I'm back in Death Valley for the winter. 68 peaks remaining to be climbed on the list of 200. Unfortunately many of those are out of reach in the Panamints.  They're inaccessible due to road closures, but I'll do what I can in the meantime.

I had an exciting day recently, probably only for me, but I'll share anyway.

Three years ago I found a rock in the Amargosa river bed.  I think it's pretty neat.



I've been on the lookout for more ever since then.  I left this rock in the Corkscrew summit log box and I guess I wasn't the only person who thought it was pretty, because it was no longer there when I checked a year ago.  I've found plenty of similar smooth red/black rock in various DV places, but none with this detailed patterning like salamander skin.  Until now!

About 5 miles upstream of where I found the original rock I climbed up a shallow sloping hillside and found a bunch more of the stuff.  It wasn't exactly common, but there was enough that I found a half dozen pieces without too much searching.



Now I'm wishing I had not taken the photo against such a busy background. 

And there was this neat looking one that isn't quite the same, but interesting in its own way. 



I have no idea what the stuff is.  It's not obsidian.  It's pretty hard, and will scratch steel.  Some kind of agate I guess?

Nice rocks. Waiting for GG to weigh in ... good luck bagging as many peaks as possible while you're down there!

Very curious what the orange rock is. It screams poisonous.

Was this the peak with the river crossing? Not too deep? I have ventured across the Amargosa yet.

(2024-01-06, 08:53 PM)Beardilocks Wrote: Very curious what the orange rock is.  It screams poisonous. 

Was this the peak with the river crossing?  Not too deep?  I have ventured across the Amargosa yet.

Not deep but pretty gross.  A couple inches in most places, deeper in some narrow channels.  I was smart enough to bring sandals for the crossing so I didn't muck up my shoes too badly.  Lots of stinky algae, bacteria and slippery mud threatening to dump me onto the ground with every step. I used some local vegetation to wipe clean my feet after the crossing before putting my socks back on.

Oh boy, looking for your TRs as usual. Great stuff. Glad you're back. That looks like the Amargosa on the Amargosa Valley side? There is a very cool "narrows" section which is, IIRC, near the northern part of the Confidence Hills - when you walk in it, your head is below surrounding ground level. Yes, it is on the topo, labelled as such. I don't recall anything on the DV side that looks like the photo, however.

(2024-01-07, 01:43 PM)MojaveGeek Wrote: Oh boy, looking for your TRs as usual.  Great stuff.  Glad you're back.  That looks like the Amargosa on the Amargosa Valley side?

The photo was taken where I crossed, and is a bit south of where Harry wade road crosses the river.  There are some easily overlooked hills there. Literally, I suppose.

I think there's probably always water here, being fed from nearby saratoga spring.

The rock looks like a type jasper to me, but I'm not a rock hound. That would be microcrystalline quartz crystals deposited in superheated groundwater with inclusions of hematite and/or other oxide minerals. Jasper is pretty common, and is what most lithic scatter/arrowheads/stone tools are made of.

(2024-01-08, 12:49 PM)GowerGulch42 Wrote: The rock looks like a type jasper to me, but I'm not a rock hound. That would be microcrystalline quartz crystals deposited in superheated groundwater with inclusions of hematite and/or other oxide minerals. Jasper is pretty common, and is what most lithic scatter/arrowheads/stone tools are made of.

Thanks for the input!  I wish I knew more about rocks, but there's so much to learn and rocks of the same type can look totally different from one another.   It seems impossible to ever know enough.

Beardilocks and I went into Coffin canyon for peakbagging and other activities.  Once we reached the canyon floor we split our attention.  Me to climb Peak 3300, and him to explore around Coffin for interesting stuff.

I had received some information on the best route to take, but screwed up immediately and started climbing up the wrong ridgeline.  By the time I recognized the mistake, it would have taken a long time to correct it so I decided to soldier on and accept the possible consequence of not summiting.  The area is rife with cliffs and is very steep.

Here's a look down into Coffin from halfway up, looking south.



The ridgeline Beardilocks and I climbed and then descended to access Coffin is in the lower right.  The alluvial fan behind the mountains is from Copper canyon.  I didn't get any more photos of the climb up, my mind occupied on more important matters.  Luckily, I didn't run into anything terrible enough to stop my progress.  I even saw a couple of bighorn sheep once I topped out near the summit so it all worked out great.

On the way down, taking the correct ridgeline this time, I snapped a photo of the slope I used to ascend.



The light colored hills separating Coffin from Copper.  I planned to explore these a bit, but didn't end up having the time or desire during this outing.



And we got an excellent view of the lake still hanging around in badwater.

Dude, the 1st shot of the ridge we came in on is dope! Nice!

I know we left awesome stuff uncollected up there. The approach is just so taxing. At least for one of us. Lol.