Death Valley 2022/23

[Beardilocks]

Back to exploring:

I stopped by this DVII/III location near a spring the other day just to check it out.  Im quite sure most of you can identify the location, but keep it under wraps as it is a sacred site.  

I’m not sure what to call it exactly.  Alice Hunt calls it a “Burial Mound Area”.  And with over 20 suspected burial mounds here, that’s not wrong.  But there’s also maybe 4 dozen rock circle/pit/clearings of unknown use scattered willy-nilly around, a few clear sleeping circles out at the edges of the site, several indecipherable cairn alignments, as well as illogically placed hunting blinds… So the full scope of this site is hard fathom.  But it’s definitely very special.  


Burial mound


Rock circle



Strange cairn rock alignment 


Some of the “cairns” are obviously fallen stacked rocks.  Others appear to be more like stacked rings.  The rings seem to all have a stone sitting directly in the center.  But whether that’s incidental or purposeful is anyones guess.



Another strange alignment.  This one appears to be two cairns flanking a ring.  Definitely haven’t seen that configuration before. 


What appears to be rocks stacked around a mortar stone.  One hole was almost 8” deep.  



This area was very odd.  It’s in a rather tight wash between benches.  It has what seems to be a burial mound next to or including a huge boulder and 3 or 4 rather elaborate hunting blinds all facing each other and not at all where you would expect to find game coming through.  Also, the only petroglyph in the area.  This wash is also between two benches with elaborate alignments on them.  A memorial of some kind?  Who knows.  All the other burial mounds are out on the fan in the open. 











One of two obvious sleeping circles that I noted. There could be more further up the fan. 


Not really a lot of pizazz visually like Picto sites or geoglyph sites.  But it packs a pretty big wallop for significance and gravity.  I wish I knew the correct Shoshone words of respect to say in a place like this.

[MojaveGeek]

This looks like an extensive and somewhat subtle site. You would think that putting work into a wash would not be goo for something which is to have a long life though. But I guess the evidence stands, that it's long in terms of human lifespans.

[Beardilocks]

Most of the fans and drainages out here haven’t seen water in at least 10s of thousands of years.  It’s been a REALLY long time since there was a high enough water flow to really move too much around.  Seeing how little really changed after the floods last summer was an eye opener.  As well as reading Charles Hunts book. 

I am curious how last summers floods compared to the flood in 1969.  If anyone can direct me to that information.

[Beardilocks]

And now a Failure Report here in several ways.  Lol.  I did not find what I was seeking (evidence of those that went before us) but was rather surprised by what I did find: gorgeous badland type geology.  Thanks Salt Creek!   And I’ll be back for the rest.  You can’t keep all your secrets.  

Old road cut to SPW with a cairn for some reason.  
 



If you turned at that cairn and then turned west you’d make these tracks:


The interesting thing about these is the tread width was about the size of my palm (~3-4”) and only about 4.5-5ft wheel track.  30s tourism? 

Cool canyon I didn’t expect 



Awesome badlands








I followed several old Native American trails in the area. 


Walking back to my truck full of a confusing mixture of beauty and disappointment.  

[TacoLand]

I'd be interested in hearing what your daily routine is like – food, camping, ins & outs of the Park for supplies, showers, etc. Maybe something you can touch on after your adventures conclude?

In the past I've gotten a little stir crazy after a week or so on my own, but in those rare instances I've also found myself limited by a minor injury so can't bash out hikes all day every day.

[DAW89446]

I think you touched on it early in this thread, but I’d also be interested in finding out about your cameras. As well as the logistics of how you’re uploading your large and clear images with whatever data sources you’re using.

[TacoLand]

Mar. 2019 I was able to get high-speed internet 4G with 4-5 bars no problem on my iPhone with Verizon wireless in the Owlshead region. Was able to upload high-res images and send video. Can only imagine service has gotten stronger on the edges of DVNP since then ... and then there's Starlink.

[DeathValleyDazed]

I'm enjoying your trip report and images. This is my favorite image of the your batch because of the colors, texture and background. I believe that there is water visible in the foreground being the head water of Salt Creek flowing past McLean Spring to Salt Creek's pupfish board walk. I enjoy attempts to keep my bearings in the images posted in the forum so here is my attempt from your image:
http://salamandersociety.com/deathvalley...-Creek.png

Here is a Google Earth image with my attempt to guess your camera location and horizon land marks. I might be off on some of these locations. What I did not label was your dead on view into Trellis Canyon and Forbidden Canyon (named by Steve Hall) at the north east base of Tucki Mountain.
http://salamandersociety.com/deathvalley...-creek.png

By the way I don't believe what you label as an "Indian Trail" in one of your other images is not actually that, but rather a burro trail to the waters of Salt Creek. I sure could be mistaken. I'm not sure the burros drink out of Salt Creek because otherwise they would have totally trashed the entire stream above Salt Creek to McLean Spring?

I may have crossed some of your path on a jaunt I took a few years ago in the same general area? Time stamp 5:10 shows the remains of a bridge that Mojave Geek mentioned in another thread recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUFEaSf3B4g

[netllama]

Mar. 2019 I was able to get high-speed internet 4G with 4-5 bars no problem on my iPhone with Verizon wireless in the Owlshead region. Was able to upload high-res images and send video. Can only imagine service has gotten stronger on the edges of DVNP since then ... and then there's Starlink.

I can tell you from personal experience that Starlink is very over subscribed in most of California, and is not going to provide great performance, especially for uploading large images.

[MojaveGeek]

Well as long as we're playing Where's Waldo?

I think Beardilocks pix are on the east side of Salt Creek, going along the top of the bluffs, and that is old tourist tire tracks - damn they last forever - associated with the old road. As near as I can tell that old road ends up (south end) relatively near the current gate to the Salt Creek road. I've never been up on top of those bluffs though I've walked beneath them, between the Salt Creek boardwalk and 190 up in the Cornfield, more than once.

Now DVD.. I think in your video the first shot of a drawn path can't be complete, because you showed stuff that was nearer the boardwalk, and also views from on top of the bluffs. There's no bluff like that which I can recall on the west side of the creek.

Finally, the pile of wood that you refer to as a bridge is NOT the bridge I saw - the one I saw we actually walked over, it was still pretty solid. That bridge was where the road that you tracked for a bit on the west side ends up going. I read (Gephardt) that there was some sort of "trading post" out there in Salt Creek but that seems strange. If there was, then that would suggest the Beardilocks Indian trail may well have been used in more recent times by White settlers. Could be animals too - everyone would share a known path.

MacClean spring is not drinkable now, but it used to be, right? So that would have been a major draw for anyone in the area.

There used to be a sign nearby for the "Burned Wagons Point" but last time I was there, a few years ago, it was gone - IIRC the post was still there. Perhaps it was not historically accurate and the NPS took it down, or perhaps some vandal wanted to take it home (though it was hardly as old as, e.g., those old directional signs we discussed recently).

I did not know there were supposed to be any artifacts out there. I've not found any, either side of the creek, though there are plenty of small fossils.