Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[Older Fossil]

Spring 2005 was a great time in DV. I only have pictures of the wildflowers, but remember people kayaking on the lake at Badwater.
The following URL leads to a segment Huell Howser did that spring about the lake and the wildflowers.
https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-a...-gold-125/

Art

[MojaveGeek]

Ah, I remember the stories. My trip that year went from LAS to a cheap place off the Strip to Sunrise Hospital for what turned out to be a nasty infection. We were all set to get out to DV anyway, with a bunch of gear for infusion of my IV antibiotics (which I had to take for a few months) but then I had to have surgery and I did not get out at all

[GowerGulch42]

Ditto to what others have said. I remember the large lake in '05, and 2010 was big too. We were camping in the park at the time and got to see it form (sort of). The big lake this year is probably the longest-lived since 2005. If one was so inclined, you could look on MODIS daily satellite imagery to compare over the last 20 years! (I won't be doing that.)

[Beardilocks]

Sorry I've been MIA for a while on here.  The last week has been filled mainly with things that are sensitive or off limits to posting publicly online.  Sorry!

I had some business on the West slopes of the Funeral Mountains and on the way back I decided to summit the tallest of the Three Bare Hills.  I think someone has been a bad influence on me because it was absolutely unnecessary to do.  Quite the feat though at a whopping ~395ft.  But I think the prominence is more than that because the wash is below sea level. 



I also explored some of the very odd tracks in the area.  It seems like they were clearing paths that they never used.  As if a tiny grader went through but that was as far as it ever got.  Honestly it feels like a kid playing with a toy because I see no rhyme or reason for their meanderings.  Or a drunk guy on a Zamboni. 


There are a few loop ends like this. 





Over the hill.


Looking back from up on one of the Three Bare Hills.


Not a bad view of the valley from the top.


A quick look at USGS maps of various ages, I see no Jeep trails, mines, prospects, tourist attractions or anything else. It's a mystery.

[Beardilocks]

I also took a walk up Titus to see what the damage was like.  I only hiked the first narrows (about 2.5mi up) and the only damage was in the one spot I expected it to be.  Right where the road used to jog left around a short twist narrows and then down that step to continue.

If anyone has a photo of this spot before the damage please share it.

This looking both up canyon (left) and into the narrows (right).  This section was really wiped out.  The road used to go around behind the big hump in the middle.


Here's up looking down canyon from a bit further up.  The old road is visible just to the right of where the lens flair drops in. 


Up on the old road where it went through here, still looking down canyon.


Rather big rocky step here now. 


Surprisingly, the twisty narrows are easily passable in a 4wd right now.  A bit too narrow for a modern Pickup truck but 90's F150 could probably get through.  Lol.

I wish I had time to get further up the canyon past the first wide spot and into the second narrows, but I had to get to FC to pick up a package before the post office closed that day.

[Beardilocks]

I also want to take a moment to mention something publicly here that sort of came about through something of an odd set of circumstances.

There were two side by sides parked at the trailhead for Titus when I got there. With some of the blatant disregard for road closures that's been going around lately (like the dirt bike idiots that tried to get through Titus a while back), I called it in to NPS. On my hike in Titus I saw that the side by side tracks went at least as far up the canyon as I had. So I called back to NPS when I got out to report that as well. Turns out that NPS themselves rented a couple of side by sides to help them get to an archeological survey somewhere up the Titus drainage and I called NPS on their own vehicles. Lol. I suggested that they might want to label them somehow as NPS vehicles before they either keep getting calls about them or people started to think that side by sides are legal in the park now.

But that was just the circumstances. As I was leaving my contact info with NPS on the first report, the Ranger recognized my name and said "do you go by Beardilocks online?" I definitely wasn't expecting that out of the blue calling in side by sides. Haha.

So I stopped by the VC on my way to the post office and had a very nice chat with Ranger Matthew. He is in the Division of Interpretation and Education and makes sure that us dirt-bags out here enjoying ourselves in the park don't post anything environmentally or culturally sensitive and/or do anything dumb or illegal and brag about it on here. It was a great conversation and I was very glad to meet him.

I think our wonderful Mods do a pretty good job of keeping us in line, but I just wanted to add a friendly reminder to the posters on here to police the background of your photos in sensitive areas. Please don't show ridgelines or identifiable geological features if you are visiting anywhere that could see a negative impact if the location got out.

That goes not only for this forum but all other platforms as well including Facebook and Instagram.

[DAW89446]

... on the way back I decided to summit the tallest of the Three Bare Hills.

I also explored some of the very odd tracks in the area.  It seems like they were clearing paths that they never used.  As if a tiny grader went through but that was as far as it ever got. ...


Looking back from up on one of the Three Bare Hills.

Is this area somewhere north or south of the Beatty Cut-Off? I'm thinking auto route between Beatty/Rhyolite and points west, post boom or early national monument.

[Beardilocks]

It’s a bit north of the park village. I can’t see any reason for them to be up there. There was an old Jeep trail up to one of the springs but it’s miles away.

[Brice]

I had some business on the West slopes of the Funeral Mountains and on the way back I decided to summit the tallest of the Three Bare Hills.  I think someone has been a bad influence on me because it was absolutely unnecessary to do.  

Careful.  It's habit forming. When your driving starts to suffer because you're constantly rubbernecking at peaks, it's time to get yourself checked into a program.

[Beardilocks]

Tracks are in this area if anyone wants to scope the satellite:

(36.5508578, -116.8552362)