Death Valley - November 2025 - Part One

 

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Friends

 

“Treasure your friends, because you get to pick who your friends are,” our buddies in Montana counsel us. We treasure our friends and they look out for us. Here are examples of the messages we receive from friends via our InReach device. “Stay in the Toquima Range and DO NOT look at any recent news.” “Add another gas can to the back of your camper and keep going! The news will make you sick. Do not look.”

 

We arrived at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley National Park early afternoon on October 31^st. Our friend, Deb, was involved with the annual Death Valley 49ers Encampment. She was giving several talks and was also a vendor selling her book, zines, greeting cards, and stickers. Her husband, Steve, was an able assistant, both with technical and logistical support. We were joining up with Deb & Steve for adventures when their Encampment duties were finished. An extra special addition to the group was our friend, Donna. She was already set up in a corner of the campground and we joined her.

 

We miss the Coyote vs. Pets scoreboard that was once displayed at the entrance to the campground .

 

 

 

 

 

The subject of Deb’s talk that afternoon - Halloween - was “Death in Death Valley.” We learned that, although Death Valley has Death in its name, North Cascades National Park is a deadlier place.

 

The next day Steve joined us for a hike up nearby Mosaic Canyon. Deb was busy with her booth and Donna was preparing to head out and continue with her trip. It had been several years since we’d hiked up Mosaic Canyon, so it was a delight to return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We reached the first major pour over.

 

 

 

 

 

We backtracked and climbed the bypass around the pour over.

 

 

 

 

 

We continued up the canyon to the next major pour over that has no bypass.

 

 

 

 

 

Returning down canyon, we stopped for the view down the first pour over.

 

 

 

 

 

We continued down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first narrows with its polished marble is the highlight of Mosaic Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The event was finished in the late afternoon. After helping pack up Deb’s booth, books, and such, we drove up onto the Darwin Plateau and camped on the edge of the Coso Range Wilderness. The next morning we began our hike up canyon with a stop at the old cabin. 

 

 

 

 

 

I was pleased to find Roger Mitchell’s card he left 24 years ago. Roger was a prolific author of backcountry road guides. Our destination was up canyon. 

 

 

 

 

 

We climbed down to and past the lower spring.This is another fun canyon to explore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a few miles hike to the upper spring. We’ve visited this special place twice before -

 

April 2025  

 

November 2018

 

We continued on to the end of the canyon after visiting the upper spring. Searching the basalt cliff bands, we found several nice petroglyph panels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also found a work station with a metate.

 

 

 

 

 

We came to the boundary fence of NAWS China Lake. And we suspected photos were taken of Deb as she photographed the sign.

 

 

 

 

 

Our route was a 11.5 mile loop around the ridge and back north down the canyon to the east.

 

 

 

 

 

We had enough daylight remaining to climb up out of the canyon on a different kind of search.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 26, 1972, two US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II jets collided over the Coso Range while on a training flight. The Lady and I have visited the scattered debris before. The four crewmen (two in each F-4) ejected but one was killed. When visiting a crashsite, please do so with the utmost respect for those lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve is a retired aircraft engineer with Boeing. It was an education hearing his assessment of the fighter jet and its construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's an interesting footnote that F-4J #158379 was the last F-4 Phantom built.

 

The sun had set as we arrived back at camp. This was the first day of the return to standard time. We would be getting use to the earlier end of daylight.

 

 

 

 

 

We moved east the next morning to another canyon. We wanted to explore around a large spring for ancient rock art. We drove as far up the primitive 4x4 road as we could.

 

 

 

 

 

The spring area was extensive.

 

 

 

 

 

The spring had, at one time in the past, been developed as a water supply. An old trail with stacked rock retaining walls came in along the canyon side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although we were hoping for more, we did find a workstation with bedrock mortars.

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked back down the canyon but decided to climb out to the top of the ridge to take in the views and orient ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dropping into a connecting drainage, we returned to our trucks. That is Owens Lake in the far distance.

 

 

 

 

 

Our attempt to reach China Garden in Darwin Canyon was turned around by impossible road conditions after flooding. We quickly came up with an alternate plan.

 

Although it was windy and cold at our high camp in the Joshua trees of Lee Flat, we were treated to the most colorful sunset of this trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had an exciting adventure planned for the following day. Our story continues. Please click here for Part Two.

East Side of the Sierra Nevada – October 2025

 

please remember you can click on a photo to see a larger version & highlighted text are links to additional information

“How ‘bout”

It was a taste of winter. The storm broke during the night. Snow showers lingered over the Sierra crest in the morning with chain controls remaining in effect. We held back on leaving until 0900 to allow the plow crews to complete their work. We were successful, crossing just as controls were lifted. We traveled through an amazing landscape with swirling clouds, breaks of bright blue sky, and new snow.

