at least one longer, more organized trip. This summer it looks like I’ll have at least two of those on my schedule.
The first is a sort of trip I haven’t done since my kids were much younger and would backpack with me. My brother and his wife have three young sons who need to experience the real mountains of the Sierra Nevada. (Yeah, I guess there are some mountains in the state of Washington, too. ;-) They asked me to design an introductory trip for them. My first instinct was to head to the sort of place I like so much – over a 12,000′ eastern Sierra Pass and into the alpine country right around timberline. Fortunately, I thought better of that – small kids with altitude sickness at 12,000′ can wreck a trip quickly – and instead we are going to spend the better part of a week in the area just east of the Minarets and Mounts Ritter and Banner. We’ll do a “base camp trip,” staying at Lake Ediza for a few nights and then shifting over to Thousand Island Lake. These locations will let us explore some very interesting terrain around Ritter and Banner and in the Minarets area.
The second trip is a bit more hard core. The Talusdancers gang are going to enter the Sierra south of Mt. Whitney in the Cottonwood Lakes area and then head north and past the Mt. Whitney vicinity into the upper Kern, eventually exiting over Shepherd Pass. I’ve wanted to get into Shepherd Pass for many years and I’ve come close on the west side of the pass a few times, however the pass has a fearsome reputation as one of the more brutal eastern approaches to the southern Sierra crest. On this trip I’ll get to cross Shepherd… but we’ll use it to exit rather than enter.
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One photo from the Las Trampas hike
Last weekend’s Las Trampas hike was great fun… but didn’t inspire me to do a lot of photography. (I was, however, inspired by the area. Even though I took few photos I was thinking about shots for a return trip in better conditions.) In any case, here is one photo of the gang at an early high point on the trail.
Las Trampas Trampers. Left to right: Tom, Randy, Tom, Russ, Tom, Ruth Ann. February 3, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
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Weekend Hike #2
Today I got up later (6:30, which is late for me) and didn’t get away until about 9:30. I decided to check out Uvas Park which is located a bit further south than my usual hiking location at Calero Park. Although I have been up the road to this park a couple of times over the years, this is the first time I have hiked there.
After driving through the village of Sveadal (what is that place about?) I arrived at the park and decided not to do the typical waterfall loop that the park is known for, but to instead take the very steep trail to Nibb Knob and Summit Road.
And steep it is! The average incline seems steeper than Mission Peak and the English Camp trails, two area trails that I think of as somewhat steep. The climb is unrelieved; there are no downhill sections on the way out, and only a few where the trail becomes briefly less steep. Being steep, the trail fairly quickly climbs out of the lush vegetation in the valley near the park headquarters and then follows ridges toward the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
I passed the lateral to Nibb Knob on the way up and continued on to Summit Road, hoping to find something interesting there, like perhaps a view to the ocean. No luck. The trail tops out at a dusty dirt road about 50 feet from where it ends and across the way from a fairly ugly homestead full of old trailers and cut up wood. I investigated for a couple minutes before descending back to the Nibb Knob lateral, which I climbed to the summit where I took a lunch break.
The rest of the descent went quickly – much faster than the ascent – and I was soon back at the park headquarters, having taken exactly zero photographs. It may have been the harsh midday light or perhaps I just felt like hiking, but I didn’t even take my camera out of the pack.
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Weekend Hike #1
After an early January that did not allow for much in the way of hiking, I finally got out for (almost) the first time yesterday. I was up early and down at Calero park just as the sun was coming up through the morning fog. I quickly loaded up the camera pack and headed the short distance to Los Cerritos pond, thinking I might stop for a moment there before heading off on a long hike.
As I arrived at the pond I thought it might be interesting to take some photos of the foggy dawn, and when a large white egret flew up from behind some reeds at the edge of the lake I decided to set up the tripod and see what might happen.
I didn’t notice how much time had passed – though I did notice how cold I was getting – until almost an hour and a half had passed. Fortunately, I think I got some interesting photographs at this usually nondescript pond, including a couple I posted earlier.
I finally dragged myself away from the pond and made it up the Pena trail to a hill top where the sun was just breaking through the fog. After stopping here for another half hour or so of photography I realized that I was not going to have time for my original hike plans.
Instead, I decided to do explore a cross-country route along a fairly level and open ridge. During most of the year I would not try this since hiking through the tall grass is almost more trouble than it is worth. However, each winter there is a period of a couple of months between the time that last season’s grasses fall over and the new growth begins during which one can hike almost anywhere along these open grassy ridges. So I explored, finally arriving at a trail fairly close to where I had started.
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New Years Day Hike Reminder
A quick reminder that Tom Mangan (of Two-Heel Drive fame) is helping coordinate a New Years Day Hike here in the South Bay and Peninsula area. Don’t worry, this one starts at a very reasonable mid-morning hour that even New Years celebrants should be able to handle.
Start time is 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 1, 2007.
Rain does not cancel (at least not for me).
It’s at Monte Bello Open Space Preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
I’m planning to be there. More information, including directions, at Tom’s site: http://tommangan.net/twoheeldrive/archives/2006_12.html#003324
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Mission Peak Shadow
Randy, John, Tom. Thanksgiving Dawn Hike, Mission Peak. November 23, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell
Randy, John Fedak, and Tom Mangan contemplate the dawn shadow of Mission Peak.
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Two-Heel Drive Reports on Our Thanksgiving Adventure
Tom has posted a trip report over at Two-Heel Drive, thus diminishing my obligation to describe our trip in detail:
Turkey Day dawns at Mission Peak. So much for the full moon. Actually there was no moon at all when I got to the Mission Peak trailhead and saw a couple parked cars and shadows of headlamp-wearing humans milling about. John Fedak is the first face… [Two-Heel Drive]
Tom got some great photographs as well, so wander on over and take a look.
I think we were surprised by the high winds and cold conditions on the summit. The majority of the uphill hike on the west side of Mission Peak before dawn was seasonably cool, but nothing surprising. However, once we crested the ridge just north of the peak we were hit by quite a wind and the temperature dropped quickly.
The summit was surprisingly cold. I was OK in my poly layers and a shell, but just barely. Randy was shivering by the time we started down. Tom Clifton seemed to be the best prepared, sitting in the lee of a large rock and cracking open a thermos of hot coffee.
Twelve hours from now…
… we may be starting to think about our descent from Mission Peak after enjoying the sunrise (or its cloud-covered surrogate) on Thanksgiving Day. (Early-rising and energetic Bay Area residents are welcome to join us!)
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Autumn in Seattle
I was in Seattle for a family visit this past weekend. I had not been there before at this time of year and I had no idea that the fall colors were so spectacular there! I think I probably got in on the very end of it, but there were golden trees everywhere; downtown, around Lake Washington, out in the Redmond/Woodinville were I visited.
Do Seattlites know how spectacular this is?
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