I will post pictures in the comments and/or add them later via editing:
When it was announced that the park was reopening October 15, it was only going to be from the west, but then they surprisingly opened the eastern entrance. On October 15, someone posted a picture of Lake Manly from Dante's View, looking far bigger than I imagined it would after almost 2 months since the storm. So, I made a sudden decision to make a one day trip for Wednesday, October 18. I bought my tickets the morning of the 16th. The flight was so early I got my rental car at the scheduled arrival time. For $30 extra, I got a Charger R/T rental car, which was fun to drive. With only a brief stop at Pahrump for food and water, I was at Dante's View by 10:45AM. I walked the south part of the trail and took tons of pics before heading to Badwater. I was surprised that only one other person was there. I expected it to be crowded, though it was a Wednesday.
My original plan was to head out to the middle of the valley, as I had done in November of 2015, when there was 3 inches of water, but the ground was just too mushy. I would have left a long, ugly line out there for all to see from Dante's, so I turned back. The water a short distance from the shore was quickly about a foot deep. Based on my previous trip, I assumed the lake would generally be 15-18 inches deep. It was disappointing, but it gave me time to explore the area around Badwater. I hiked the fan up toward Bad Canyon, and descended back to the road where the fan leaves 2 protrusions out into the lake. I walked the road back, and then up the little trail east of the parking area.
Then it occurred to me that the gate was only in a soft closure configuration, so I drove about 3 miles south of Badwater to see the southern end of the lake. On the way back north, I went up the road to Natural Bridge, and out to the Devil's Golf Course. On the way out, I went back to Dante's for sunset. This time I hiked the northern trail. On the way back to Las Vegas, I tested the car's capabilities a little. It has a built-in 0-60 calculator, and I did it in 6.7 seconds leaving the Amargosa Opera House. The car is advertised as 4.3 seconds, but someone had done it in 3.2, according to the computer. Anyway, I got back to Las Vegas for an overnight flight back to Cleveland, and landed just a few minutes short of 24 hours from when I flew out.
The next day, I found out it only takes a few inches of water to be able to kayak. It never occurred to that it would take so little, though when I did the math, it made total sense. So, on the 20th, I ordered an Intex Challenger K1 inflatable kayak, and bought another plane ticket. This time, I was slightly more sensible and flew in the evening of October 31 to get a full day at the lake. The weekend before was a significant wind event. Wind is the enemy of Lake Manly, as it accelerates evaporation, and to make matters worse, relative humidity also dropped to below 10% at times. It looked from satellite images that the lake shrunk quite a bit, but another factor was that the wind blew the lake to the south. I think it flowed back north after the wind died down.
I got my car about 11PM and headed to Dante's again to see the valley in the waning gibbous moon. Visibility was good, and I was able to get a few decent shots (as cell phones go). About 2AM, I headed down to Badwater and hit some of the same areas I hit 2 weeks earlier before going to the car to try to get a little sleep, but not much happened there. One other vehicle arrived around 5AM, but he didn't stay long. I decided to get my boat ready and get out there early. I inflated it at the car and carried it out to the lake shore. I brought 2 liters with me just in case, but planned not to drink anything unless I really needed to. I put the boat in the water at 5:45AM, stepped out into the lake, and pushed the boat along with a paddle until I thought it might be deep enough. Sitting down in it told me it wasn't quite deep enough yet. The math said I needed 4 inches, though with up and down movement, I planned on at least 6. I went a little further and this time it was a success. I was floating on Lake Manly.
It wasn't long before I was floating on what I thought was 12 inches of water, but actually measuring the paddle later said it was 15. It definitely takes longer to kayak the valley than it does to hike it in dry conditions. To minimize my depth needs, I did not install the skeg, which meant that almost as soon as I stopped rowing, the boat would go into a spin, which was just a minor annoyance when I was getting my phone out of its plastic bag to take pictures, and I would spin away from what I wanted to capture. The bag was definitely a good call, as even with that, the phone was getting a little salty. It took me about 3 hours to get out to the central point, where I found the little rock pile covered in thick salt. I didn't disturb it. Along the way, I came across a group of about 10 ducks. Far to my south I saw a large group of some sort of migratory bird.
