Brimstone, Titanothere, and miscellaneous

[Bluegreen kayak]

I arrived in Death Valley on Wednesday March 6. Thursday I returned to Brimstone Canyon with almost a full day to explore it. I parked with the other cars on Badwater Road by the Devil's Golf Course turnout, but while everyone else went west down the road, I set out east over the gravel. It wasn't too loose or too steep, there were many interesting rocks to see, and the temperature was fine. It was a nice start to a good climb. This time, when I came to the drywall and the bypass, I had remembered to bring some rope with me so I could climb unhampered and pull my pack up after me. When I got to the fork, I took the left side up, and up, and up. It was a joy scrambling up easy and medium-difficulty dry falls in a narrow, ever rising and spiraling route. I finally reached the end. After returning to the fork, I went up the right side, which was much wider. It ended in a striking amphitheater. I returned happy, feeling like I had gone as far as possible and left "no road untaken." Very satisfying. This might be a good challenge for very active kids, maybe middle and high school age, to work off some of their excess energy, though still accompanied by an adult.


Entrance to Brimstone

Rock in Brimstone wash

Into Brimstone

Problem dryfall

Bypass on right

Brimstone fork

Left fork pretty

Why I go here

Left fork ending

Coming down

Up the right fork

Right fork end

Weird rocks

Chip of the old by Patricia Boylan, on Flickr


Problems with a tire put the kibosh on my Friday plans. The wonderful folks at the Furnace Creek service station (connected with Farabee's) diagnosed tread separation, put my doughnut spare on and inflated it properly, and didn't charge me anything since they didn't have a tire to replace it (I tipped the young man). Purcells in Pahrump did the honors of selling me a new tire. While I was the Furnace Creek station, I met a young woman from back east who was visiting parks while waiting to hear about a possible job. Her radiator started leaking in Mosaic's parking lot, and she drove to the station immediately. I have to tell you how much effort the Farabee folks put into helping her; they gave it their all. They made hurried phone calls to get a new radiator brought in on that day's delivery (the old one was unusable). Then, the new radiator wouldn't fit in the engine space for it; turned out her car had been in a minor accident some time ago which altered the car's structure. So they tried: hammering it out; pulling it back in shape using a truck-mounted winch; and using a winch affixed to a pole (which almost pulled the pole out of the ground). Finally, using a winch attached to a pole set in concrete, they were able to straighten things out enough to put the new radiator in and hook it up. Took two days but then she was on her way. (I wasn't there the whole time but I would stop by to see how she was doing.)

That weekend I drove into Las Vegas, picked up my sister, her son, and his buddy, and brought them back to Texas Springs. Since it was a first visit for two of them, we did the Badwater/Natural Bridge/Artist's Palette stops, along with Ventifact Ridge for something out of the ordinary. Monday at 10:30, we dropped the two guys off about seven miles up Scotty's Castle road, pointed out what I figured was Titanothere Canyon, and sent them on their adventure (with three gallons of water each). Then I took my sister to Mosaic Canyon and the sand dunes. 
Good luck, fellas!

Tuesday we explored Artist's Palette, the hike down the dips, and Dantes' View.
Down the dips

Palette far right

This intrigued me, found it in the canyon far to the right of Artist's Palette. The dried mud layer on the wall was coming off and revealing the crumbly pink rock below it.
Mud layer on pink

Wednesday we went to the Titus Canyon parking lot to wait for the boys. We arrived about 10:30 and were just getting set to hike up a bit ourselves when they came walking out. The whole trip, from Titanothere up to Titus Canyon road and west to the parking lot, including climbing Thimble Peak and exploring the mining town ruins, took them about 2 days and an hour. They had a marvelous time, and lots of water left over. Wish I had their energy.