Last Day in Death Valley

Journey to the Centre of the Earth?

Our campsite got quite busy on the weekend, when we had working people and families arrive rather than just the usual retired couples ensconced in their rvs (ourselves included).  Kids were bouncing balls and running around and the evening was full of the voices of people gathered around the fire having a good time (but no drunken rowdiness). The only incident was when someone's pit bull got loose and attacked another dog and the police were called, according to our neighbour.  We missed the excitement, out hiking in some canyon or other).

Our last day in Death Valley was a
nother 2 canyon day. We liked Desolation Canyon because it involved some narrow passages,

Some clambering,

Interesting rock formations,

And then you climb up

And up onto the surrounding badlands until you come out on top with a view of the valley below.

And, yikes,

Not a giant spider but a thorny seedhead!

Later in the day we looked for a canyon our campsite neighbour told us about with an actual flowing waterfall.

But we went in the wrong direction from the parking lot and wound up in Sidewinder Canyon.  There are six side canyons to explore but we only had time for three.

We didn't get far in the first canyon because I refused to scale an 8 ft wall.

The second and third canyons were both slot canyons

and #3 had a natural bridge. 

I managed to squeeze sideways through one section only to find I'd have to wiggle on my belly to go any further.  That was enough for me.

Sidewinder had quite a lot of vegetation

A pretty fringed poppy

and also more birds than we saw anywhere else - rock wrens, Say's phoebe and even 2 raptors.

But after awhile, all these canyons start to look alike.  Time to move on.

Another Day, Another Canyon

Mosaic Canyon, the canyon of the day, was one of my favourites.  It gets its name from a conglomerate called breccia.

There were lots of narrow passages with smooth rock

and it involved a fair bit of clambering over drops

Until we were finally stopped by a 25 foot falls.

 We had lunch

and headed back down.

On the way back we stopped off at Mesquite Sand Dunes.  Very busy here, but again the crowds dropped off the further we walked.

Leo walked up to the highest set of dunes

and took photos of all kinds of animal tracks.

Kangaroo Rat Tracks

Lastly we took in a short canyon with a beautiful natural bridge.

A Break from Canyons

Hah, just found this unpublished post languishing in the drafts!  This happened in early March when we were camping at Death Valley.   

And a new State!  We noticed on our park map that just outside the Park in Nevada was Ash Valley National Wildlife Refuge with a special extension of Death Valley NP called the Devil's Hole. 

We were feeling a little wildlife deprived so made a day excursion out of state. 

Ash Valley NWR was established to protect a number of desert springs  and associated alkaline marshes that were threatened by a proposed retirement community and existing agriculture. 

The springs host populations of 3 endangered pupfish:  the Ash Valley pupfish, the Warm Springs pupfish and the especially endangered Devil's Hole pupfish.

We were enchanted by the beauty of these springs.

Of course, where there's water and vegetation there are birds.  It's a little early for spring migration, but still we saw a lot more birds here in a few hours than in several days in Death Valley.

Bird of the day is the loggerhead shrike Leo took this nice photo of.

And we also have this handsome Lizard of the day:

Species Unknown

Even the reservoir was attractive with its aquamarine water.

We saw quite a few overwintering duck species as well as an egret, a Cormorant and lots of quail.

At Point of the Rock springs we finally saw what the fuss was about pupfish.

Bright blue breeding males. (Best of a lot of blurry photos we took)

Had to check out the Devil's Hole.  We like to call it the pupfish penetentiary.

It's completely caged in to protect the fish and the spring.  The fish live in this cavern and irrigation in the area is restricted to keep the water level up so they can breed.

View of the Devil's Hole

There's even a historical cabin, once home to colourful pioneer, built into the tufa mound of a spring so he could have running water in his house.  Apparently he was on good terms with the local Shoshone tribe and was married to 5(!) Shoshone women (serially, I think).

