Death Valley 2022/23

[MojaveGeek]

I think my earlier post got lost. Just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying this series, and it is helping me get in the frame of mind to plan out my March trip in some details. I had those pictos on my list for last year but didn't make it, so thanks for reminding me to make sure it gets on them this year! I'm just back from 3 weeks + in Arizona and freezing my butt off in Boston... so enjoying the great images! Thanks!!

[DAW89446]

The Universe hung some Xmas lights for me. 

Beautiful. I miss being there at such times ... 

[Daymoth]

I think my earlier post got lost.  Just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying this series, and it is helping me get in the frame of mind to plan out my March trip in some details.  I had those pictos on my list for last year but didn't make it, so thanks for reminding me to make sure it gets on them this year!  I'm just back from 3 weeks + in Arizona and freezing my butt off in Boston...  so enjoying the great images!  Thanks!!

Just missed you! Im in AZ right now. Got some petroglyph fixes but not like finding them in the wild. 

Im also loving this. Im so intrigued about this part of the park now.

[GowerGulch42]

Did some digging. These are geological samples compiled as part of a USGS research project. These were drilled in 1992, and the report didn't get finalized until 2012! Mapping projects like this one, "Geologic Map of the southern Funeral Mountains including nearby Groundwater Discharge Sites in Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada", are both academic and practical (this one sought to understand groundwater flow between Amargosa and Death Valleys) and take a very long time to create, edit, review, and publish. I've been a part of a project up here in the Columbia River Gorge which has been in the heavy field work stage since about 2018(?) and the stuff I've helped on probably won't come out for ten years or so. It's a lot of data to sift through, samples to analyze, and all sorts of i-s to dot and t-s to cross before it's-publication ready.

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Attempted to quote-reply with that picture of the drill holes in the basalt rocks a couple pages back.

[netllama]

Did some digging. These are geological samples compiled as part of a USGS research project. These were drilled in 1992, and the report didn't get finalized until 2012! Mapping projects like this one, "Geologic Map of the southern Funeral Mountains including nearby Groundwater Discharge Sites in Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada", are both academic and practical (this one sought to understand groundwater flow between Amargosa and Death Valleys) and take a very long time to create, edit, review, and publish. I've been a part of a project up here in the Columbia River Gorge which has been in the heavy field work stage since about 2018(?) and the stuff I've helped on probably won't come out for ten years or so. It's a lot of data to sift through, samples to analyze, and all sorts of i-s to dot and t-s to cross before it's-publication ready.

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Attempted to quote-reply with that picture of the drill holes in the basalt rocks a couple pages back.

Wow, thanks for sorting this mystery out. Scientific research takes time to ensure that it stands up to scrutiny and provides value to others.

[Beardilocks]

I think my earlier post got lost.  Just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying this series, and it is helping me get in the frame of mind to plan out my March trip in some details.  I had those pictos on my list for last year but didn't make it, so thanks for reminding me to make sure it gets on them this year!  I'm just back from 3 weeks + in Arizona and freezing my butt off in Boston...  so enjoying the great images!  Thanks!!

Thanks!! Lots more to come soon I hope.  Trying to catch up.  Reception has been even worse than in the past out here.  Argh!!

Also huge thanks on sorting out the mystery holes!   I’m stunned you found that.  I love this community.  

In a couple of posts I have a whole new mystery that needs solving so stay tuned.

[Beardilocks]

Quick Xmas day trip to hike a couple of old favorites: Both Artist Dip Canyons. 


Dip #1.

I’m sorry to say that the monster boulder field has not gotten shorter.  Or easier to climb.  Still a huge amount of fun tho.  










Dip #2:

Interestingly, the flooding last summer has cleared done of the lower canyon of a foot or two of gravel.  But deposited about 2ft of gravel in the upper canyon narrows.  

[Beardilocks]

Here’s a bit of a mystery.  I’m fully stumped and would love any insight.  Since everything around there is Devil themed I dubbed it Devils Sack.  

This location is near McLean Spring/Salt Creek area.  I spotted it on satellite a couple of years ago and wanted to check it out.  It’s along an old road grade through and empty part of the desert west of 190.  




It’s definitely man made.  The cleared area is about 1m wide.  Hard to guess the age (contemporary to the road or older?).  I had wondered looking only at the satellite if it was like someone doing donuts or getting creative with a road grater.  But I would rule this out on closer inspection.  















Benchmark I didn’t expect to find out here right on the old road.  



Any ideas?  Old intaglio that just happened to be in the way of the road?   Something odd shaped parked there at one time that someone cleared the stones to walk around?   I have no idea.

[DAW89446]

My hunch is that it was an old roadside attraction, say 1930-1960. Something along the line of the old Mushroom Rock in the years before it toppled over. Just a pull out and a redwood sign, maybe a picnic table type of thing.

[DeathValleyDazed]

I’m fully stumped and would love any insight.  Since everything around there is Devil themed I dubbed it Devils Sack.  

Loving these images and the area. A metal detector might provide some clues as to what "Satan's Scrotum" is really about but I believe you'd need a NPS permit for that because of how ticklish this area is.