Death Valley National Park

Spring Break Trip, Part 2

Dates: Mar. 20-23, 2024

Crew: Yisha Ng, Monica Mah, Ben Hall, Kai Cui

Locations: Death Valley NP, Rhyolite Ghost Town

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

After departing Valley of Fire, we made a beeline to Death Valley's furnace creek entrance, racing against the setting sun to get there before dark. We wanted to see sunset over a rare sight: the transient Lake Manly, which has rarely appeared long enough to plan for it. We had a big list of things to tick in the park over the next 3 days, with some classic hikes, viewpoints, scenic drives, historic sites, and camping. Then on the way back out to Vegas, we would stop by the Rhyolite ghost town, a mining town that rose and fell in just a decade form 1904-1913. Then we would drop off Kai to head back to Houston, and pick up Sean to resume the trip as a climbing trip!

Normally, Badwater is just a desolate salt flat of white crust over mud plates, and a very small spring fed pool that accumulates salts from the surrounding valley (it's "bad" because it's completely undrinkable/unusable from these salts). Catch it at a rare moment after heavy rains though, and the basin is covered in a few inches of water, transforming into the ephemeral "Lake Manly." The huge amounts of snowfall in the winter had turned into enough meltwater that Lake Manly was there for weeks by the time we showed up. 

Following the small muddy trail from the boardwalk down, we left our shoes and ventured barefoot into the salty lake. The perfectly flat valley floor meant no more than 4 inches of depth anywhere we walked, but the salt crystals at the bottom were sharp and constantly slicing into the soles of my feet, which the saltwater then made into a lovely burning sensation.

Plenty of photographers were out, using tripods to get long exposures and smooth any ripples in the lake's surface. Everyone was constantly trying to get the furthest out to get other people out of their shots, so I gave up that game quickly and settled for finding unique shots in my surroundings.

With darkness falling, we backtracked the road to the main park junction, and went to our campsite in the Furnace Creek Campground right beside the Visitor Center. The campsites were all packed full but the stars were out and silence falls the same in the desert no matter where you are. Luckily it wasn't too cold, so my new down quilt was plenty sufficient for the desert night.

Day 2: Canyons and Craters

Zabriskie Point

Waking well before dawn, we left our campsite and drove out to Zabriskie point, a famous lookout over the badlands, salt flats, and Panamint mountains. A short walk up a paved trail led us to a viewing platform already crowded with other tourists. We stayed down from there and chose to roam the hillside below instead for a bit of privacy.

The rising sun painted the Panamint mountain peaks blood read before easing to golden light and sprawling over the badlands. These brown and tan striped hills have sharply regimented ridges in them, which cast patterned shadows from the low-angled sun. The tallest point in the badlands is Manly Beacon, an 800-foot pyramid of dirt.

20 Mule Team Drive

After the sunrise fireworks were over, we left the crowds and set out on the bumpy and dusty 20 mule team drive, which follows the path the old mule teams used to take as they hauled Borax out of death valley for sale. No doubt it was miserable with the valley 100+ degrees, riding behind 20 ass's asses through the scorching dust. Fortunately, we had a/c and the joys of modern suspension. When we found pulloffs from the winding narrow trail, we went into the hills on foot to marvel at the many shapes and colors left by old volcanic and mineral deposits.

Dante's View

Tired of being down in the basin and the badlands below sea level, we put our car through its paces by driving up to Dante's View 5,575' above. This is the top of the Black mountains, which bound the Eastern edge of the valley. From almost 6k above the waters of Lake Manly, we could see colors swirling in the surface of the mineral-rich water. The Panamint mountains on the Western edge rise even higher, snowcapped and stunning. It was even cold up there with a stiff breeze blowing.

We scrambled down the ridge about a half mile and ate our lunches with a panoramic view. The salty basin reflected bright white and lit up the surrounding mountains with a hazy glow. 

Artist's Drive

Another classic drive was on the docket with Artist's drive - a looping path through mineral-laden hills that create a literal palette of pastels to inspire onlookers. Parts of Star Wars were filmed here for the alien environment. Iron in the soil creates red, orange, and pink shades, mica and copper create green, and manganese even creates shades of purple.

We hiked out a winding loop through the hills to get up close and personal with the palette. The sun was beating down at this point and there is absolutely no shade to be found, but the views were too good to pass up.