Longstreet cabin and tufa mound

Later we had lunch in the nearby Longstreet Casino, named after said pioneer.  Food was pretty good but the place smelled of stale smoke just like the good old days. Also home to two new species, mallard ducks and Canada geese.

On the way home we stopped off at Dante's View and made a short hike along the ridge.

Dante's View of Death Valley

In the Badlands

Yesterday we overlooked the badlands at Zabriskie Point and today we got to clamber about on them.  We got up at 6 am to avoid the heat and the crowds, and we were just the second party to reach the parking lot.

We soon overtook the earlier birds and had the hike up Gold Canyon to ourselves.

 Next we walked up to the amphitheater of the Red Cathedral

and then scrambled up onto a ledge that overlooked the Valley floor.

From there we hiked up and down the badlands we'd seen from Zabriskie Point.  We could have hiked all the way up to the viewpoint but elected instead to return to our truck via Gower's Gulch.

The whole hike was amazingly devoid of life.  There's apparently only one plant that grows here:

Desert Holly

We neither saw or heard a single bird, no insects, no lizards.

Our hike was done by noon so we drove to the Timbisha Shoshone Reservation just across the highway from our campsite for delicious frybread.

In the afternoon we did some short walks.  First we stopped at the Harmony Borax Works to look at the remains of an old borax refinery, complete with a 20 mule team borax wagon.  When Leo was a kid he sent away for a model of the 20 mule team, and now here was the real thing!

We also checked out the Salt Creek Interpretive boardwalk.

Salt Creek is home to the Salt Creek species of pupfish which can survive in the briny water.  When the lake that once covered Death Valley dried up, a number of species of pupfish evolved, each suited to the particular minerals existing at the various springs.  Many species are endangered , but the Salt Creek pupfish are in good shape.  The creek was full of them!

They look very colourful on the interpretive displays so we were a little disappointed to see they look like any other minnow!

There was lots of vegetation along Salt Creek, mostly pickleweed which has bladders to collect the salt just like seaside plants.

We hoped there would be some birds around with all this life, but no luck in the heat of the afternoon though we saw heron tracks in the mud.

So we visited the pond at the golf course hoping for birdlife, but pretty dead there too.  Eventually we saw a pair of ravens, some house finches, yellow-rumped warblers, a collared dove and a Say's phoebe.

Death Valley

When we arrived at Death Valley National Park headquarters in Furnace Creek, the main campground was full and by sheer dumb luck we wound up in the "generator-free" Texas Springs campsite.  What a blessing.

By the time we'd set up it was 30 C in the valley so we decided against any hikes.  Instead we did a driving tour of some Death Valley highlights.
First stop was the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level.

The white expanse is just where people have trodden the salt flats down; naturally it looks like this.

I was hoping the Devil's Golf Course was the site I remember seeing pictures of in my childhood: rocks rolling along the flat ground and leaving a track behind them, but instead it was more, extremely lumpy salt flats.

Leo looking for golf balls  on the Devil's Golf Course.

Next we drove the Artists Palette Drive past multicolored hills.

Finally we stopped at the spectacular Zabriskie Point overlooking a fantastic badlands vista.

Red Rock Canyon

We were hoping to get to Death Valley today, but what with taking the wrong turnoff a few times and general fiddle faddling around we couldn't make the park before dark. Fortunately we were driving right through Red Rock Canyon State Park at 5 pm.  They don't take reservations so, together with the fact that it's in the middle of nowhere, although the campground was busy, there were still sites available.

We really liked the park so decided to stay 2 nights.  The campsites are backed up against the hoodoos
and you look down onto a Joshua tree forest.

The next day we hiked up to the top of the hoodoos and then up Whistler Ridge which was made of a streak of black lava.  The desert is not really in bloom but we saw one paintbrush in bloom, apparently the only one in the park.

On the other side was miles of badlands.

Later in the afternoon we hiked up behind our campsite and then down along a wash. Here we saw a jackrabbit and a loggerhead shrike (bird of the day).