Death Valley Desolation Canyon, Golden Canyon and Zabriski's Point

Good Evening. We started the day at Desolation Canyon. There are directions to get here, but no sign on the road for where to turn and no signs on the trail.  Relearning how to use our hand held GPS.

Ken working on climbing the first wall we came on.

Ken making his way up after me.

Mid day sun above the canyon. Golden Canyon is just that in color.

This is a lizard called a Chuckwalla. This is a small juvenile. He posed for me. His stubby tail is how they are. It swells up to hold fat for future eating.

Ken went up top to see what was on the other side.

Kicking up some dust as he makes his way down.

Red Cathedral. We walked way back in Golden Canyon to get the the base of this structure.

Long day - got up to 84 degrrees, which for hiking was a little warm for me, but we carry lots of water.

The start to a guided Ranger talk with Ranger Diane to an unamed canyon. 

She had us play a game, we each pulled out three paint chips from a bag and had to find those colors in nature. 

 This is a Creosote bush. Not the creosote you may think of . It is eaten by many different animals here.

 This is Turtleback wrinkled grey/green leaves will have a yellow cluster type flower. Uusally found in the dry washes. That is where we were.

 Cannot remember the name of this one, but the leaves and stalks are sticky to keep critters and insects from eathing it. This one we could touch and it was sticky.

 This is a wild primrose. This one is white, there were also some pink ones.

 This is s cluster primrose.

 Oh boy Stay away from this one. Rock Nettles. It will stick to you and your clothing. No hope to get it off of your clothes. I had to throw away a sock last time we were here. Very Pretty though.

 Sitting in this Rock nettle is a moth with a mouth like a hummingbird.

 Around here, Purple is Poisin. This plant is similar to poisin Ivy. It will give you a rash

 Desert Sage in bloom.

 Love the fine markings in rocks like this. We found this at the end point of our travels in this unamed canyon.

 Afternoon hike on Thursday in Mosaic Canyon. Just Ken and I this time.

 If it were raining you would not want to be in this canyon as water would be rushing down.

 You can see the track in the middle where the rain traveled last weekend just before we got here.

 A narrow section of the canyon path. The rock on either side is incredibly smooth from the water flows.

March 5th hikes - Ranger guided

This little guy is a Zebra tailed lizard. Very fast, and I don't know why he stood still for a pic. They zoom around like you would not believe

 Golden Canyon was a ranger guided talk with history of this canyon as a location that was once paved until the 1978 rain storm that took the road bed out completely. We walked and talked with the ranger for about 3/4 of a mile. Then I went the rest of the way to Zabriskie Point with a couple of other persons I met that day. I was going to go on back by myself, but was afraid I would get lost so an older couple whose wife did not do the walk but met her husband at the end point and drove me back to where our car was sitting.

 One of the sites along the way to Zabriski Point.

 Most of the rocks/mountains along this way are "golden'or shades of tan.

 Panoramic view at Zabriski Point.

 Wednesday Range talk at a side of Artist's Drive people usually don't go to. He was very informative. We kept a good pace while he shared his knowledge of geology.

 The snow capped peak is Telescope Peak. The tallest point for Death Valley at 11,000 Ft. Where we are here at Artists Drive is slightly above sea level.

 I thought for sure I had found a fossil. This is called a Dendrite. imprinted from a plant, but not a fossil

 Salt Water Creek is the home of a small fish called Pup Fish. yes in Death Valley and yes there is water in Death Valley. Their life cycle is just one year. The males have a bright blue tale at mating time. The board walk we traveled on has me a little too far away to get pics of the fish.

 Looking out beyond the board walk. You see the path to the right. We wlaked out alomost to that grey peak you see in the middle of the picture trying to find the source. We turned back and asked the Rangers where it was. We only had another 1/2 to 3/4  mile to go... maybe we will make the trek again before we leave.

More of what we did today 3/7/14 when I get those uploaded. Thursday was another Ranger guided tour of about 4 hours in an unamed canyon. We found many of the flower, learned which to touch and which not to touch.  But I have run out of time and energy to add those now. 

Death Vally - March 3rd & 4th

One of the first walks/hikes was to Natural Bridge Canyon. Simple walk and neat rock formations. 

 Here is Ken standing under the Natural Bridge. We had a few hurdles to come.

 I had to move this rock  for us to continue through the trail.

 This is a rather slanted piece of rock we had to scramble over. There were two other spots I did not take pictures of that were more difficult than this one.

 Badwater - AKA salt flats are concentrated here. But you can see salt deposits come through  different rocks in many locations through the park.

 This 'dock' leads you out to the salt flats. There are signs asking you to not dig holes, but you do see a few. In those holes you find water coming up through it. This location is 282 feet below sea level. The snow capped peak you see in the background is Telescope Peak and is the highest peak in the park at 11,000 ft, .Pretty good for starting at below sea level.

 Here is Ken standing out on the salt flats. The brown areas off to the side are laced with salt and are clumps of sand.

 This is another location with very disrupted landscaped. Devil's Golf Course. Want to tee one up?

 This rough landscape goes on for quite a distance.

 On the tops of this rough landscape at Devils Golf Course is also covered with salt.

 Artist Drive is coming up. Some engineer had fun creating this curvy drive through these hills full of color.

 The colors are lavendar, greens, yellows, tans and a few blacks. All are various minerals found in the rocks. Oh and a few reds.

 This section is called the Artist's Palette.

 The lavendar is really pretty. Not something you usually see in rocks.

 Helen standing near a big purple rock.

 A cave in the area, just crawling out after a little exploring.

 One little visitor along the way. A Zebra tailed lizard. he sure was fast. But once he stopped, I think he thought he was adequately camoflauged, I was able to get close enough for a good picture.

 Just an example of the various colors in the rocks.

 Oh yes and the cost of gas in the park is a bit pricey. This is a commercial station at $5.38/gallon. 20 miles up the road is the station run by the National park service and it is a $1 cheaper. We will plan our visits to go in that direction when we need gas.

 This is one of 50 exhibits of things from the 20 Mule Team Borax operation that used to be here in the Park. They found a larger supply of Borax outside of the park and it was also easier to get to modes of transportation. Yes it took a team of 20 mules to transport the borax out of Death Valley.

 These wheels are steel on the outisde and what appears to be petrified wood for the center. This wagon was part of the Borax operation and hauled heavy supplies.

 Tuesday morning was a Ranger guided walk at Golden Canyon. Some history and some geology. Did you know that Death Valley was once a 600 foot deep lake?  You can see the sedimentary layers on the rocks.

 When the talk was done, I hiked to the next point about 4.5 miles away to Zabriski's Point.  There were a few others that also made the trip. Ken was back in the room, he had an upset stomach last night and did not hike today. Once there. The others I was with had cars waiting for them. I would either have to ask for a ride back to the other parking lot or trek back alone. I did ask and did get a ride back. The way is marked (sort of ) and I probably would have made it. Had plenty of water, but had not brought the snacks with me.

 The formations of the rock is amazing at every turn.

 The color variations - shades of brown, is amazing.

One of the other hikers took my picture. the structure behind is called the Cathedral.