The Windy Trip (Mar. 01-03, 2024)

[GowerGulch42]

Traveling to Death Valley this time of year, for me, means that it takes a week to get a couple days in the park. I have to spend the night in Bend, OR and Tonopah, NV in order to get into the park! That also means that if the weather sucks, Oh well - we deal with it anyway. Because of the truly epic wind this week, and bookending blizzards in the Northwest, our camping solution was off the books so we stayed at Stovepipe and Furnace Creek (one night each because the park was so completely packed). Let's dive in. The linked Flickr album is under construction, so keep that in mind.

The whole park was jam-packed during our stay. There were tourists from all over, presumably to visit the lake, hoping for a superbloom, and also attendees of the Death Valley Dark Sky Festival. There were all sorts of cool activities going on, many of which were cancelled by the wind. My sister is an astronomer, so we spent some time hanging around the festivities.

DAY ONE

Tonopah is a mining camp perched at 6,000 feet in the Nevada high desert. I've never had time to poke around very much until this trip, but it was so cold and windy that more than 5 minutes out of the car was a bit too much, so all I got was this nice picture of a headframe at the Tonopah Mining Park. The owners of the Mizpah Hotel recently bought and renovated the First National Bank of Nevada building across the street, and opened it as the Belvada Hotel. It's pretty nice for what it is, and it's a lot quieter than the Mizpah across the street.


Tonopah Mining Park by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

We wouldn't be met by the rest of our crew until ~11:30 PM at Stovepipe Wells, so we had some time to kill on our way into the park. I hadn't been to Rhyolite in 10(?) years, so we passed through and that gave us the option to visit a little-known mine to the north that I've had on my radar for a long time.


Rhyolite mercantile building by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

The Homestake-King Mill and the Gold Bar Mine were briefly the talk of the Bullfrog district when a couple remarkably high-grade gold ledges were discovered. The Mines were worked feverishly for about a year and a half, during which time one of the most advanced and well-built ore processing mills was built on the site. The Homestake-King mill was opened early in 1908, closed in early 1910, and remained standing unused until it burned down in the 1920s. It is the largest stamp mill in the park, and the concrete foundations tower above the surrounding hillside. The Gold Bar Mine was reopened in the 1980s and early 1990s as an open pit, which was hidden from view by piling the tailings/spoils into a single tall, narrow ridge. The pit encountered some of the old tunnels, which are visible in the walls.


Untitled by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Bottom of Gold Bar mine by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Strangely, the stamp mill appeared to have no way to get to it - no roads or obvious trails lead to the structure from the valley floor, and none are visible in historic photographs either. Bizarre.


Large ruins by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Each wall is 10-15 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide.


Large ruins by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


IMG_6743 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Thanks to a blizzard in Oregon, we had to leave our trailer behind and proceed to DV on our snow tires. Thanks to the intel from Beardilocks, we wanted to check out the road work on Lemoigne. They did a great job keeping the rugged character of the road while making it a bit more manageable and comfortable of a drive. We've camped out on Lemoigne Road since 2007, and every year a pair of ravens comes to visit. Since they live a long time, I have no trouble believing it to be the same pair all these years.


Lemoigne Camp by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Lemoigne Camp raven pair by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Visibility was pretty low across the valley. Not the worst it would get, though. As is typical, there was no wind at all at Lemoigne despite 50 mph sustained winds on the valley floor. 

I had an item of geologic interest I wanted to check out at the summit of Towne Pass. The Towne Pass fault runs from the mouth of Wildrose Canyon (in Panamint Valley) to the mouth of Grotto Canyon above the Dunes. At Towne Pass, the actual fault plane reaches the surface and appears as a smooth wall of fractured limestone.


Towne Pass summit, heading toward cliff base by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

It was like being in a wind tunnel. This was one of the few places I've been actually knocked off-balance by high winds. The other one was on the shoulder of Rodgers Peak on the way up to Telescope. That hike was aborted, and I still haven't made it up Telescope, but we were close enough to the ground here that the only problem was making the 25 minute walk feel like an hour. There were other cars parked at the summit, and I saw a couple people come down the route from Pinto Peak. That would have been a gnarly hike.


Very windy walk by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Towne Pass fault by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Sheared clasts by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

After this, we went down to Panamint Valley to see the source of all the dust we were breathing in. I've never seen Panamint Valley so apocalyptic before.


