Death Valley Mar 25-26

Ambitious spring break plans to go out on a solo road trip largely fizzled into a week of getting caught up on work and home, apart from a couple days camping with Heather's family at Furnace Creek. Temperatures were unseasonably exceptional with highs in excess of 104F, which made the middle of the day the best for driving or hiding in the shade or a pool. Relatedly I got a few small hikes in but it was mostly the roadside touristy variety. It had been over a decade since I had been to Death Valley proper so playing tourist was fine by me. 

The first day we hung out at the mesquite-shaded campsite, got pool passes for the ranch resort next to the campground to kill the middle part of the day, then went for a sunset hike through the Mesquite Dunes with Heather and Claire. Hiking through the dunes I particularly enjoyed the various creature tracks and sometimes following them back to their makers (frontispiece).

In the morning Heather, David, and I drove to Zabriskie Point and hiked through the badlands towards Golden Canyon. I enjoyed the many shifting views of the monument of Manly Beacon as we weaved through the drainages and crossed beneath its cliffs. Here I opted to let Heather and David do a downhill through-hike down to the Golden Canyon trailhead, while I ran up a maze of washes and loose slopes to cross-country back to the car drenched in sweat, then drove around to collect them.

Manly Beacon at right

Looking up at Manly Beacon

Back at camp we got organized to drive out to Ubehebe Crater. I was surprised to see that not only was Scotty's Castle closed but also the entire highway through the area, essentially making Ubehebe that much more isolated. Generally the storm damage in recent years has resulted in a lot of key roads and attractions still being closed years later. It was incredibly windy at Ubehebe, which would have been obnoxious except it helped cool temperatures to reasonable. I walked the rim up to Little Ubehebe craters as rogue clouds rolled in and provided wonderfully dramatic shadows shifting across the craters, nicely highlighting the fault that cuts through the crater walls. On the drive back I did a roadside stop to check out some healthy clusters of Cottontop Barrel Cactus.

After a stop at the store, we continued on to Devils Golf Course which I always enjoy, then on to Badwater. We did a quick drive around Artists Drive with a fairly obnoxious fancy 4WD tour crowding the road. The snowy peak of Telescope Peak towering about Badwater gave a dramatic sense of elevation.

Back at camp it was a roasting hot evening. Heather and I walked around the below sea level golf course, laid down on a putting green, and then check out some chunky toads. My plans to go backpacking into Panamint City the following day evaporated as Keith's plans to meet up fell apart. The wind and heat were both suitably obnoxious that I was wide awake at 4am, and feeling fairly defeated, drove direct on home. The cool cloudy morning I arrived to in Riverside felt a world away from the furnace of Death Valley. Thanks to Heather, Chris, and Terry for handling all the food and camping. Hopefully I will get another chance at Panamint City in the near-future.

Carrizo Badlands Mar 9

 

With a group of six, it was back out to the Carrizo Badlands for more mud cave survey and exploration, the third trip of the year. Heather and I arrived the night before for some cold camping, selecting a choice spot and then later being joined by Carol, then Carl. Fredrik and Rob joined at the trailhead and we all set off together.

We had enough people this time to split into groups and most of the way through the badlands, Heather and I split off to finish the survey of Five Star Cave while the others went to explore a new area with potential for a long cave system. 

Looking towards the two branches of Five Star Cave disappearing into the hill

The last passage left to survey was a fairly grim low crawlway to a submergence entrance. Heather lacked enthusiasm and I actually ended up a surveying it solo, slow progress for the short shots and a couple mistakes I made requiring some backtracking. At least the cool cave provided some respite from the sweaty outside world. Eventually around lunchtime I finished, adding 100ft of survey to get the cave to a total of 1487 feet in length, making it the longest mud cave in California. After completing our survey we went looking for the others but did not find them or their stuff at the entrances we expected. We did a pretty unpleasant angle of repose climb up a mud slope that Heather very much disliked. After that excitement and not feeling 100%, we decided to instead head back to the trailhead rather than explore further. The others ended up coming out much later and both groups surveyed though neither find a very high quality cave.

We decided to drive through San Diego for a change with a detour to Casa de Pico for some tasty Mexican food, somewhat marred by some extremely incompetent waiting staff. So all in all it was quite a lot of effort for very minimal surveying, but we did manage to finish the survey of Five Star Cave, the product of seven peoples efforts over three days. Later I drafted the map of what is currently the longest mud cave in California, map below.

Mecca Hills Mar 3

Heather was craving some more desert before things got too much warmer so we opted for a loop hike through slot canyons in the less visited portion of the Mecca Hills east of Box Canyon Road. After parking in the roadside pullout we slogged through deep wash sand, past some neat outcrops of soft-sediment deformation, to finally reach the trail that would climb up to the saddle. Here a clear day gave us nice panoramic views of the barren badlands and the Salton Sea beyond. Down the other side we followed the ridgeline and then cut down to what is left of Sheep Hole Oasis, now four palm trees and no surface water.

In the main wash we past a group of backpacking boy scouts hiking out from an overnight, the only people we saw on our hike here. As the wash narrowed we enjoyed the great exposures of slickenlined fault planes and the tall cliff with its buttress unconformitied sediments resting against multi-colored basement metamorphics. Past some neat bedrock amphitheaters, we reached the subtle entrance to the slot canyon here. As previously it started with an option to either do an awkward boulder climb or a sneaky crawl to get into it. Once past this gateway obstacle the slot was every bit as good as I remembered it with sinuous curves, multiple shades of darkness, and a complex multi-storied maze of twisting rock above. Another awkward section got us into the deceptive slot branch. This was less dark than our previous trip here but we found a nice spot in the cool shadows for a snack and break before continuing on. Though this slot was easily the highlight, the darkness prohibited good photos. 

We continued up until the slot relented, then took the northern branch of the walled wash. This easily led us up out to a saddle where we could cross two drainages to reach the top of the wash draining into The Grotto. The scattered ocotillos were looking desiccated and thirsty but I did find one with unusually low flowers providing a rare closeup view.

After the one mile jaunt over the sparse landscape we dropped into the top of Grotto Canyon. We were quite surprised at how different this canyon was, presumably change driven by Tropical Storm Hilary in 2023. It still had some great scenery but there were several new rockfalls providing new challenges to navigate and the lower grotto section was completely different. Instead of a neat chamber followed by a ladder exit, the area above was filled in with rockfall such that we did not notice we were out of the slot until we were. 

We were doing pretty good on time so I was interested in going down the main wash and up a slot tributary to make a loop of the hike as we had done on our first trip out here. Keith had mentioned a tricky rockfall in the slot canyon, which I was expecting, but this proved to be a more formidable obstacle that I had planned with multiple levels through loose friable climbs, ball-bearing sand, and false floors. After leading Heather to the top of the rockfall pile I decided the descent was going to be even worse for her and so we retreated to go back past Sheep Hole Oasis and on to the car. We had just enough time remaining to grab a tasty meal in Palm Desert before driving on home. 

It was great to get in a ten mile hike and see the changes that had occurred. Overall though it was a much less satisfying, lower quality hike than our previous visit out here thanks to the many new rockfalls. What I had considered to be one of the best day hikes in the state has now been downgraded in my mind, but it is still a special place and a great choice to get away from people.