Once we reached the trailhead for mosaic canyon, a short walk from the parking lot led to the canyon entrance. Smooth white walls of dolomite engulfed us, polished clean by countless flash floods over the years. Parts of the walls are "Mosaic Canyon Breccia," which is where the canyon gets its name. These sedimentary formations have a mosaic of colorful rocks locked into natural cement. 

The floor of the canyon is a flat gravel walkway, which seems unnatural at first but is actually the runoff debris from flash flooding that has choked the canyon. There were iron handrails and rungs pounded into the canyon walls, and some were mangled and twisted from the violence of past flooding, where others were barely visible above the ground level from all the fill that has made its way into the canyon in the 50 years since they were placed.

As we ventured deeper in, the canyon walls got taller and taller until we were in a world of our own. The canyon has 3 pinch points that can turn you around if your group isn't able to maneuver them. Each one is a progressively taller "dry falls," a place where a waterfall would form when water is flowing in the canyon over smooth ramps and drops of polished diorite. 1.3 miles into the hike, we hit the first falls and scrambled around by squeezing and climbing between boulders. Then a quarter mile later is a 20-foot sheer wall that would stop you if a footpath hadn't been dug into the cliffside to circumvent it.

After the second falls, the canyon opens up massively into a vista view, with a wide open sunny bottom. We saw lots of fat chuckawalla lizards sunning themselves and scurrying into nooks as we hiked past. Finally, we reached an amphitheatre where the third falls emphatically ended the hike with a 30-foot sheer cliff and no way around. After a few low-effort attempts at climbing the face, we turned around to make it back out of the canyon with shadows falling long in the evening.

Ubehebe Crater

Today's sunset locale was the massive Ubehebe Crater, a volcanic crater just a few thousand years old. At half a mile wide and 600 feet deep, it goes into shade quickly as the sun goes down, the eastern rim glowing gold with the mountains behind it. The wind was absolutely ripping though, to the point of almost pushing us over as we approached the rim. It was difficult to appreciate the view for too long without retreating for temporary shelter.

Despite the wind, we tucked our heads and traversed the rim to get a glimpse of little Hebe, a smaller satellite crater that was much less of a commitment to go into. The walk was still punishing, with sand and even small cinders picked up by the wind and whipped at us. I tucked my camera into my jacket to protect it, but my eyes were viciously assaulted. At the top of the rim, Monica decided to go cartwheel into little Hebe, while Ben showed the power of the wind by almost losing his sweater to it.

With the sun gone, the yawning crater seemed endless now. We retreated to the wind shelter of the car and drove to our last stop of the night - Mesquite Flat Sand dunes. The full moon rising overhead gave enough light on these rolling dunes that we didn't need headlamps as we ventured out. I made sure to find some landmark trees and sticks as we hiked through the sand though, or we may have gotten very lost. 

It did end up taking us a few tries to crest the correct dune that gave us a view of the distant parking lot before we made it back to the car, shaking sand out of every fold of clothing. We camped at Texas Springs, just across the road from our previous night's area, but tonight the wind came down from Ubehebe Crater to visit our camp with a vengeance. It was a long night of battering as the tent tried to fly apart...

The wind was so punishing and the night had been so long that we bailed on plans to make a meager breakfast in camp and went to the 1849 Ranch buffet. I settled for just coffee, but being sheltered was nice. Then it was time to leave Death Valley behind and head back to Vegas. One stop remained in the Bullfrog Hills of Nevada- the ghost town of Rhyolite.

Driving to the outskirts of town, we made our way through the numerous modern art pieces that have been scattered in the landsape, including a series of ghostly figures. Ramshackle ruins of former miner shacks give way to the Tom Kelly house, which he built in 1906 from over 50,000 glass bottles. Then the rest of town unfolds in a valley between mountains made of loose piles of slag. We wandered from the huge bank building ruin with its columns to the old train depot, and over to the jail, with its heavy iron doors and window bars still keeping it secure after a century.

Ben, Monica and I made a trek up the close hillside to see the old mineshaft entrances, which were all blocked off with iron bars. From up there, we also had a great view of the town, an empty grid of roads with ruins of only the largest buildings still visible. Shadows from the cumulus clouds passing overhead painted the mountains black while the sun shone down on us. A perfect day.

That wrapped up the Death Valley portion of the trip, and we whisked Kai off to the Vegas airport and awaited Sean's arrival to transition to the climbing half!