Death Valley Thanksgiving

[RedRoxx44]

Night wraps it's cooling airs around the canyons seemingly early in the winter season. I sit on a large ledge above the small spring fed stream and jungle like growth below, fire in the natural hearth and bivy with bag on the sandy lip. The area is overhung so I am using the bivy for warmth only. The moon rises and the opposite wall is stage lit. I am just outside Death Valley in a wilderness area I have explored before. This canyon is new to me, not much revealed about it. No guide book, not much mention by the online desert rats on the Death Valley boards. I had assumed it would be like it's neighbors. I was wrong.
So much more beautiful, and much more difficult. I examine the carnage. A broken trekking pole, now replaced by a sturdy stick, ripped up pants, and duct tape on the bottom of my REI UL 45 pack, it's second trip only. My foot held up; to compensate I strained my other leg's thigh muscle. But all is well in this quiet evening, the gurgle of the stream, the barely there breeze stirring the greasewood's branches. I turn to warm my back and face the stark rocky walls. I have come a ways but know the mileage is not much due to the difficulty of the obstacles. Mainly huge overuns of grapevines, like tripwires. Need a machete. Traversing the brittle rock walls and talus slopes.
At times wild burro trails save the day and route around the heavy vegetation fueled by the perenial stream. No hiking trail in here. The bottom at times is swept by flood waters, not enough to uproot the offending greenery.
Lower down enchanting narrows, rocky and with changing aluvium are graced with no fewer than 12 waterfalls. Most small 8-12 footers, one 20+ foot one with a little hand foot work to bypass. Beautiful in this remote setting, the desert place, the sun plays hide and seek, and the shadows this time of year everpresent.
I so needed this time, to seek, to have, to be somewhere like this. My blood runs clean inside me, the pollution of life's hectic ways is gone.

I leave the canyon the next day; my goal of the top eludes me but I have other plans and a little mystery is good for one's soul and begs a return.

I drive to Panamint Springs, then up and over Hunter Mountain Road, the route to Saline Valley. Nice and winding in the desert hills, through an anemic then healthy Joshua Tree forest. This road by this time of year is sometimes closed due to snow. Telescope peak is bare so I know I am safe at this time. It is chilly when I get out of the vehicle to take a picture.
I take a fork in the road to drive over the mountain to a different way to access the Racetrack Playa area. I will close a loop via the Lippincott mine road into Saline Valley, then out the Hunter Mtn road once more. Not a stich of pavement this whole route.
The Hunter cabin on this mountain traces its' roots to the late 1800's and the miners of the area. It has burned once and been rebuilt. I locate the side road into dense low trees and drive to a park spot, almost miss the notched log cabin discreet in the trees. The large Jackass spring is also located up here, with a fair sized pool of water just off the road.
The thing I like about Death Valley is lack of signs so the casual tourist has to do some work to see anything out here. The roads are graded, but remain rocky and rutted in spots. I like that. And a lot of the roads are not signed or marked at junctions. I like that too.
I drive to Goldbelt Spring, another mining camp. I will hike upper Marble canyon to the narrows, about 10 miles RT, the next day. I retreat to car camp at yet another mining camp about a half mile off the road in a gentle secluded valley. This was a talc mine, with shaft and tunnels. I park at the entrance to the tunnels. I spend the evening walking among the deitrus left by the miners, and enjoy the moon over the barren hills.
Up early, layered up with the cold, and hike down the canyon. Wash route, filled with blooming brush, and springs without surface water but revealed by the vegetation. A nice surprise two thirds through, an active spring spills water a few hundred feet, and the edges have a wonderful filagaree of ice from the cold night and sluggish flow.
The walls of the wash are tall and pale, the hiking is easy in the graveled wash. I enjoy watching the canyon change, more rocks, different ones. Suddenly a few large old cottonwoods appear, attesting to more ground water, seeming weirdly out of place in this landscape. They are unique here. The narrows soon start, white marbelized limestone, layered in places with chert, then other rock layers unknown to me. The walls are festooned with growth. The walls are mostly smooth, but one area is rough and close examination reveals coalesced crystals, millions of them. I feel time slow here, and I slow with it, my steps slow and thoughtful, I look, touch, photograph, feel my way.
I walk back, the light changing, the sun making it seem later than it is. I continue my journey driving a short distance back on the main road into the delightful Utilda flat, a large smooth alluvial fan that seems brushed gently and evenly. I find another turn off to take me into an old camp by some boulders for another night. Moonrise is beautiful as is sunrise. I visit the nearby Lost Burro Mine, then pass TeaKettle Junction once more, and go to the Racetrack Playa.
Here I decide to take an old mining trail to the Uhebe Peak. I would liken this hike to Picacho Peak in a way. Short, steep, no real trail the final pitch, and a little hand foot climbing sans cables at the end to a sharp summit. It is a cloudy gloomy day, but the views into Saline Valley, the Inyos, and the whole of the Racetrack Playa are well worth it. Even the trail with it's many switchbacks give you view upon view as you climb. I also enjoy visiting an old copper mine on the back side of the peak, the bright green tailings visually pleasing.
My FJ looks lonely and tiny as I ascend. I have seen vehicles, but no one else in the places I have walked. Death Valley is huge and in the back country it swallows the few who venture here on the holiday.
I drive to the end of the playa and walk out there with my camera. If there is any place that gives flight to my alien fantasies; it is this dry lake bed. From the "moving" rocks, to the six sided perfectly symmetrical dried mud plugs, to the seemingly flat landscape, the Grandstand poking out of the sand, it is just an otherworldly place.
I lay down on the surface, the odd shapes poking me I recline and just stare into space. Nearby is a rock that has traveled leaving a smeared place. I ask the rock how old it is, what it has seen, why it is here. Millions of years, is the answer, and it has seen days of sun, days of clouds, days of wind and dust, days of rain, days of waves of heat, days of frigid cold. It didn't have to go anywhere, all of that was right here. It tells me I don't have to travel far to find what I seek. I just need to open my eyes and my heart. My restless spirit comes from elsewhere.
After my counseling session, I am back in the car. Out to close the loop by driving the infamous Lippincott road. In the old days it was signed as extremely dangerous and only to be driven by experienced 4wd drivers. It has been rehabilitated and now is not nearly as fierce, narrow and steep yes, but a beautiful scenic drive to be enjoyed as you journey down to the floor of Saline Valley. I look for the lake, but it seems to have evaporated!! I didn't have time to go back up and check it out, but perhaps is seasonal, as many things are in life.

I drive back over Hunter mountain, settling down to the long drive back. Another place of the heart, I hold close, after all it is only about a 9 hour drive, and that is nothing for one of the worlds' great places. Got to work on another two week time off period, maybe March.
Pictures will be up later, it will be a while.
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You can rest when you're dead

[Arizonaheat]

[desertgirl]

Pictures Letty ?
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Photos: http://www.pbase.com/desertgirl/galleries
Life is but a dream ...there is no end to what you can dream!

[RedRoxx44]

They're up, not so good, plus my lens was dirty. But a great trip; one for the memory banks, nonetheless.

http://www.arizonahikers.com/forum/modules.php?set_albumName=albvm78&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php
_________________
You can rest when you're dead