Lake Hill sandstorm by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Panamint Playa by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Like in Death Valley, the lake in the playa had bee blown miles up the valley and was lapping along the highway.


Panamint Lake by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

The new owners at PSR have done a great job maintaining the character of the place, and the food is good as ever.

DAY TWO

The rest of our group joined us at 11:30 PM after driving from San Diego. In the morning, we battled our way through the sand to get a couple bagged croissants from the store. We learned afterward that the hotel is now offering a breakfast bar in the restaurant.


General store by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

I had the thought that the lower narrows of Titus Canyon would be fun, and probably sheltered from the wind. On this day, winds sustained about 60 mph with gusts up to about 75 mph. I haven't walked up Titus Canyon since I was about 8 years old, so it was cool to see the close-up perspective as a full-fledged geologist. Titus was not sheltered from the wind, but it did offer some respite at times. By the time we were headed back down to the car, the wind was funneled perfectly up the canyon and blew us off-balance repeatedly.


Megabreccia by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1121 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1126 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1158 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Signs of the floods occasionally showed up, like these muddy splashes 20 feet above the wash.


Flood mud splashes by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1181 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

You can't even tell, but it was like walking through water back at the mouth of the canyon.


IMG_6816 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

I wanted to go up to Ubehebe, just for fun, so we did that next. There was an astrobiologist from SETI there, but I spent my time instead doing something I'd never done before and ran down to the bottom of the crater. There's a lot of flowers out in that part of the park right now.


Northern DV greenery by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Ubehebe Crater by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


From the bottom of the maar by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


The Way back up by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

After that, we checked in at Furnace Creek and ran down to Lake Manly. The high winds blew the whole lake several miles north, and churned up the water into a chocolate milk color.


IMG_6836 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1257 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

We skipped out on Badwater and went around the next corner.


Badwater crowds by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Lake Manly by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Going for a swim in chocolate milk by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

There was about 8" of water at the shore. When you step into it, you crunch through a thin layer of rock salt and sink into about 3" of brown gooey clay before coming to rest on the previous rock salt surface. It's a strange feeling, and the foot holes crust over with salt within minutes of creation.


Salt growth by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

At the end of the day, we went through Artist Dip Canyon No. 2 - a family favorite.


DSC_1283 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


Artist Dip Canyon No. 2 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

At the top of the big rockfall climb, we noticed that the wind was knocking gravel down the sides of the canyon. We felt that was a good enough omen to turn around and not continue into the narrows.


Panamint Sunset from the canyon mouth by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Sunset through the clouds was really cool. We ran up to Dante's view to get a look at the whole lake. The windchill was such that I was out of the car just long enough to take this photo.


Lake Manly 2024, blown ~2 miles north by high winds by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr (larger version available if you click)


DAY THREE

The next morning, the wind was mostly still. The other half of our group had to leave early, so we went through Twenty Mule Team and parted ways. The two of us did something else we hadn't done in more than a decade and went to Ash Meadows. Imagine my surprise at the wonderful visitor center and museum, which wasn't there when we went the first time. It was built in 2014 and is as good as any national park visitor center and museum. It's well worth a visit.

We checked out Crystal Spring and Devils Hole, by which time the wind picked back up and we returned to Stovepipe for one last lunch. The new owners at SPW have stepped up the food quality, and everything was excellent. I had a big date and arugula salad which filled me up well. 


IMG_6902 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


IMG_6929 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

I took a video of the water, and when I zoomed in on it I could see little pupfish shadows darting around the shelf! That was a neat surprise.

After lunch, we ran up Mosaic Canyon to see how it had changed since the floods. It's more full with gravel than ever. Comparing with photos from 2009, it looks like about 8 feet of gravel have filled in the narrows. Shame.


Mosaic Canyon by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1396 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


DSC_1425 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

We rounded out our trip by doing yet another thing we'd amazingly never done before: hitting the top of the high dune at Mesquite Flats. We went right at sunset, just as the crowds dispersed.


IMG_6959 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


IMG_6963 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


IMG_6954 by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


The drive back to Tonopah was uneventful, but the daylight drive back to Oregon was absolutely beautiful and crystal clear. The landscape was dusted in fresh snow.


Toiyabe Range by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr


That's all for now. I'm leading a Geological Society of America field trip to Death Valley later this year (September), so I'll be back a couple more times to scout out locations. After having been away from DV for four and a half years (longest time in my whole life, I think), this will be a great year to get reaccquainted.