After the central point, I went further west to see if I could get most of the way to the western shore, but that proved impractical because I soon started to scrape bottom and I did not want to risk tearing up the boat and having to trudge through the mud back with boat in tow. Rowing back was even harder, especially since this was my first time kayaking and my shoulders weren't used to rowing so much. After a bit it occurred to me to install the skeg, so I got out and lifted the rear of the boat to put it in place. No more spinning out! I could stop rowing and the boat would keep going straightish, though it would quickly veer left, like a car out of alignment. I learned to use my left oar last to be pointing slightly right, letting me coast a little farther with each break.
The skeg started scraping the bottom a short distance from the shore, so I got out and pushed the boat with a paddle till I had to lift it out of the water. When I reached the shore, there were a few curious people who wanted to take their pictures with the boat. It was a little after 12:30, so there was still quite a bit of time left in the day. After deflating the boat and letting it dry a while, I got going a little after 1PM. There was better lighting than the previous trip, so I went back up the road to Natural Bridge. Back at the bottom, I hiked out among the islands of Devil's Golf Course southeast of the main area. Then, a short stop at the official Devil's Golf Course, and a trip through Artist Drive, which also has a nice view of the lake. Next, a brief stop af Furnace Creek to see if there were any Lake Manly t-shirts or other memorabilia, but there are not. The ranger I spoke with had also kayaked Lake Manly not too long after it flooded. He said the depth at that time was 2 1/2 to 3 feet. Then, I drove north to just past Beaty Cutoff to get the long view down the valley. I drove Mustard Canyon on the way back, and was going to stop at Zabriskie's, but that would have meant an extra wait for the pilot car, so I just went on back to Dante's for the late afternoon and sunset. There was some really nice views of clouds and sky reflecting off the lake, and a colorful sunset. The visit ended with an attempt to cleanup the boat before putting it in my suitcase and heading back to Las Vegas.
The two exhausting, whirlwind trips were totally worth it. It was about 20 degrees cooler the second time (82 instead of 102), and virtually no wind, so the weather was as close to perfect as could reasonably be expected.
When it was announced that the park was reopening October 15, it was only going to be from the west, but then they surprisingly opened the eastern entrance. On October 15, someone posted a picture of Lake Manly from Dante's View, looking far bigger than I imagined it would after almost 2 months since the storm. So, I made a sudden decision to make a one day trip for Wednesday, October 18. I bought my tickets the morning of the 16th. The flight was so early I got my rental car at the scheduled arrival time. For $30 extra, I got a Charger R/T rental car, which was fun to drive. With only a brief stop at Pahrump for food and water, I was at Dante's View by 10:45AM. I walked the south part of the trail and took tons of pics before heading to Badwater. I was surprised that only one other person was there. I expected it to be crowded, though it was a Wednesday.
My original plan was to head out to the middle of the valley, as I had done in November of 2015, when there was 3 inches of water, but the ground was just too mushy. I would have left a long, ugly line out there for all to see from Dante's, so I turned back. The water a short distance from the shore was quickly about a foot deep. Based on my previous trip, I assumed the lake would generally be 15-18 inches deep. It was disappointing, but it gave me time to explore the area around Badwater. I hiked the fan up toward Bad Canyon, and descended back to the road where the fan leaves 2 protrusions out into the lake. I walked the road back, and then up the little trail east of the parking area.
Then it occurred to me that the gate was only in a soft closure configuration, so I drove about 3 miles south of Badwater to see the southern end of the lake. On the way back north, I went up the road to Natural Bridge, and out to the Devil's Golf Course. On the way out, I went back to Dante's for sunset. This time I hiked the northern trail. On the way back to Las Vegas, I tested the car's capabilities a little. It has a built-in 0-60 calculator, and I did it in 6.7 seconds leaving the Amargosa Opera House. The car is advertised as 4.3 seconds, but someone had done it in 3.2, according to the computer. Anyway, I got back to Las Vegas for an overnight flight back to Cleveland, and landed just a few minutes short of 24 hours from when I flew out.
