Morning Glory Mine

[wbdeford]

Anyone been up to the Morning Glory Mine lately?  I am planning to descend to it from Wildrose Peak along this ridge:

https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.27975...=0.25&a=sf

and then follow the road down and out Trail Canyon.  Anything to recommend there, or watch out for?

[GowerGulch42]

I've never been, but I know it's really steep up there! Be careful and watch for rockfall.

[DeathValleyDazed]

I am planning to descend to it from Wildrose Peak along this ridge:

Hey Brian, you may not believe this but all last week I was thinking about you and wishing you'd join us again here. I thought about posting again on your facebook page in order to get your ass back here again. I loved your threads at the previous forum and all of your extreme hikes. Several of us here have mentioned how we were missing your contributions to the forum. 

And then you appear here now, how cool is that and of course you have another non-traditional trip planned! I hope you'll do a trip report. 

BTW, I am still frustrated with my inability to spot and then hike down to the maple tree grove a few thousand feet below Telescope Peak that you came across on your hike from Badwater to Telescope a few years ago. With the old forum gone is there anyway you can re-post your images of that maple grove, coordinates, or topos so I can visit the grove. I'd like to do this at the best time year and when the light is best.

[TacoLand]

Hey, Dazed ... think the thread you're looking for is here? – https://dv.netllama.us/dv/thread-24755.html

Looks pretty corrupted though. I uploaded a PDF for you of the 4 page conversation – https://www.dropbox.com/s/7t1fcy2n0j8q40...t.pdf?dl=0

Hopefully that'll work for yah.

[DeathValleyDazed]

Hey, Dazed ... think the thread you're looking for is here? 

Looks pretty corrupted though. I uploaded a PDF for you of the 4 page conversation

Wow, thanks for archiving this thread which otherwise would have been lost to me. BTW - the drop box pdf was blurry on the site page but a direct download of the pdf to my Mac pulled up the four page document crystal clear. The flickr links of Brian's trip report worked perfectly but the caltopo link did not for some reason. 

Thanks again for taking the time to assist me!

[TacoLand]

Ahhh ... try this for the Caltopo link – https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.18552...ry&o=t&n=0

[wbdeford]

Definitely steep! About 2000 ft down in 1 mile. I've done as much as 2400 ft in one mile....just have to take it slow, I think. Satellite looks show mostly unobstructed along the ridge, and the steepest looks fairly smooth and less than a football field of distance. I figure I can take the trail down to 8350 ft or so, then descend to the road about 6350 ft. A couple hours worth of slow descent, but I can take much longer if needed.

To DVDazed, thanks for the kind words! A group you might enjoy on FB is called "Death Valley National Park - Photographers". I posted a long series there on Badwater -> Telescope (which has the 2400 ft in one mile stretch). (They are sticklers for their rules, but fair about it and nice people.) The easiest way to spot the trees is to look at what I call "The Great Red Spot": https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=36.18512...ry&o=t&n=0.

I will also be doing the Telescope Peak trail on this trip, so I will try to spend a little time trying to capture the trees and the location I shoot from to share with you. I also wouldn't be surprised if I see some in the vicinity of Wildrose, as I have seen some on short hikes I did in the Thorndike and Kiln areas.

[MojaveGeek]

Just came back from a week in the valley today. It was damned hot down low, so we commuted up to the pinyon / juniper forest each day. Bald peak (via Wood Canyon), Wildrose, Colville Ridge. Considered trying to get to Morning Glory from the Wildrose trail as you suggest but doing 2K back up late in the day was not very attractive so we did not.

We did go out the ridge that forms the south wall of Trail. We left the Wildrose trail at 7800 ft and contoured the south side of 8285. Our goal was to reach point 7913, but we did not get all the way out the ridge. Its a tough walk, though the forest is charming, we had to cross 5 mostly stable scree fields and then there's a spot on the ridge which would have involved a bit more scrambling than we were up for. But we still got to an really excellent on the ridge with great views.

Including in to Trail. The slope you are interested in looked passable but steep. I believe your caltopo link turned on slope angle shading - I have become quite a fan of this feature for off route hikes in open forest. On our level stretch we had to add a bunch of distance just from deviating from the route to get through trees and the dreaded cliffrose, and finding the best routes through the scree, so we were moving quite slowly overall.

I will check to see if I got a decent pic of that slope.

[wbdeford]

MG,

How would you describe the difficulty of the ridge you used as compared to Telescope to 10460?  That ridge seems wider on the satellite, but has lots of rocks to get around and over, as you well know.  

I still have the option of looping around the ridge that goes north of Wildrose and down to the Camp, which I have done before, but that would require a 2000 ft round trip between the camp and mine....and hoping to descend a different way this time.....just don't want to go down 1500 ft and find the last 500 aren't safe enough and have to go back up 

[wbdeford]

Duh.....I had checked Digonnet's section on the Morning Glory Mine and found no references to hiking down from Wildrose, but then I checked his Wildrose Peak section, page 518, where he speaks of hiking down this "steep ridge" as part of a route from the Wildrose Trail through the South Fork of Trail Canyon, over and up to Aguereberry Point.  Should be good then