Death Valley

Enjoyed your vid, DVD, and then Youtube played your vid of the area around Salt Creek last month for a bonus. That was cool. You should get a TR together, you always go to cool places.

So with it getting hot in Death Valley I decided to look for cooler temps at a higher altitude and headed for the Racetrack area.  I had a number of things that I wanted to check out and would team up with Brice for a couple of hikes since he would be in that area as well.  

First up I did some exploring out on the Racetrack proper.  There are loads of new tracks on the playa after the wet and cold winter.  When I was out there last month the playa was too wet to walk on.  Unfortunately, not everyone felt that way and a couple of morons walked out and all around the first set of sailing stones and completely ruined the whole area for everyone else.  A$$hats.

A bit further out on the playa there were a TON of tracks but no rocks.  After some deliberation I think this is due to the playa being absolutely saturated this winter and being a bit more delicate than usual.  Then the ice came in and the surface was very easy to mark up with just ice chunks alone.  That's my theory anyway.  





You can see how deeply some of the rocks sank into the delicate surface as well.


This track appears to have been made by a couple of sticks (and I'm sure ice chunks).


This one is just odd.


I walked over to the east shore and up towards the Sally Ann mine, but decided agains the 250ft climb it looked like I needed to make to get to what's left of it.  Great views though.  And I found what I think is yet another deadfall trap.




Obligatory classic Racetrack shot.

The next day was a re-visit to Corridor Canyon and an exit up canyon to the north for the first time.  

I love this canyon.  Top 5 hikes in DV for just the wide range of landscapes and canyon types you go through.



Classic cowboy signatures and glyphs as always.










I found this odd glyph in one of the waterfall chutes as I sat on the way back to rest in the shade.  Obviously it's much older than the most obvious ones here and, looking around, I found several more virtually invisible ancient glyphs.


DStretch to help highlight it a bit.


This hike actually contains tons of corridors.






Somewhere deep in the canyon system I found some more petroglyphs.  This one is very unique and one of my favorites.  It has almost a Knights Templar flaming heart look to it.




Finally into Corridor proper.


Flowers even here.




View looking down the north end Corridor from the top of the rubble pile.


View back through the short fall as the canyon continues West.


The only other obstacle as you keep heading north:  A 12ft slick chute, but just enough handholds to make it not too daunting.


I did a loop up to Round Valley as Brice made a Cameo on a nearby benchmark.


We cut across a small drainage to shorten our route back and to mix up the scenery.  It didn't disappoint.

What a gorgeous day in the Corridor. That place is rightfully amazing. Don't know if you noticed the tons of fossils, including some amazing crinoid clusters. Of course the rock art, both old and new, grabs the eye. Nice the see the north exit for the loop, thanks. I heard some mixed things about it but it looked fine from below and you're obviously not the first to go that way. The pic of the lone flower in the corridor is very nice. Does the poor thing ever get any direct sunlight.

Strange tracks on the Racetrack. What bozos to mess it up! And you're not the first to report a dearth of rocks. i hope it is not because they are being taken. I can imagine a bunch of rocks held together in a sheet of ice, getting buffeted around a bit, and then suddenly breaking free and scooting along in a straight line for a while with a strong breeze. But what do I really know? Not much

The next day was oddly hazy.  Pollution blowing in from Vegas or LA?  No idea.  But the visibility was unfortunately extremely hampered for my biggest summit of the week, Lost Burro Peak.

Looking back at the mine as we began accent.


Hazy view of Hidden Valley.




Ridge walk/peak hopping over to 5882T for a hazy view of the Racetrack.

Here's a couple of shots of the summit of the Grandstand.  

As I was leaving the general area, I stopped at one of my favorite canyons in the Park.  Some of you will recognize it, but let's keep that to ourselves.  There were several sets of tracks visible as I went out there and that entered the canyon.  That's a bit alarming to me just because the canyon is so incredibly sensitive.  There are quite a few places to see petroglyphs in the park but the problem with this location is that they are EVERYWHERE making it extremely difficult to not walk, climb, or touch the glyphs, which will much more quickly wipe out something that is already so ephemeral.  This is a very special place to the native peoples and we should respect it as such.

Every time I come here I see more & more stuff.  I'm certain that there are more glyphs in the canyon than square feet of canyon wall.  The lighting on any given day will highlight or obscure scores of glyphs, so it's always a slightly different experience.  This time I was on the lookout for the ghost glyphs, the older glyphs that no longer show the contrast of the more recently pecked glyphs.  

The glyphs start before you even enter the canyon.  


A splash of color.


Interesting that this sheep is upside-down.  Not typical in DV.  I have read that an upside-down animal/person/anthropomorph meant that they were dead. 


Potentially a moccasin on the rock face on the right.


One thing I noticed this time that completely escaped me the last time was the application of pigment in places.  In some places it seemed like just a smear or almost just a highlight.  But very hard to see in the main.




Here are some much older ones that are harder to decipher along with a few newer ones.


This one especially interests me.  Not only would have to wedge yourself in this chute to carve it, but it is on top of at least 2 additional layers of older and older glyphs.




This line went up out of sight with various flourishes and patterns along it.


This cacophony of carving is too abstract for me to make much out of it.


Glyphs everywhere.


Here are some extremely ancient glyphs.  Impossible to make out what they really are.


3D glyphs in a pocket halfway up a dryfall.


Part 3 of a 3 part climb to the grotto.  Actually a fairly challenging climb.  Especially when you're trying to avoid the nasty water.


The Grotto.


More pictographs that I had missed on my previous visit.

Bit of DStretch love.


Another section.




Every inch of the grotto is covered.






One thing I hadn't noticed the last time:  There is a petroglyph line that encircles the entire grotto.  I've seen this theme in other places, but never in the round like this.  Very cool.












Very much more interesting with DStretch.


A few more DStretch enhanced pics from the north wall of the grotto showing some of the pigment still there.






This guy was really cool.  About 15ft off the ground and hard to get to to carve.  I can't really see what his head is.  I'm guessing it's a shaman zoomorph with some kind of animal head.


Heading out.






This one caught my eye because the light was just right.  Obviously a much much older one with some relatively newer ones nearby.

While in the area I explored a bunch of nearby caves to see if there were any signs of habitation.

Found this guy while scrambling around.


This was a very interesting multi-level cave.


There was a fair amount of lithic scatter outside on the slope.


Some rocks stacked in this corner.


Including this curious rock with a particle circle inscribed on it with one hard chip at the center.  


Looking up to the second level.


Looking out.

That Dstretch tool seems to work pretty well, at least on pictographs.

How many pictograph locations have you been to now?  If I remember correctly one of the old papers I skimmed said around 10 sites were identified that contain pictographs within DV.

Hmmm. I wonder what their criteria are to be included in the list. Are their major & minor sites?

I wouldn’t call this canyon a pictograph site. Nor would I consider that one Picto on the way to Corridor a “site”. So I’m not sure. There’s a handful of sites I haven’t been to (the Surprise panel is the largest). Of course that paper wouldn’t have listed the specific site. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that number has changed since the paper was written.

There’s something close to 100 rock alignments in the park, but virtually all of them are a secret. I can only name about 8-10.