Death Valley National Park – February 2023 – Part One

 

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“The Middle of Nowhere”

 

After years of drought, this winter has started off with a bang. Storms have rolled through dumping snow. The Lady happily has been putting her arsenal of snow shovels to work. Lil’ Red, the small tractor with front mount snowblower, has been earning his keep and burning diesel. The last couple of storms dropped only a few inches, but it has been cold and icy. Microspikes on our shoes have been necessary for our morning walks for close to two weeks. The weather forecast finally predicted a few days’ break from storms. The truck was quickly packed and we headed out on a Thursday morning.

 

“Colder than a witch’s heart!” is a polite way of phrasing the old saying my Dad often used. It was 13° midday as we drove through Bridgeport on highway 395. The temperature at Conway Summit was 37° but Mono Lake and Lee Vining were enshrouded in pogonip – ice fog - below as we descended the pass. The temperature in Lee Vining was 18°. The cold continued in the high mountain valleys as we continued south. It was 11° at 1300hrs as we drove past Crowley Reservoir.

 

We arrived in Bishop early afternoon and took a break. We enjoy stretching our legs with a walk in the park, especially when it’s been cold enough that we can watch Jesus Ducks. With the large pond frozen over, the ducks are walking on water. After grabbing a Mule Kick sandwich for dinner at Schat’s Bakery, we set up at our comfortable camp for overnight. Yes, it remained cold. After a night time trip outside the camper, a “Juliesicle” climbed back into the bunk and needed warming up. I happily obliged.

 

 

It was an easy drive the next morning and we reached the mouth of Trail Canyon mid-afternoon. We set up our simple camp and took in the marvelous quiet and solitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning light was subdued but delightful.

 

 

 

 

 

With coffee brewed, we set out on our usual dawn wander. Julie suggested a side canyon to the south. It was rough terrain but no coffee was spilled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had returned to Trail Canyon to attempt to find an ancient shelter site. We had notes from field research done in the late 1950’s. Our last visit to Trail Canyon was in 2017. At that time the road up the wash was in very poor condition and hard to find. The road now is in very good shape for high clearance vehicles. For us, it is much more fun to hike and leave our comfortable camp in place.

 

 

 

 

 

The tilted rock layers that are the canyon walls are a geologic wonder. You pass by 250 million years of the Earth's geologic history as you ascend Trail Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

While hiking up canyon we scanned for possible shelters/caves in the canyon walls that matched the few notes contained in the paper. Our plan was to hike up to the upper point where the canyon splits into three forks and then climb to and investigate the shelter sites as we hiked back down canyon. We stopped, pulled off our packs, and glassed a promising site with the Lady’s see mores. As we were getting our packs back on, the Lady warned, “There’s a vehicle coming down canyon.” We moved well off the road to allow the white Toyota four runner to pass. It was the first vehicle we saw this day. As the vehicle drove by, behind me I heard the Lady say, “It’s Wonderhussy.” I heard the familiar voice reply and then her unmistakable laugh. Wonderhussy is a prolific youtuber. “The middle of nowhere!” is her signature line. She had finally gotten far enough out in “the middle of nowhere” to come upon us.

 

She did not stop. We did not get a treasured group photo. This was all I managed to get.

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Sarah Jane left us a note on our camper along with Wonderhussy memorabilia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thus was our brush with YouTube stardom.

 

We’ve located fossil mammal tracks in Death Valley’s rocks on past visits. What were the chances we’d find a fossil track of a small camel in the middle of this primitive road? You see so much more when you take the time to walk.

 

 

 

 

 

We, of course, remove nothing from our national parks. Please do the same.

 

We took a nice lunch break up at the canyon forks. Here’s a midday view down canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

Since we were close, we continued up for a revisit to the Broken Pick Mine. Tungsten was the primary mineral mined in Trail Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Uncle Erv owned and worked a site near Emigrant Wash. He went on to work his tungsten mines in the Mojave. I would suspect Uncle Erv may have known and had contact with the people who worked in Trail Canyon.

 

 

The age of discarded trucks helps date sites such as this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We investigated two shelter sites as we hiked back to camp. This was our main target and seemed to match the location in the research notes. I do not believe this was it, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We received spectacular views from the two high points we climbed to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found ourselves not alone when we returned to our dispersed campsite. A large white van had set up camp just above us, well within sight, and far closer than we would ever think of infringing on other’s space. Rude, clueless city people. We ignored them – not hard to do, they never ventured away from the van – and we made the best of this marvelous evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Death Valley wanderer had left a note on our truck while we were hiking. He was camped below us along Trail Canyon Road. In the dark, after dinner and chores, we walked down to Matthew’s camp and enjoyed meeting and talking with him.

 

What to do the next day? The Lady and I discussed our options as we turned in for the night. If the interlopers in the white van left in the morning, we’d stay and explore side canyons. If they did not, where would we move to?

 

Our adventure continues. Please click here for - Part Two.