Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[DVexile]

Uhoh. Someone is getting disappeared into CLNWS when they’re in the Owlsheads. 😁

LOL.

More than twenty years ago, before the mystery of the missing Germans was solved, some of the CLMRG who were part of the original search would occasionally go out and look for remains covering areas they thought might have been missed or washes they knew had likely recently flowed from summer thunderstorms possibly turning up bones.

On one occasion while base camped at Warm Springs they were regaled at the campfire by another late arriving camper, who did not know who they were, all about the missing Germans and the certainty that they had seen something on the boundary of China Lake that they shouldn’t have and were abducted/murdered by base personnel as a result. Everyone enjoyed the tale and didn’t tip their hands. In the morning light said camper soon discovered every other vehicle at Warm Springs had China Lake base stickers on them…

[Beardilocks]

Hahaha! That’s an amazing story.

[Beardilocks]

Just a few random images from around Death Valley the last couple of days as a weather system slowly moved through the area.


First I had a killer double rainbow in the southern end of the park.





Then I caught a weird cloud inversion in the valley proper.  This is looking down on where the salt pan should be towards Furnace Creek, from the top of Beatty Cut-Off Road. 


This one is from just a bit further south in the Kit Fox Hills.

[DAW89446]

A gorgeous rainbow and a big pot of golden hills!

[Beardilocks]

I'm back for another wall of petroglyph photos.  If you're looking for landscapes or adventure, I advise you to move on. 

This week I headed out in search of something known as the Sauerkraut Trail.  This is a feature that has intrigued me for several years.  I first encountered the name in a very old Death Valley Nat'l Monument list of “unofficial place names” that I stumbled across in an archive.  That document simply listed the trail name and vague location, no mention of anything along it.  As my Death Valley research deepened (or became obsessive depending on your perspective) the name popped up once or twice more.  Let's face it, "Sauerkraut" stands out a bit in Death Valley.  Finally one paper I was reading on a completely different petroglyph site mentioned offhand “...the petroglyphs along Sauerkraut Trail...”  I was hooked.  After many hours scouring Google Earth in the vast area that I had 'narrowed it down to' I had marked some bits of a random, still visible trail that I could just make out.  Time to head out and see if I was right.  And if it was easier to follow on the ground.

I have absolutely no idea where the name comes from.  Often these sorts of things are named after later settlers or prospectors, but if it was named for German miners that used it later, they were extremely low impact as there are no signs of heavy usage what-so-ever.  But the trail is definitely on a route that would have seen heavy use for native peoples traveling between water sources and higher elevation for seasonal migrations. 

In fact, there's so little information available out there on the Sauerkraut Trail that I can't be 100% sure that this is it.  Hahaha.  Although I'm pretty sure. 

The trail itself shows heavy usage from indigenous peoples with the trail being well packed, cleared, and marked for most of it's route (large washes notwithstanding).  It must have been in use for thousands of years, possibly many many thousands.  The layer and age range of the petroglyphs also suggests this. 

All the petroglyphs seem to be on rocks no further than about 2-3 paces from the trail.  And done where-ever the rocks sat: there's no evidence that rocks were moved closer to the trail or even rotated to point at the trail.  Which I find very interesting as well.  I know the modern Timbisha Shoshone have passed down an oral history that includes instructions to leave as much of the natural world as possible exactly as it is and to ask permission from the natural spirits before anything even as simple as moving a rock or picking a seed.  But this trail and the carvings would pre-date their arrival to the area by thousands of years. 

I followed the trail for about 2 miles before I was running out of daylight & energy.  And frankly running out of real estate before the trail would disappear into a huge wash at the edge of the mountains.  It was about 1.6-1.7mi between the first rock with a glyph and the last that I found.  I would say in total there is at least 2 miles of trail with these rocks dispersed along it (you could increase that to 3-3.5 miles if you included another very nearby petroglyph site that was undoubtably done by the same people).  I would say I encountered about 50-60 inscribed rocks along this section of the trail.  Which is not to say that I found them all by any means. 

I was also quite astounded by the complexity of the designs and the how heavily covered many of the rocks were.  These are obviously related to another site on the opposite side of the mountain range from this post.  Although this trail interestingly leads away from that site.

I was quite excited to find my first glyph covered rock because it meant I was likely in the right place! 


With a little added pictograph by a passing bird. 


Nearby and facing away from the trail was this very very old glyph.  It is also much more simple as well. Notice it conatins 4 parallel lines.


In many places the trail is still quite apparent after all these millennia. 





Five Parallel lines here.


The theme of four or five parallel lines would stand out along the trail.  In places they look like claw marks from a giant beast, in others they are inside an element like this circle here and in the earlier older glyph. 



Having the rocks loose like this and right on the trail was by far the exception.  Making me think that were relocated closer to the trail by Europeans at some point.  But you can see how very obvious and deeply worn the trail is here. 