After our first night, we needed to decide where to go. Yes, this was pretty much unplanned, but we are adept at coming up with adventures. “How ‘bout?” led to driving over Montgomery Pass and on to the Volcanic Hills. Standing water everywhere nixed that plan. Mud fests are not our style. The next “How ‘bout?” took us over Gilbert Summit and on to White Mountain City. A research paper from around 1960 has led us on a search for five boulders with petroglyphs that the author stated were 2 miles up the canyon above the ruins of the old city. This would be our third search for the elusive ancient rock art. Four low is required to drive above the ruins and up into the canyon. We revisited all our prior search areas, hoping another thorough look would yield success. No. We settled into a favorite camp spot for a glorious quiet night of solitude, us and the night and the stars.

“How ‘bout?” the next morning took us into the Inyo Mountains’ Mazourka Canyon to Barrel Springs. Joan and Carol, Mary DeDecker’s daughters, write in their wonderful book Sage & Sierra about climbing to Winnedumah Paiute Monument (scroll down the page to Winnedumah) from Barrel Springs. The Lady has been intent on finding and hiking their route. Studying Google Earth yielded a few waypoints along, what looked like, sections of old trail. I added these waypoints to our mapping program. We spent several hours on extremely rugged terrain. As high as we climbed, we found no trail bed so we ended this scouting expedition and retreated down to the canyon bottom.

Mountain Mouse has a webpage on hiking the Barrel Springs route in December1976. 

 

In the late afternoon we found a nice dispersed camp spot near the bottom of Mazourka Canyon, well off of the main road.

 

 

That evening we climbed the hill above camp. The view south down the Owens Valley.

 

 

At the top, we marveled at the view west with Owens Valley, the town of Independence, and the Sierra Nevada escarpment.

 

 

The Lady, with her phone, had 4 bars up here. A text message came from our friend the Sagebrush Reconnoiterer, an avid historian. He was responding about our location from our nightly “camped here tonight” InReach message. What a tale he had to tell. A 25 year old woman was last seen alive on June 24, 2006 on Mazourka Canyon Road. Several weeks later, in August, her body was found very close to where we were camped. Sagebrush related that he followed the story closely as he lived in Big Pine at the time. An online search found this newspaper account – Simi Valley Woman Found Dead. It is, unfortunately, another very sad story and I suspect there are inaccuracies in the linked article.

Ghosts were quiet and at peace through the night. Our neighbors were not. Mazourka Canyon is a popular place, a mecca of sorts, for the southern California overloading crowd. We were aware and that’s why we got off the main road. Early evening a group of three vehicles drove in, circled the wagons, and set up camp well within sight of us, something we would not do to other people in an open remote area. We consider it a common courtesy to not encroach. We not so jokingly equate it to their fear of the outdoors and the need to have other people in sight. Poor souls.

About bedtime, a text from the Reconnoiterer asked if our neighbors were behaving. “Liquor’s kicking in,” I answered, “And they’re getting loud.”

We were up well before dawn and ready for first light to work its magic on the landscape.

 

 

The evening before we spent time rereading and studying our materials concerning those elusive petroglyph boulders above White Mountain City. We made a discovery. A boulder with rock art in a different area had petroglyphs that matched the drawings in the paper. Was the location that far off and were there four other boulders near the one we’d found 5 years ago? “How ‘bout we go back to White Mountain City and continue the search?” The Lady was anxious and excited to possibly solve this puzzle.

Boulder one, found 5 years ago.

 

 

 

A new find, Boulder Two. And the ‘glyphs matched the drawings in the paper. Success!

 

 

Boulder Three.

 

 

 

 

Boulder Three was also a puzzle because the medicine wheel (my interpretation) in the upper left looked to be a more recent addition and was not in the paper’s drawings.

Boulder Four.

 

 

 

 

We did not find Boulder Five, although we repeatedly went over the search area. We did find several other rocks with petroglyphs not mentioned in the paper for extra credit.

 

 

 

 

This one was very faded but most interesting because it incorporated an intrusion in the granite.

 

 

We found this very recent rock art. This possibly answers the question about the medicine wheel on Boulder Three. Someone is adding new rock art to this ancient site.

 

 

We ended our search for the fifth boulder mid afternoon. “How ‘bout?” took us into the White Mountains, back to a favorite dispersed site to spend the night. The ground was snow covered in the shaded areas. On our evening walk, the Lady saw a rocky outcrop capping the ridge line to the southeast of camp. “We’ll check that out in the morning!” she firmly stated.

Our coffee wander the following morning was more of a coffee climb. Nothing but the very top would do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I gave a suggestion in answer to where we should go this day. “How ‘bout” we return to a favorite campsite from years ago? It’s a long drive out to this remote spot in the Volcanic Tablelands. It sits on the edge of Chalk Bluff with wonderful views. We both remembered this is where we came for my sixtieth birthday thirteen years ago. We were quickly set up. And after a night up in the snow, we appreciated 70 degrees and changed into shorts. It was near perfect weather.

 

 

We wandered and searched the cliff faces to the east for ancient rock art.

 

 

 

 

 

We took in the incredible views before returning to camp.

 

 

 

 

 

We were back out to the edge for last light at sunset.

 

 

 

Here was our view at dinner.

 

Views at first light the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunlight reached camp.

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s where we enjoyed eating breakfast.

 

We leisurely drove back to our house and ended this quick five night trip. “How ‘bout?” worked out pretty darn well.