Tom Grundy's Death Valley Spring 2015 Page

On the way to and from the Red Rock Rendezvous in March of 2015 I went through Death Valley. I first went to Eureka Dunes. The dirt road to the dunes wasn't much fun. It was pretty rocky and also had sections with pretty big washboards. No little section was particularly bad, but 10 miles made for a tedious bouncing trip. When I got there the first few camping areas were full so I continued on around the dunes looking for another spot. There were a few to the east, but they were far away from the dunes, then I got to where it became a 4wd road. It looked like the main reason was soft sand, so I turned around and headed back. I parked on the N side of the dunes and loaded up for a hike.

the road to Eureka Dunes

Eureka Dunes from the NE

As I hiked across the flats towards the dunes I saw a lot of obsidian flakes. This must have been a popular area in the past. Then I saw a Horned Lizard on a rock. Pictures were taken as per usual. Then I started hiking up the dunes. I tried to avoid creating new tracks, but there were already plenty on the dunes. I almost followed a snake track to see if I could find the creator, but it went too much downhill. Mostly the walking wasn't too bad, but there were a few steeper spots where it was like walking up a treadmill. Finally I made it to the top of the highest dune - hundreds of feet (700?) higher than the surrounding desert. Up on top I tried to take some handstand pics among others. Then 3 women on spring break came up from the other side of the ridge. They snapped a few more for me before we headed down the steep face.

obsidian flakes in the desert

Southern Desert Horned Lizard

snake track

trail up the crest of the dune

obligatory handstand pic

diving off the dune

and landing - you can see I got some distance

others on the summit

running and rolling down the steep face of the dune

Heading down was a lot easier, faster, and more fun than heading up. This was especially true for the steepest faces. Once back at my truck I moved to a vacated camping area. Then I went for another sunset hike along the west side of the dunes. There were a lot more obsidian and chert flakes along the edges. I spent a bit of time looking for untracked sand. On the way back I detoured a little farther away from the dunes across some areas that must flood occasionally with mudcracked hard pan. There were some clouds that night, but in between the stars and moon were quite nice. The women were camped by me and we watched the stars and read/listened to an article about people protesting military nuclear sites.

untracked sand just before sunset

the skywatching in the park is pretty good - here is the moon

The next morning I headed back up the dirt road and then turned SE to continue past Crankshaft Junction. This featured a lot of dirt road, but it was mostly in much better shape than the road to Eureka Dunes. Still it was tedious. I stopped at an old mining area that had a lot of sulfur. At middle elevations there were a lot of wildflowers, but not the massive carpet I was hoping for. I went to Ubehebe Crater and jogged up to Little Hebe. Then on to Scotty's Castle where I wandered around and took some pics of the birds. Then I headed on south into Death Valley proper before heading out of the park to Rhyolite ghost town and on to Vegas and the RRR.

wildflowers

the bell tower at Scotty's Castle

On the way back from the RRR I headed across 190 with a short hike up Mosaic Canyon.

Mosaic Canyon

Ubehebe Crater - a maar formed when magma contacted groundwater causing an explosion

Return to the Index Page