Death Valley's back door (1)

It’s been a full week since my last post, not in my habits. The work hours have been crazy and, most importantly, our hockey team made it to the second round… ;-)

So back to my tales of the desert we go…

Right after the sunrise, my partner and I started our backcountry road exploration. After all, we did rent an SUV just to do that so it was just about time for us to get serious.

The first short exploration we did was in Mosaic canyon, maybe one mile west of Stovepipe village. Ridding on for a few hundreds metres on an easy unpaved road get you to what actually is a hiking trail that takes you in the meander of a marble canyon.

The hike is easy and rather short but walkers have to be careful about the sun and take plenty of drinking water. We did the short hike at 9h00 in April and could feel the harshness of the sun… Can’t imagine doing talking this walk in July or in late afternoon. None the less, this is a fun little walk in a movie like scenery. If you just stop for a second and take the time to look up the canyon, you can almost see the cowboys hiding…

After the walk we continued west on route 190 in direction of Panamint Spring. There we branched off on Emigrant Canyon road. A flat road first took us to the abandoned mining ‘city’ of Agueberry Point. The city is actually a camp consisting of a few abandoned houses :

''Originally the town of Harrisburg was to be named Harrisberry after the two men who found the gold that launched it in 1905. Shorty Harris later took credit for the strike and changed the name of the town to Harrisburg after himself. Nevertheless, Pete Aguereberry, one of the original strike finders, spent 40 years working his claims in the Eureka gold mine. Harrisburg was a tent city that grew to support a population of 300. Today nothing remains of the town but Pete’s home and mine which are located to the right two miles down the dirt road to Aguereberry Point.''

For us however the real interest was the opportunity to walk a few metres in the actual mine. Stepping in there definitely take you back in time… Just don’t forget your headlamp or your flashlight!


After our encounter with gold digger ghosts, we continued our way up to Aguereberry Point. The road up there is amazing and the 4X4 finally got in handy… The trail is narrow and people with vertigo should definitely pass… The road climbs up a near 1900 metres… But boy is it ever worth it!! Seeing the vastness of Death Valley from above is a sight everyone should see. To bad the road was too narrow for us to stop during the ascent cause the pictures would have been amazing! But the sheer satisfaction of simply making it to one of the top was rewarding. Getting out of the car, we were greeted by cold icy wind… Even at noon, it was hard for us to stay out and enjoy the scenery. So we quickly grabbed a bite and slowly made our way down.

H.

Rising moon

We woke up the next morning at around 4h30 AM, early enough to catch dawn and the sunrise.

We decided to drive back to the dunes and boy was it the best decision we made! First we were greeted by a setting thin moon crescent. What a treat! We were expecting a moonless night but apparently we were off by one day… Never so happy to be wrong! Setting up the tripod, I was lucky enough to catch this beauty.

And then we just walked up the dunes again. Nothing beats the immensity one feels when climbing a sand dune. I believe it has to do with how they refer us back to the fragility of life… Nature can turn entire seas and countries into sand… And the all mighty man can’t stop it… One can’t help but feel humble by such force and beauty.

So all we did is just take in the beauty, basking in the slowly rising sun. These moments were amongst my favourites of this entire trip. The landscape was changing by the second, mountains turning red, then blue… The sun was firing the dunes and warming us. For a second there, I felt completely out of time.

Hope you’ll like the pictures… As always, your comments are most welcome.

Next post: hitting the backcountry roads. Happy Monday everyone!

Btw, we won the first round of the series in hockey... Wouhou!! H.

Of Dunes and Star

After about 10 minute drives, the Mesquite dunes appeared to us in the distance, big, beautiful, majestic. We arrived from ‘’behind’’, the dunes already darkened by the setting sun. Seeing soft, white sand felt good and we could not resist the urge to try our luck and drive off road. The trail was unfortunately too soft for us, little inexperienced drivers, so we had to get back on the normal road. We did make time for a little pit stop to feel the sand on our feet.

Although a big thrill this was – fantastic reminiscence of my previous trip to Egypt – better excitement soon came to as we continue on the road and drove closer to the Dunes. The road actually takes you directly next to then. You can park you car on the side and it’s a small 5mn walk to the first, smaller dune.

Since the sun was already low, I stopped myself on the first dune and quickly set up my tripod to start shooting. Unfortunately, he light was not as good as I had expected. The surrounding mountains quickly hid the sun. Although I got some fairly decent shots, the interest at that time was actually the fantastic colours of the mountains. Never before had I seen red, orange or purple summit.

