Death Valley 2022/23

[Daymoth]

Lololol I cant Kauri, you just recognized it like that?????

And I thought my sanity was questionable!

[Beardilocks]

Some of us have spent WAAAAAAAY too many hours studying things here. There’s dozens of areas I could identify from obscure Sat images like that. It’s a disease. It’s a boon when you’re actually here and have folks you can share with. But that’s a small amount of time unfortunately.

[Daymoth]

I defenetly feel better about the time I spend on google earth lol!

[MojaveGeek]

You guys are quite the bridge hunting fiends But since you haven't been to Little Bridge you really should go. I am not sure why someone named it "Little". Some people turn around at the window after the "gates of Moria" false door (I did not come up with that name but I like it) but you're looking for a genuine bridge. BTW I enjoyed your list of requirements for a "real" bridge!

[Beardilocks]

Well it's been an interesting week since my last posts.  Hunkered down in the main Valley without much for cell reception, trying to knock off a few targets before the heat descends.  Forecast is for something close to 100 coming up on Mon/Tues but then yet another cold front comes in to knock temps back into the upper 70s.  Crazy year to be in DV long term.  

But it has't all been unicorn farts and rainbows.  I got caught in a pretty nasty dust storm last Monday.  The morning started out as snow on the BLM outside of Beatty and then turned to this when I got up onto Trail Canyon to camp:





As the sun set it started to clear a bit.


The next morning we headed out to what I think is officially called Dinosaur Butte at the south end of Blackwater Wash.  We decided a day later from a high ridge near Golden Canyon that it looks nothing like a dinosaur or a butte, but more like a cooked duck.  So I re-christened it Peking Duck Hill.  

Brice needed to check the hill/butte off his peak bagger list and I was looking for what was listed in the archeological record as a DVI/II obsidian quarry.  

It was to be a bit of a long hike (~14mi round trip) but luckily the day was beautifully clear after the previous days dust and a lovely 65F.


First up was crossing the wettest spot on the salt pan, revisiting the old FC Ranch dump and the old Corduroy Bridge. 








It was hard day on my feet.  Between the sand on the FC side, the rough terrain across the salt pan (mini-devil's golf course), and then the cross-wash hike up the fan on the other side, my dogs were definitely barking at the end of the day.

The first thing we came across at the end of the butte was a rock circle.  Hard to say if it was a dead fall trap or served some there purpose. 


A very beautiful area in general and one that sees probably zero visitors on any given year.  


We spent quite a while searching the area the quarry was supposed to be.  We never found ANY good obsidian.  There was a fair amount of poor quality obsidian that was full of inclusions and impurities, but nothing you could make a point out of.  Which would explain why it was abandoned so long ago: they took all they could get.  

I did find a fair amount of light & dark rock that had been preliminarily worked, most likely just knocking off the ugly parts before being transported somewhere closer to a water source to be worked into points.  

Some in very interesting colors. 


And a lot of this nearly white rock.


Large pieces that have tool marks.


Afterwords I hiked around to a different area to get a better view.


Beautiful travertine like formation.


On the way back across the salt pan, we found this oddity.  This was btw the bridge and the east side of the salt pan.  Any one have any bloody idea what it is?




Numbers on the top and the east side.


It was nice to re-discover this, I'm guessing late teens/early 20's car in the mesquite that I remembered from my previous adventure hiking Aguereberry to Furnace.


It's always fun to take an adventure across the salt pan.  It's a DV experience that I think no one should miss.  A whole new perspective on everything you know and love in the valley.

[Beardilocks]

The next day we planned to hit a bunch of LPBs in the area btw Breakfast & Golden Canyons.  Even having studied it on Google Earth I was wholly unprepared for how difficult to traverse the terrain is.  Deeply gouged, steep, and loose was the order of the day.  I don't recommend anyone head out here unless they are VERY good on loose steep terrain.

Heading up.


Over the top you drop into a very nice little canyon that ends in one of the tall dryfalls on Badwater Rd that everyone sees on their drive south.  




Almost immediately we found a really nice bridge.  The terrain surrounding it is very difficult, so I doubt if too many people have ever seen it.  It was really pretty with the light behind it.  


A very awesome minor bridge.  You could duck-walk through it easily.  


Almost immediately past this we hit a set of dryfalls converging from several drainages.  


After a pretty sketchy loose bypass here's the top.


Another one a bit further up canyon.


Stunning views from the ridge lines when you managed to find a way up on top of one.  Sane routes were few and far between.






Lots of potential for bridges in these areas, but it's so hard to get from one target to the next due to the just how deeply cut the landscape is.

[Beardilocks]

The next few days were chasing various targets right in the population heart.  Traffic was very heavy.  There's a stupid amount of people in DV right now.  

Most of the hikes were fun and always in areas that I may never see again.  Really cool areas that few people venture off into.  But also fairly mundane from a documentation angle.  I'll spare y'all the boring parts.

After checking most of our leads and checking off a couple of peaks or areas of interest, and with Easter weekend fast approaching, we headed back to Kit Fox Hills for some further exploring in a canyon that we'd been stopped in the last time we were out here. 

Really gorgeous area.


The canyon in question.  You can see why it looked interesting on satellite.  It was also a nightmare to try to navigate.




One of our satellite targets.


Great views.


Trying to navigate the canyon.  It was mostly tunnels and false bridges that were extremely difficult to scramble over/between.






Eventually it got a bit too hairy.  Crawling through these tunnels is extremely risky due to the loose nature of the material.  I did one last drop down a 5ft dryfall inside of a tunnel and then called it quits.  


After seeing this canyon, it's really amazing how easy to navigate Bridge Canyon is (one canyon over that we explored last week).  This canyon is just choked and impossible.  Bridge Canyon is a walk in the park in comparison.  Lol.  A very beautiful area to explore.  

Now it's time to resupply and recuperate while this High passes through the area.  And hide at elevation.  Where will I head next?  No clue.  But I'm not in DV just yet.

[DAW89446]

On the way back across the salt pan, we found this oddity.  This was btw the bridge and the east side of the salt pan.  Any one have any bloody idea what it is?

Seems to me to be an early surveyor mark. Maybe when they were creating townships through the region.

[MojaveGeek]

Looks like some more wild times out there, at least you got some good weather.

I wonder if that stake with the numbers has something to do with Borax plots? When there was a concentration of mining claims, the normal PLSS townships division was not precise enough, so sometimes a local coordinate system would be put in place with a specifically surveyed base location. You see these on topos sometimes labelled "USMM <number>" but I don't know what the CD would stand for. Stands to reason though that it would be tough to build a cairn marker out there. Just a guess

[DeathValleyDazed]

First up was crossing the wettest spot on the salt pan, revisiting the old FC Ranch dump and the old Corduroy Bridge. 

Your photos and TR's continue to blow me away so thanks for sharing! I was captivate by this cool shot of yours under the corduroy bridge so I cropped it and played a bit with the colors because it looks like a scene from another planet or Star Wars movie. 

http://salamandersociety.com/deathvalley...ilocks.png

The Corduroy Bridge is one of the most fascinating historical locations in DEVA for me personally. Slogging around out there in old times is just a vivid scenario. I still hope to explore that entire Tucki Wash basin which is expansive. 

And for comparison on the Corduroy Bridge from five years ago: