The Loaf Love Tour: Jan 19, 20, 21, 2010 Death Valley National Park

Who says there isn’t water in Death Valley…our last water stop was in Trono at the restrooms to fill our solar shower (which was a short and delightful experience). A bustling little town (not really) where they mine sodium chloride, borax and soda ash…there may have been a few others too. Luckliy, the people of Trono have 3 churches to choose from…Thank God for that.

We motored into the park on a sunny, 65 degree day along 178 North into the Southern WIldrose entrance. We took a 12 mile dirt side road to check out Ballarat, a ghost town. I thought ghost towns were supposed to be vacant…this one had a little store and a campground-hmmm. ..Anyway we crusied along the dirt road checking out the Panamint Range and Death Valley. Death Valley is the largest area of designated national park wilderness in the contiguous US at 3,099,770 acres. Nearly 1, 000 miles of roads-paved and dirt-provide accessibility to a lot of places, except for the very remote locations. Death Valley was designated a National Park in 1994 after they began noticing a considerable impact on the land. Back in 1870-80s, mining began in a greedy search for gold and silver. It was a boom and bust pattern of mining for years. Chinese miners began gathering borax using 20 mule teams to haul it off to railheads. Many of these mines are now abandoned and closed, mine tailings left as a result.

Panamint Dunes (we made it to the highest dune you can see)

-282 ft. elevation

The valley gets an annual rainfall of 2 inches!! When there are storms with precipitation, most of it gets absorbed by the mountains and little is left to fall into the valley. Death Valley is the hottest place in North America not only because it has the lowest elevation, -282 below sea level, but because the surrounding mountains recirculate the hot air and keep it from dissipating at night. The hottest recorded temp was 134 degrees in 1994—that’s HOT!! During summer, daytime highs can be up to 120 degrees and the nighttime temps may not drop below 100 degrees----there’s no relief. Geoloigic forces have made it so the highest point and lowest point in the lower 48 are both in CA. Mt Whitney (14, 491 ft) and Badwater Basin (-282 ft below sealevel) are only 100 ft miles from each other…that’s crazy cataclysmic forces thrusting rock layers up and opposing errosional forces ….Its pretty astounding standing there looking around at the outcomes of such powerful forces of nature. With that being said, Death Valley is hot, dry and a land of extremes, therefore plants and animals have to be highly adaptable to survive there. Surprisingly, there are nearly 1000 native plant species.

cotton top cactus

A few animals live there—kangaroo rats, sidewinder snakes, and a highly adaptable pupfish. The Kangaroo rat can live without a single drop of water!! It gets water from seeds it gathers and will burrow in holes to trap moisture. The sidewinder can also live w/o water—it gets water from its food- the kangaroo rats and then the snake moves into their burrows---jerks! This pupfish is pretty interesting. It’s extremely heat-tolerant (duh), can live in water temps of 112 degrees and can survive water 3x’s saltier then the ocean!! That’s just crazy. Jason should’ve fished for one---it could’ve seasoned our bland corn chowder we had for dinner!!

OK—enough on the geek-out specs…it really is fascinating…check it out someday.

death valley mountains ~7,000 ft. (snow, pinion pines and junipers)

So, we drove up to the Charcoal Kilns. These are beehive looking stuctures that were built out of limestone, sand and gravel to make charcoal to spelt silver/lead ore. Then we drove to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. We took a hike to the highest sand dune we could see. Walking in the desert, up and down sand was a difficult task. It did feel really good to take off our shoes and socks—a good exfoliant. After that, we headed for camp, but had to take a detour on 20 Mule Team Canyon Road. A twisty, turny graded dirt road they hauled borax with 20 mule teams, hence the name. Beautiful time—evening sundown—the colors and textures in the landscape were spectacular. We free-camped at Hole-in-the Wall under a full moon. Another glorious day. The next day we hiked from our camp into Slit canyon (thanks to our friend Rich Hayden for the recommendation and route description). It was quite a unique adventure that included a few 10-15 ft rock climbs, a few talus slope scrambles and some tight slot pushes. It's basically a canyon that gets eroded by strong flash floods that occur very infrequently now, but over thousands and thousands of years, has eroded into an intricate maze of twists and turns. It was apprx an 8 mile hike roundtrip--giving us just barely enough time to pack up the van and catch the sunset at Badwater and a drive through popular Artist's drive.

rock climb in Slit Canyon

That night we camped up Echo Canyon, just outside of the Furnace Creek area. We woke at 6:30am the next morning to catch a beautiful sunrise at Zabrinske Point. Jason went for a quick hike/jog up a random canyon while Sonia talked with a park ranger about driving routes to Salt Lake City. We even took showers with our trusty solar shower, totally naked, on what normally would have been a busy tourist road. The temps and weather have been great...upper 60's during the day and the 40's at night. We're now on our way to our friends Jason and Ying's in Salt Lake City via I-83 (awesome alternate route with great western vistas of high desert plant communities, numerous mountains and salt flats). We are so ready for a proper shower (its been 6 days!) and some time to launder our clothes and relax with friends in the comforts of a home. We are still enjoying ourselves and look forward to spending time in the Colorado Plateau after SLC. We are planning to get a day or two to ski in the Wasatch Mountains, probably Deer Valley or Snowbird, maybe both. We'll be in Salt Lake City until Wednesday, in great cell service, so feel free to give us a call. Until the next time...take care