I kept wondering where these dunes came from. All dunes in Death Valley are created by the accumulation of loos sediments coming for erosion of surroundings rocks. Block by the surrounding mountains – Amargosa Range to the east, Panamint Range to the west, Sylvania mountain to the south and Owlshead to the north - these particles just fall in a particular place when an obstacle is to big to be surmounted. It takes years and years of windstorm to create sand dunes like the one seen in Mesquite.

As the sun lay even lower behind the mountain, my partner and I started to feel the shortness of the previous night… As our stress level diminished, fatigue was more and more pleasant. We then decided to drive to Immigrant campground – a small, free camping ground just about 10 miles from the Mesquite Dunes, only to find it already full. With only about 8 spot, that was to be expected, even so early in the season. To tired to drive further away on one of the many back roads, we decided to settle in the Stovepipe ‘city’ camping ground.

With a big, beautiful star filled sky above us, we quickly fell asleep. Too bad the night was going to be short…

By the way: it’s hockey fever here in Montreal and, well, it’s taking a toll on my writing habits… Hopefully I’ll be more consistent next week! ;-)

H.

In the face of death

Hey guys,

We are back to cold and greyish weather here at home… Just what was needed to emphasize what I’ve been crying for the last three days: I WANNA GO BAAAACKKKK!! Thank god for memories…

So after a few hours drive, we arrived in Beatty too late to be able to speak to the ranger as the station apparently close up at 5h00 pm. Maps of the park are available for passer by. We just didn’t see them at the time. So we stacked up on food and water at the local convenience store, filled up the gas tank and decided to keep on going none the less, relying only on our little (bad) photocopied map of the park. We had food, water, sleeping bags, nothing could go THAT wrong.

Entering Death Valley is the easiest thing I ever had to do: from Beatty, you simply follow road 374 right to the park. The park doesn’t really ‘close’ at any time so you can go in and out very freely. Visitors are however to pay their fee at one of the many information station you can find throughout the park. The fee is minimal: 20$ per car, which allows you to stay in the park for up to a week. Considering the quality of the road maintenance and services available throughout the park, this is more then a bargain.

The first miles in the park offer the same scenery then what we had seen on our way there. You have to wait until you reach the first information station for your first glimpse at the immensity of the park. And what a view! At just a little below 4000ft, the desert plains lay there before you, surrounded by majestic mountains that were slowly turning red, thanks for the setting sun.

Our goal was to reach the sand dunes for sunset. At this time, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to make it sine our map was very unclear. We started driving in that direction none the less only to see them appearing after the second turn. What a sight! At that time, our excitement reached a peak as we realised we were indeed going to make it time. We pumped up the music as we drove Gazhala (yes, we did give a nickname to our SUV) towards the dunes. H.

Leaving Las Vegas

Hey folks.
So am back home after a few days away from home to beautiful California and Nevada. Although very short, this little escapade was none the less high in emotion and discoveries of all sorts. The first thing I can say is that Vegas is everything we’ve heard about ‘her’ and more. What a city! Especially when she slowly reveals herself to the night drivers we were…

But that’s another story in itself. After the initial shock of seeing the strips just a few miles next to the airport, we made our way to the rental car facility and picked up our little silver grey SUV to head up towards Death Valley. Thankfully to departure in the middle of the night, we actually were able to arrive in Vegas just a bit past noon. A few pits stop for food and gas and we finally hit the road around two. Which gave us just enough time make it to one of the northern entrance of the park, located right next to the little town of Beatty.

Because we were a little short on time, we decided to take highway 95 straight to our destination. The ride is smooth and rather short but lacks a bit of interest. Thankfully, spring flowers were still blooming, adding touch of colours to the Armagosa desert. As we drove on, the scenery slowly changed and more mountains started to appear in the horizon. With less and less cars sharing the road with us, we slowly but surely beggan to feel the ''roadtrip'' vibe and some sens of isolation.

We were, however, guarded during our entire trip by the snowy top of Mount Charleston. The mountain was by our side most of the ride, with its arrogant snowy cap reminding us how high it is. To see snow when your standing in hot and sunny weather in a tang top is an interesting experience. I taught the contrast was amusing. Little did I know that contrast was going to be the theme of the entire trip… H.