Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Another spectacular photographic wandering. I'm sad I didn't make it out there soon enough to see the microwave site. But I definitely want to go to "nowhere". The name reminds me of Know where from The Avengers.

 

Very nice. I saw my first - at least that I can recall - "first sunrise" as I was driving home this morning through Nevada. About 20 minutes before I expected sunrise, I only knew what it was from your description several trip reports ago.

Was a great way to interrupt what was a long day of driving.

 

Death Valley - Day 2
January 2020

I made no attempts at early sunrise photos in the morning - totally cloudless sky - though if I had had more energy a short walk would have maybe gotten me some interesting dune shots. This was however suppose to be a vacation so nothing wrong with sleeping in a bit. I wanted my hike for the day to occur in the afternoon to have better sun angles for photography so it was going to be a lazy morning anyway.

Eventually I drove back down the dead end road I was on towards a large collection of talc mines. These are quite extensive and a person really interested in mines could easily spend a whole day here exploring. One site I had explored quite a bit a decade ago so I gave that a skip. I stopped for a photo in the ruins of the old company town.

Floor to ceiling views!
​

There are a number of different claims all nearby (a few even connected underground) with many shafts and adits. These are almost all closed with steel cable netting. In most cases the NPS has done a nice job putting the netting well back from the entrance so that you can still duck in to escape the sun and get a sense of the place.

I walked up to one of the sites higher on the hillside where I hadn't been before looking for an adit entrance that might be photogenic. Without too much effort I found a passable one.

Talc Mine Adit
​

I poked around a bit more at a leisurely pace and decided to have lunch parked up at the head of the aluvial fan where the road ended as it provided a nice view for my meal. After lunch I drove south to the road's closest approach to the Ibex Dunes.

The Ibex Dunes are one of the lesser visited dune systems in the park. The first time I drove near them many years back and took some photos I was intrigued to see a large mining structure peaking out behind them. It seemed like it must be an almost storybook setting to actually have a mine right next to a sand dune. I decided some day I would hike out to the mine to check it out. Well, it was now more than a decade later but today was finally going to be that day.

It is an easy hike from the road across the open desert. The weather was perfect for such a hike - reasonable temperatures, a light breeze and the potential for some patchy clouds later in the afternoon. It only took about 45 minutes to get to the mine. I crossed the dune system at a low saddle where the sand was well packed. The structure was impressively large and remarkably close to the dunes. I wandered up a nearby hillside to get the composition I wanted. This was a shot I had "pre-visualized" more than a decade ago from across the valley hopeful that whenever I got there the elements could be lined up the way I envisioned.

Sand and Talc
​

The topo map showed more mines just a little to the south and so I extended my hike along the edge of the hills to explore them. There were a few fire rings around from the past when this area was still open to vehicles. I must admit they would be some stunning campsites with close views of these delightful dunes. That said I much preferred the added solitude a short walk now provides.

There were some more mining structures, shafts and adits spread to the south. Some of the adits were nearly blocked by miniature dunes building up in their entrances. One large adit further up a hill provided a cool respite.

Escape from the sun
​

Returning the way I came there was now a lower sun angle and bands of clouds passing. Keeping my eye on the clouds I managed to get to a nice view of the dunes in time to catch the dunes lit by the sun while the background terrain was draped in shadow. A few moments after this the dunes themselves were dulled by shadows themselves and the moment was gone.

Ibex Dunes
​

One nice thing about the clouds was it made the hike back to the truck even more pleasant. As I walked I thought about the plan for the evening. There were actually two moderate sized groups of people camped in the area so I decided that I'd try to camp further north. To avoid driving more in the dark this meant I wouldn't hang out at Saratoga Springs for a sunset shot but I figured there should be water at the Amargosa River crossing and that could make a favorable composition. The question was with these fast moving bands of clouds would I end up with too many or too few clouds.

Harry Wade Road is in good condition and I had just run this segment a few weeks earlier after Christmas. I got to the Amargosa a good half hour before sunset which gave plenty of time to find a decent composition and enjoy the changing light as I waited. A small band of clouds inched down the valley from the north and provided a nice splash of color at the right time.

Amargosa Crossing
​

I've been feeling recently that I've definitely not spent enough time in the southern end of the valley. These two days were reinforcing that thought.

After all the light had decidedly gone I headed further north on Harry Wade and pulled off the road for a simple camp. I made sure to point the truck north as the forecast was for strong winds to start in the early morning. I had dinner, read and processed some photos before turning in. I kept my fingers crossed that the wind would start as late as possible and mulled over which of my potential hikes for the next day would be the most sheltered.

 

@DVexile Great photos!! B&W are my favorite, but also enjoy the color. Thanks for sharing.

Sand and Talc is fantastic!

 

Death Valley - Day 3
January 2020

The forecast for Wednesday was wind - and lots of it. It was suppose to start around 3 or 4 in the morning but fortunately it appeared to be late and I had a quiet breakfast in my roadside camp. I figured the wind would definitely show up eventually and so I picked a canyon hike that should be mostly perpendicular to the wind direction.

Quite near Room Canyon I pulled off Badwater Road and parked. The destination for the day was Foundry Canyon. The sky was clear and visibility was excellent - for now. It was about 8 in the morning and in the last few miles of the drive I noticed the wind was finally getting started. When I got out of the truck to start the hike the wind was definitely rising but not too bad. I started hiking up the fan as quickly as possible. The wind really started to blow and looking back I could see this wasn't just a local gust. The whole valley was starting to blow in earnest.