The next day, I found out it only takes a few inches of water to be able to kayak. It never occurred to that it would take so little, though when I did the math, it made total sense. So, on the 20th, I ordered an Intex Challenger K1 inflatable kayak, and bought another plane ticket. This time, I was slightly more sensible and flew in the evening of October 31 to get a full day at the lake. The weekend before was a significant wind event. Wind is the enemy of Lake Manly, as it accelerates evaporation, and to make matters worse, relative humidity also dropped to below 10% at times. It looked from satellite images that the lake shrunk quite a bit, but another factor was that the wind blew the lake to the south. I think it flowed back north after the wind died down.
I got my car about 11PM and headed to Dante's again to see the valley in the waning gibbous moon. Visibility was good, and I was able to get a few decent shots (as cell phones go). About 2AM, I headed down to Badwater and hit some of the same areas I hit 2 weeks earlier before going to the car to try to get a little sleep, but not much happened there. One other vehicle arrived around 5AM, but he didn't stay long. I decided to get my boat ready and get out there early. I inflated it at the car and carried it out to the lake shore. I brought 2 liters with me just in case, but planned not to drink anything unless I really needed to. I put the boat in the water at 5:45AM, stepped out into the lake, and pushed the boat along with a paddle until I thought it might be deep enough. Sitting down in it told me it wasn't quite deep enough yet. The math said I needed 4 inches, though with up and down movement, I planned on at least 6. I went a little further and this time it was a success. I was floating on Lake Manly.
It wasn't long before I was floating on what I thought was 12 inches of water, but actually measuring the paddle later said it was 15. It definitely takes longer to kayak the valley than it does to hike it in dry conditions. To minimize my depth needs, I did not install the skeg, which meant that almost as soon as I stopped rowing, the boat would go into a spin, which was just a minor annoyance when I was getting my phone out of its plastic bag to take pictures, and I would spin away from what I wanted to capture. The bag was definitely a good call, as even with that, the phone was getting a little salty. It took me about 3 hours to get out to the central point, where I found the little rock pile covered in thick salt. I didn't disturb it. Along the way, I came across a group of about 10 ducks. Far to my south I saw a large group of some sort of migratory bird.
After the central point, I went further west to see if I could get most of the way to the western shore, but that proved impractical because I soon started to scrape bottom and I did not want to risk tearing up the boat and having to trudge through the mud back with boat in tow. Rowing back was even harder, especially since this was my first time kayaking and my shoulders weren't used to rowing so much. After a bit it occurred to me to install the skeg, so I got out and lifted the rear of the boat to put it in place. No more spinning out! I could stop rowing and the boat would keep going straightish, though it would quickly veer left, like a car out of alignment. I learned to use my left oar last to be pointing slightly right, letting me coast a little farther with each break.
The skeg started scraping the bottom a short distance from the shore, so I got out and pushed the boat with a paddle till I had to lift it out of the water. When I reached the shore, there were a few curious people who wanted to take their pictures with the boat. It was a little after 12:30, so there was still quite a bit of time left in the day. After deflating the boat and letting it dry a while, I got going a little after 1PM. There was better lighting than the previous trip, so I went back up the road to Natural Bridge. Back at the bottom, I hiked out among the islands of Devil's Golf Course southeast of the main area. Then, a short stop at the official Devil's Golf Course, and a trip through Artist Drive, which also has a nice view of the lake. Next, a brief stop af Furnace Creek to see if there were any Lake Manly t-shirts or other memorabilia, but there are not. The ranger I spoke with had also kayaked Lake Manly not too long after it flooded. He said the depth at that time was 2 1/2 to 3 feet. Then, I drove north to just past Beaty Cutoff to get the long view down the valley. I drove Mustard Canyon on the way back, and was going to stop at Zabriskie's, but that would have meant an extra wait for the pilot car, so I just went on back to Dante's for the late afternoon and sunset. There was some really nice views of clouds and sky reflecting off the lake, and a colorful sunset. The visit ended with an attempt to cleanup the boat before putting it in my suitcase and heading back to Las Vegas.
The two exhausting, whirlwind trips were totally worth it. It was about 20 degrees cooler the second time (82 instead of 102), and virtually no wind, so the weather was as close to perfect as could reasonably be expected.
