What Did You Do in Death Valley Today?

[DAW89446]

Here’s a thread just for grins. No need for lengthy trip reports, they deserve their own threads. I know not everyone is going to be in DV every day, but if it’s DV related, put it here. Even if your “visit” to DV is only in your imagination, doing research for upcoming trips, looking through your photo albums, whatever.

Me? I haven’t been in the valley in about 15 years. Today I was exploring via topo maps and Google Earth, referencing each to locate and follow.

* I revisited my route in a 2000 trip where I camped the first night after driving after work in Trona; camping atop the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad several miles west of Bullfrog. “Flew” over the Gold Bar mill ruins. Then over to the Phinney Mine and my camp at the end of the road above Strozzi Ranch. Then back along the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad to Currie Well. Back to my first night camp on the LV&TRR, then south a bit then west to the Happy Holligan Mine. Explored to the end of the road above the mine and found that a cabin shown on the topo map is indeed still there.

* Exploring the Big Bell and Keane Wonder mines. Up the tram from the Keane Wonder mill, down from Chloride City.

So that was my day “in” Death Valley.

[Brice]

Found this nice false bridge last week outside Virgin spring canyon.  The apex is about 4-5 feet from the ground.  Going to explore the canyon proper tomorrow, and maybe a couple other places later in the week.  But it's getting pretty hot, so I'm not sure if I'll stick around much longer.

[DeathValleyDazed]

Great find. I like how the spot of light "at the end of the tunnel" teases the eye deeper into the bridge. The location must be in the upper half of Virgin Spring Canyon because I hiked the lower portion and got sidetracked into a side canyon by mine works debris four years ago. My intent was to return to finish the upper portion and now your photo is prompting me to return.

Here's a short video of my detour off to east side of Virgin Spring Canyon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BklPMlUhlzY

[Brice]

The photo is from just outside the mouth of the canyon, to the west.

I did many miles in the canyon on Tuesday, going up and down and up and down several of the many side canyons, all of them further north than the spring, so I didn't go up the one in your video. There were some interesting bits. I also obliterated my personal best of "most mylar balloons collected in a single day" with a total of 11. I was hoping for an even dozen but couldn't find the last one :-(

[DeathValleyDazed]

The photo is from just outside the mouth of the canyon, to the west.

Thanks for adding the location of the bridge. I tried to find a glimpse of it from Google Earth Web but failed to mostly likely due to time of day and shading of the area. 

Eleven mylar balloons is crazy. I remember a few years ago the Visitors Center at Furnace Creek had a complete display about the disgusting balloons. I think my personal best for balloons is only three or four but you really covered some territory with this hike. 

Please post more images of your hike of the canyon and side canyons.

[MojaveGeek]

Let's see, that "day" was the 24th. DV related, I picked Kathy up at the airport in LV, we visited friends in town and slept in town, drove to SPW the next day. Just back last night from 9 hiking days in the park; will have some TRs in a few days once I catch up with other stuff. I was out for 3 1/2 weeks; the first part was based in Hurricane, UT, hiking in the mesas around there and the east side of Zion.

[Brice]

Found some petroglyphs today.  Some modern, dated at 1900 and 1916.  Others in the same area are much more faded, and maybe native in origin?  I'm cautious making that claim because of the newer stuff on the same rocks.  Here's an example.  What animal is being depicted? Did there used to be some sort of now extinct antelope (e.g. ibex or oryx) in North America?



Also found today was this inviting hobbit hole off of racetrack road.  It's actually a tunnel but unfortunately the entrance is much larger than the exit.  A person could crawl through but it 's a tight squeeze in the back end.



And found this nice arch earlier in the week in the Grapevine mountains.

[DeathValleyDazed]

Brice, these are really cool finds. I love these out of the way discoveries like yours. If you have more extensive photos collected online of your Death Valley adventures, please provide a link.

[trailhound]

Brice, I thought that your picture looked familiar. We saw the same rock in 2007. It's a big horn sheep although the horns could use some curvature.

[Brice]

Brice, these are really cool finds. I love these out of the way discoveries like yours. If you have more extensive photos collected online of your Death Valley adventures, please provide a link.

I don't take many photos.  The only reason I have these is I'm still mulling over the idea to make a wiki documenting some of the more distinct features in the park. I keep going back and forth over whether it's a good idea or not.  I'm going to take advantage of the slightly cooler temps forcasted for next week to explore a couple more areas. So maybe a few more photos are incoming soon :-)