Death Valley Spring 2005

Well, I had been wanting to go to Death Valley for a while after hearing about it from numerous people and this spring was finally my time. Olly Amy and Frazer packed up in their Jeep and Laurel and I jumped in mine for 5 day excursion to some of the more remote parts of Death Valley.

80 miles of tooth jarring dirt roads lead us to a beautiful oasis in the desert called saline hot springs. We sat in 103 degree pools surrounded by palm trees with snowcapped mountains in the background. It was quite beautiful.

Frazer got a chance to drive the next morning on the way up to Steel pass.

A necessary stop along the way.

Coming down from steel pass towards Eureka valley was some fun wheelin.

And at the bottom, the magical 1200' tall sand dunes looked like something out of a fantasy adventure movie. It looked so out of place like some sorcerer had conjured it up.

Surrounding the dunes were beautifully painted hillsides.

Olly and amy had been up the dunes before so we decided to explore a canyon instead. There was a huge alluvial fan behind our camp site. We knew all the rock in the fan had to some from somewhere leaving a canyon behind so we headed up to check it out. Here's laurel climbing up one of the dry waterfalls.

And me climbing down after it got too steep for us all to continue.

We got a glimpse of a large lizard called a Chuckwalla who we read can go its whole life without drinking a drop of water...getting all its liquids from the foods it eats.

The next day we made it out to the racetrack where rocks inexplicably race across the desert floor at the rate of 10s of feet per year. You can see the trail this one left behind. There are several theories on what makes the rocks move but no one knows for sure!

Having fun at the race track.

More fun.

More Fun.

Some more.

The next day we went the lowest spot in the US called the badlands. Something like 280 feet below sea level. It had rained so much this hear that it was flooded with water.

You could walk for hundreds of feet out into the water and it was only a few inches deep.

It got quite calm in the evening leaving this beautiful reflection.