Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[Beardilocks]

This post falls into the “you can't win them all” category.  While driving back from Striped Butte several weeks ago, I had noticed an odd light colored area on the desert pavement in the huge wash that spills out of the southern Panamints and has it source all the way up at Anvil Spring by Geologist's Cabin.  It was several miles away and I couldn't clearly make out if was an old mine prospect or a small sand dune or what.  When I got back to cell range I checked the satellite imagery and found it but still wasn't sure what it was.  But I could tell on satellite that it had a trail going through it that continuing for miles down the old bench.  Definitely worth a look, so I hiked out there. 

I had noticed even on satellite that parts of the trail seemed to be almost like a dotted-line, which I had never seen before.  On the ground you can see very much what I meant. 


Several trails converge on the light spot that I could see from the road and on satellite.  An odd spot that the desert pavement has been stripped away from either naturally or by someone in the past.  Or by the feral burrows whose tracks I can see in the trails.  There are no springs listed here and I find it odd that there would be one in the middle of a bench in a huge wash.  Possibly just a small sink that holds water?


The trails are currently used by burrows.  And it seems to be their stride that creates the dotted-line look.  Something to tuck away in my memory bank for future searching for trails on satellite.


But the fact that burrows are currently using these trails doesn't preclude them from being Native American trails in the past.  Many old human trails were originally game trails.  So why can't the opposite also be true?  So I continued on to look for any evidence.  Or lack thereof. 



And I found nothing.  Haha.  There are many rock-free depressions in the desert pavement that look like they could be old sleeping circles or habitation sites.  They reminded me very much of the ancient campsite I explored last year in the <a href="https://pocketsfullofdustcom.wordpress.com/2023/09/12/10000yr-old-habitation-site-death-valley/">Furnace Creek Wash that was 10,000yrs old</a>.  But with no other evidence presenting itself, I have to assume that they're natural. 

The factors that I was looking for to prove habitation (or at least travel) would be obvious things like lithic scatter, discarded tools, or petroglyphs.  But I was also looking for any DV III&IV dead-fall traps that are common on the alluvial fans just a few canyons north of here.  Or the “hearth” like structures that are found at DV I&II sites like the campsite mentioned above.  I turned up none of either. 

This large rock pile that the trail passes directly past was sort of my last hope from the satellite scouting I did.  And no signs of any activity other than packrats. 


But the views were lovely.  Looking back towards Jubilee Pass, Scotty's Canyon, Ashford Mill, et al. 


I continued up the bench to the end for a nice view of the unnamed peak that is the southern gatekeeper for Warm Springs Canyon.  This wash is the end of Anvil Spring Canyon.  Definitely not a site that has seen many visitors for the last several thousand years.  Not of the 2-legged variety anyway. 


The trails are remarkably well laid out if indeed they were only constructed by those derangedly gaffawing equines. 


You can find some gorgeous rocks out on this ancient desert varnish though. 


I did eventually find this circle.  It very artistically laid out, alternating large & small rocks.  And it is not new, having definitely settled into the pavement a bit.  But I don't think it's very old either.  Perhaps that bush in the center was alive when it was laid out, but probably not much older.  But who knows out here.  I've visited archeologically documented sites dated from 700-10,000yrs old and the differences aren't as vast out here in the desert as one would initially think.