Very few were done on small rocks like one this completely imbedded in the ground.  But this odd not-quite-a-heart almost pretzel shape is a repeated design as well. 



Some of the curvilinear designs were quite interesting. 


Quite a few of the rocks are smothered in glyphs like this. 





And some very cool elements here like this (my photo is upside down) rainbow with rings above it. 


And this design I have been seeing frequently, though it varies whether the 3 sets of arms are perpendicular to the center line, 45deg, or curved like this.


This would appear to be a sun-yoni.  Similar to petroglyphs I've seen from Pahranagat Valley in NV to southern Anza Borrego. 


This looks like a horned anthropomorph figure, very similar to one I found on my last petroglyph hike a couple of posts ago.  Legs and/or snake tail at the bottom here. 


This petroglyph is freaking cool.  It looks like a skeleton anthropomorph with it's ribs exposed. 


Here is the neck & head.


Or is it a whole person sitting atop the block structure? 


Either way it appears to have the sun & moon on either side of it's head. 


Just so cool. 








There are a lot of these small, random chips on many of the rocks out here.  I can never decide if they are natural or man-made.  Except this one looks more like the shape of a constellation. 


Interestingly only 3 claw mark/parallel lines on this side...


...but 5 here on this side 


This triple boulder was absolutely covered. 


You can clearly see the layering & the darker, older glyphs underneath.


Out of control with the sun rays here. 


Interestingly, they managed to carve even in the tight spaces between the rocks. 








This is the only “moccasin” glyph on this trail and I think it's the only one I've ever seen in DV. 


Really cool design here. 


4 lines/claw marks again.


Rainbow and circles again, but this time the circles are under the rainbow. 




More of a hand print here than the claw marks. 



4 or 5 lines here?


This U-symbol with a line in the middle is also seen in a lot of these panels.  Notice the very obvious layering on this one.  Newer glyphs covering much older ones. 


The trail cuts at an angle in front of me, down into the wash before it cuts back up the other side at an angle. 


Very cool mix of symbols here. 


This is one of the only rocks that is flat on the ground and carved.  It resembles a map to me, but who knows of what. 


I love this strange pincer-man or whatever that design is. 


At this point I hit a very large wash and lost the trail on the other side.  After way too long struggling over benches and washes I was able to recover it again (with help from satellite imagery) but I went a full 1/2mi without seeing a petroglyph.  But then there were no rocks of the proper type to carve on….

I was just about to give up when I found this one.  Phew. 



This was the last petroglyph I found and I decided to turn around here.  The trail was about to drop into another massive wash and I was losing the sun.  I had read that the glyphs only went on for about a mile.  So having found these up here, I had extended the length to almost 1.75mi already.  Good enough for today. There is some thought that these circles with lines coming out of them represent springs. 





The trail was easier to follow back down to the wash now that I had found it, so I retraced it easier back  that way. 

This was a very odd duck here.  The cairn on top was obviously added later, but the rock with the glyph was also propped up to make it level to add the cairn on top.  Very odd thing to do.  And I'm quite sure it was moved into this position long after it was carved. 


The rock did have these cool fossils of some kind in it. 


And I did find a few more on the way down that I had missed. 





I absolutely love ancient trails. It is such an amazing feeling to be walking in step with the past and with the people that traveled this EXACT route for thousand of years.  Many Native Americans thought that trails were sacred, that an eternal flow of energy/power (puha) runs along them.  And that trails direct the flow of life, for man & animal alike.  After all, every trail you follow in life always changes you in some way. 

So please don't add cairns to ancient trails or alter them in any way.

[Beardilocks]

I know it's easy to see similarities in petroglpyphs. They are often quite abstract and our minds just love to see patterns.


But these two petroglyphs are unlike anything I've really seen anywhere else and are way too similar to be coincidence I think.


They are found about 70mi apart as the crow flies, but both within DVNP.  I really wish I knew the story behind the image.

[Brice]

Looks like a dude in a headdress dancing, or jumping.  I agree though, interesting petroglyphs.  They don't usually seem to convey obvious motion or actions like these do.

[Beardilocks]

That’s what struck me about the first one: real motion or dancing. Then the second was even more dynamic on the same theme.

First being the second pic because I posted them in the wrong order. Lol.

Only ones better I’ve found that show mad motion are Falling Man and one in San Raphael Swell where a guy is being thrown off a cliff.

[John Morrow]

Wow! I have no idea where you are at.

[MojaveGeek]

What a fantastic day it must have been to be following the old trail and finding those glyphs from time to time. Never knowing when you'll find more! I've heard of the Sauerkraut Trail but I don't know where it is. The funny thing is, you can be 30 yards away from a faint trail like that, and not see if, but if you're walking and sighting along it, it's so clear in places. Great hike, obviously!