Death Valley 2022/23

[Beardilocks]

I took a walk along the Armagosa btw storms.  Between precipitation events is maybe better.  I was virtually knocked flat by some wind gusts north of 50mph. Bloody hell I'm sick of the wind this winter.  




This time I was really just out for a walk.  I have not heard of any ancient sites out here.  But I found some.  

Some odd rock alignments.   There were 4-5 obvious piles.  They were well embedded in the desert pavement and looked quite old.  There was just enough of them to call to an alignment rather than a couple cairns.  It’s possible there were a couple of rock lines as well but it’s impossible to be sure after this many years.  






Another pile down the bench a ways.


A larger pile about 1/2mi away.  


And then what I was hoping for, a habitation site.  Either sleeping circle or foundation for a wickiup. 


In its current collapsed state it’s about 10’x12’.  The rocks are quite deeply settled into the pavement and it seems quite old.  


There was a fair bit of lithic scatter.  All of it pretty deeply embedded, sandblasted, and sporting some algae here and there.  Again, seemed much older than other lithic scatter I’ve found.  




I reported this site to a park archeologist to make sure they know it’s here.  

Interestingly I found an old dump on the River side of tue bench.  Looks as if at some point someone was dumping trash into the river or at least behind the bench.  Interesting because I saw no tire tracks or trails on the bench. Mostly glass and pottery.