Death Valley - November 2010

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The Lady had the Thanksgiving week off. Traditional family events were scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, translated means I'm cooking, so that gave us the days prior to make a Death Valley trip.

Blast off from here was scheduled for 5 am Saturday the 20th. The predicted storm came in Friday night and with chain controls along a majority of 395, it looked like 95 in Nevada was the best choice. First we had to get there. We awoke to 8 inches of snow, ran the big snowblower to get out, couldn't get on the highway - closed with a tree across it, went back home for breakfast, power went out as we were locking up, and began the slow trip in the snow before breaking out in Gardnerville, NV. We were three hours behind making a planned meeting in Beatty with friends to join us on a couple of our planned adventures.

With our delay that put us into the park right at dark, we decided to camp for the night at one of the Furnace Creek campgrounds even if it meant the Sunset parking lot. We were surprised to find Texas Springs Campground almost empty on this Saturday night.

We are early risers and were delighted with the predawn light with the passing storm Sunday.

We had plans for today, archeology, and ancient rock art sites. We enjoy research and then taking it to the field and trying to locate hard to reach backcountry treasures.

Lots of driving, figuring out unmarked road intersections, and a long walk put us here.

This site was interesting with its varied figures and differences in ages in the petroglyphs.

This was a cold and windy day at around 4000 feet. What stuck us was the glyphs were in the sunny areas, right where we wanted to be. This one is for Stew as it is a depiction of a spacecraft blasting off.

There was a second site we were also looking for, we were so close we could taste it, but with our searching we fudged on our turnaround time as much as we could and had to head back. Looks like we will continue this search next spring.

We were far off the beaten path and completely alone this long day in just wonderful big country. What a joy.

We found a nice pull off along the road for a dispersed campsite. Armed with a great cup of coffee the next morning was clear and cold and great to watch the world wake up.

Since our friends are birders, they suggested visiting Saratoga Springs. We had to exit the south end of the park and make our way to the Amargosa River.

At an unmarked intersection there was a sign for travelers coming from that direction. I got curious as to what it said.

To get to Saratoga Springs from the south is via the Harry Wade Road.

Saratoga Springs is a place of striking contrasts. If you have the time, interest,  it is worth the visit. We were the only ones here. We wandered, we circled the ponds, we sat and ate a long lunch just listening to the birds and the wind through the reeds. An amazing place.

The Ibex Dunes are near the Springs and our plan was to find a suitable dispersed campsite and then enjoy the afternoon light exploring the dunes. There are two or three pull off sites along the road large enough to serve as campsites which put you within about a mile and a half hike to reach the dunes.

Late afternoon is a great time to explore dunes.

On the opposite side of the dunes are the remains of a talc mine.

The light, the solitude, and beauty were astounding as we wandered back to camp at sunset.

Dinner was prepared after dark but the weather was warm enough to allow us to sit outside and eat and watch the day change to night.

And of course, a great cup of coffee and sunrise over the dunes the next morning.

Well it was Tuesday morning, that turkey needed to be cooked, and the storm had lingered at home. Our friends never travel without Digonnet's hiking guide and suggested a couple of hour’s exploration up Desolation Canyon before heading toward home. This was a fun canyon to stretch your legs in.

Exploring one of the many side canyons.

You can actually top out in Desolation Canyon on a divide between it and the Artist's Drive area. Really nice vistas. Here's a view back down the canyon into Death Valley.

We made one last stop in the valley.

We reached one of our favorite camping spots in the Alabama Hills just after sunset on Tuesday night. The wind blew, it was cold, the clouds lifted off of the Sierra escarpment as the moon rose. We put on all our clothes and took a long walk. It was incredible.

We arrived home Wednesday late afternoon and had to dig out from snow before taking care of last minute shopping.

Thanksgiving was great, we picked the bird down to bones, and the Lady dug off all our neighbor's decks.

East Side of the Sierra Nevada - October 2010

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Been so busy around here, weekends included, that when a break showed in the calendar it was time to go. The east side is close, so we loaded up the truck Thursday evening and busted out of here after work on Friday. Made a quick stop at Heenan Lake to see Hopi, one of our favorite border collies and headed over Monitor Pass on our way to Virginia Lakes.

After topping off the tank at Topaz Lake (gas prices there are less than here at home and Topaz is the only alternative to the steep prices further south on 395) and grabbing a Walker Burger for supper, we found a nice dispersed camping site along Virginia Creek below Virginia Lakes before dark.

Saturday's plan was hiking into the Hoover Wilderness above Virginia Lakes and dropping into and exploring the upper reaches of the East Fork of the Green Creek drainage. It looked like Sunday's predicted storm was coming in a little early with brisk winds out of the west and fast moving clouds,making this a pretty spectacular day.

Into the Hoover Wilderness

Up and over the top

And down the other side

There was evidence a large bear had gone up and over the pass also, except in the opposite direction.

As we got down in the drainage, Hoover Lakes were still below us

But our destination was to the west and up to Summit Lake

Just past Summit Lake is Summit Pass, an entry into Yosemite's backcountry

Summit Lake was a great place to lounge, snack, and soak up the very occasional shaft of sunlight. This was definitely recharging our batteries!

Having volunteered to help on many trail projects and knowing many trail crews, we love to see good clean handiwork that we know is incredibly labor intensive.

Looking back over the Yosemite high country, weather was coming in. We had wind, light rain, and occasionally, light blowing snow

In the early afternoon we were dropping back into the Virginia Lakes basin.

Light rain was falling at Blue Lake, just above Virginia Lake.

The aspens at the Virginia Lakes parking area were in their fall glory.

The rest of the afternoon we planned on just exploring and looking at the weather and fall colors. Heading north on Dunderberg Meadow Road we had to stop several times just for the color.

Light snow and rain coming down to Dunderberg Meadow

Our thought was that wandering up Green Creek Road would be fun.

We found a great spot to camp in the meadows and watched the sunset as we sat and ate dinner.

It rained hard and blew overnight so we packed up and slowly wandered back toward home Sunday morning.

Enjoying history, we stopped at the site of one of the first hydro electric projects in the Sierra Nevada, all to provide power for the big mill in Bodie.

We stopped for a hot spring soak and this was the view as we thoroughly relaxed.

We decided to poke around the Twin Lakes area and made a stop at Mono Village, usually a very busy place in the summer. It was quiet, almost empty, with a few workers busy on closing it up for the winter. A walk along Robinson Creek just above Upper Twin Lake was relaxing and fun to see brown trout and kokanee moving upstream to spawn.

We made a stop at Buckeye Hot Springs in the Bridgeport area. The springs flow down a steep hillside and fall into pools built along the cold waters of Buckeye Creek.

All in all it was a quiet, relaxing, and beautiful weekend. More and more we are enjoying the freedom the camper provides in visiting and staying at some of the really special places open to us.