Pictures: Lyle Such
Camera: Canon 5d Mkiii
We decided to finally take a short weekend trip out to Death Valley. It's the kind of place that has to be visited at the right time, otherwise you're going to be in for a miserable experience because of the heat. February seemed like a good time, and the forecast was saying 80's and sunny.
We left Los Angeles on Friday night and stayed in Ridgecrest, a city which they call The Gateway to Death Valley. Late Saturday morning we arrived at the Mosaic Canyon trailhead for our first hike of the trip. Overall it is only a 4 mile round trip hike.
Marble walls of the canyon.
After a short nap at the Furnace Creek Ranch following our hike, we headed out for the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. We had originally turned south towards the Badwater Salt Flats, hoping to watch the sunset over the valley, but our timing was poor and we missed it. That's when we headed north for the dunes. As we arrived the sunset viewing crowd was slowly leaving, but we had a little daylight left and worked our way towards the tallest dune. As it got darker, we just found a nice spot and watched the sun go down and the stars come up, then headed back to the car in the dark.
Sunday morning we woke up before sunrise and drove up to Dante's View, a lookout above the main section of Death Valley. Looking across the valley we watched the sunlight creep up on snowcapped Telescope Peak and slowly illuminate the entire valley. It was really peaceful up there, and aside from a couple of other early risers, we had the view entirely to ourselves.
Telescope Peak covered in snow.
Bristlecone Pine.
Death Valley looking North.
Panorama from Dante's View.
One of the down sides to visiting Death Valley is that you're almost entirely seeing it by car. Normally this would be unappealing for me, but it allowed us to see so many different variations of the landscape in a relatively short amount of time. It also saved us from the heat, which we found that even in February could be pretty brutal. Death Valley would be an amazing place to backpack, but sometimes taking the easy way can be a nice thing.
Moon setting over the mountains.
Endless roads, a bikers paradise if the weather weren't so harsh.
Details on the floor of the canyon are often overlooked, but it's so worth it if you just look down every once in a while.
As you're driving along the main roads through Death Valley, every once in a while a turnoff appears, usually rocky or dirt roads that lead up into the canyons. We took one called 20 Mule Team Canyon Road. The landscape was amazing, it reminded me of the Rhyolite mountains along the Landmanlauger trail in Iceland. The colors at first were subtle, but once the sun came out the we could see how every peak had a wildly different color and tone. We took a short hike up a ridge into the landscape and everywhere we looked the view was jaw-dropping.
The Furnace Creek Ranch...not much to say about it. Very family friendly with lots of rooms. I would definitely recommend staying at the resort instead.
After checking out of the hotel for the day, we drove to the center valley where the majority of visitors spend their time. The road stretched out in front of us as far as we could see. After only about 20 minutes we arrived at the Badwater salt flats.
The road to Badwater.
The sign pretty much says it all.
The salt that makes up the floor of Badwater is the reason most people stop here. It's the kind of place that when taken in as a whole, it's an immense, overwhelmingly harsh but grand landscape. What many people miss, however, is the detail. The closer you look, the more intricate the landscape becomes. The fine crystals that you walk over are so tiny and delicate that you almost feel bad that you're walking over it.
Nearby, we found the Devil's Golf Course. I think they overuse the "devil" references in Death Valley, but I guess it is an appropriate theme. This place was terrible, but beautiful. Looking across the expanse of uneven, rocky terrain, we kept thinking how awful it would be to walk any distance across, let alone golf on.
Once again, the details were an added bonus to the already beautiful landscape. I think more than anywhere I've been the closeup view was even better than the bigger picture.
Our final stop was another canyon road called Artist's Drive. Breaking away from the "Devil" theme, this was a more serene landscape, and the paved road gently climbed through rolling foothills then descended through a narrow part of the canyon with amazing views the entire way. The main stop was a section of the mountain called the Artist's Palette. Once again, we were surprised at how much diversity in landscape the area had to offer. The colors creeped up on on us, they have this tendency to blend in with their surroundings because of their subtle nature, but once you're standing in front of them, they are so unique and different from anything you've ever seen.
Finally, we were able to rent a Jeep!
And finally, another quick stop at the sand dunes before we hit the road back to L.A.