The wind arrives
​

You can't visit the desert often and not run into wind. It often seems to go like this from a nearly dead calm to a gale in a matter of minutes. I've seen it stop the same way too. Hiking in it can be quite a chore. It had been a long while since I'd done a windy hike though and so I sort of enjoyed the novelty of it. I was hoping I'd get some shelter in the canyon though.

In a wind storm canyons can either be a shelter or a wind tunnel and it is difficult to predict. In this case it was a little of both depending where in the canyon I was. With the early morning sun angle and some modestly tall walls to the wash I was able to do much of the hike up in shade and thus not have to fight with holding on my sun hat.

Like many canyons in the area it starts as a wide wash with low mud-gravel walls until further in it begins to narrow between high rock walls. As it bent a few times the wind was mostly cutoff and I was left with a pleasant breeze. Some way in the canyon walls suddenly narrow down considerably and you enter the true narrows. There are some minor dryfalls and rock falls to climb. The narrows section isn't particularly long but it ends (at least for hikers) in a fairly spectacular spot where two huge chockstones (really chockboulders) hang above the floor. The lowest almost requires ducking and is wedged close to a high dryfall creating a shadowy chamber. A short way in front of this a giant boulder is wedged high above the ground. It was dead calm in this section but I could hear the wind whistling across the top of the slot. I had a nice snack and tried out some compositions. I settled on a shot with the camera in the alcove by the dryfall pointed down canyon capturing the higher chockstone.

Foundry Canyon
​

After spending probably half an hour eating my snack and running about like an idiot trying to beat my camera's ten second timer to get in position for photos it was time to head back to the truck. More of the route was in sun now but as I was going downhill and it was a cool windy day the warmth was welcome.

In the lower canyon and out on the fan the wind was absolutely blistering. I ended up holding down the sides of my hat like a taco to keep my face mostly sheltered from the wind and occasional blowing sand. Doing this for parts of one hike was fine but I wouldn't want to make a habit of it!

I often like to take a light day in the middle of a trip and with the wind this was going to be that day. I made the long drive up to Furnace Creek and had lunch in the saloon there. I stopped by the visitor center and checked out the exhibits.

In the mid-afternoon I headed up into Echo Canyon to find shelter from the wind. I was able to tuck the truck against the wall in a bend of the canyon and be almost entirely wind free other than an occasional eddy that found my nook. I scouted a nearby sunset shot that was also sheltered from the wind. The valley was full of dust so a closer feature was desirable rather than a distant vista. A couple that was hiking the canyon stopped by and chatted about the Flip-Pac and Death Valley in general (they had parked their Outback near the head of the canyon where the road started to need high clearance).

It was a pleasant relaxing afternoon and as sunset approached I walked back down canyon to my sunset shot. Clouds were sparse but there were just a few patches of cirrus around and as the sun dropped below the horizon they blew into my composition.

Echo Canyon
​

I was pretty delighted to have gotten lucky on the clouds yet again! Back at the truck I made my usual dinner, did some more reading and poked at the days photos on my laptop. The wind was forecast to let up in the night and as best as I could tell it sounded like it had gotten quite a bit weaker.

As I got ready for bed I realized that I now owned a camera that could do astro stuff relatively easily so I pretty much had to do the cliche "expo-astro" shot everyone does. Given the time of year and the time of night there was no Milky Way up so it would just have to be the stars. The mountains to the east were bathed in the light of a crescent moon while the area around the truck was in deep shadow.

Echo Camp under the stars
​

And with that my relatively low key third day was complete. I had one more day to go which would probably prove to be more eventful!

 

What is your new camera?

 

Nikon Z7. After a decade of constantly eyeing a "full frame" setup I finally gave it a go this fall as there were lots of sales and Nikon had ticked almost all the right boxes for me. I picked it up with the 24-70/4 and the 14-30/4. Both of those lenses are absolutely amazing. Nikon has really hit a home run on most of the lenses they've done for the Z system.

Really there is little that the Z7 setup can do that I couldn't do just as well with my Micro Four Thirds setup using multiple exposures. It is just a lot more convenient to use the Z7 in the field and work with single exposures in post processing. My "nice" m43 setup also had relatively large lenses so the step up in size to the Z7 wasn't that big a deal and by rearranging how I packed things I could still fit it in my carry-on backpack along with the other camera stuff I bring and I could also still use the same tripod and ball-head I already had for m43 as the weights and sizes not that different. The one place full frame is much larger than m43 is when you get to the telephoto end of things. I mitigated that a bit by using a relatively compact but high quality old Canon FD manual focus 80-200 zoom for my landscape telephoto with the Z7. Manual focus not a big deal for landscape.

I still use a very small m43 kit for my hikes though (Panasonic GM1, 12-32/3.5-5.6, 35-100/4-5.6). So in the trip reports if I'm posting on a hike it is that m43 camera (or even my iPhone in some cases) while sunrise/sunset or other shots from near the truck are the Z7. Both of the Ibex Dunes shots are that little m43 camera with five to seven exposures averaged to get noise performance similar to a full frame system. The two talc mine tunnels and the Foundry Canyon shot are also that m43 camera but in that case an HDR stack rather than averaged exposures. I'm more than willing to deal with more hassle shooting in the field and more post processing afterwards to be able to carry around the ridiculously small GM1 setup when I'm hiking.

 

Death Valley - Day 4
January 2020

Thursday was my last day and I needed to be moving early enough to get some cell coverage to check in for my flight the next morning. This also meant I'd be out for sunrise though I had low expectations as I figured the valley would be full of dust from the day before and my location constrained by needing to check in just 10 minutes before local sunrise.

Well things actually went smoothly. Apparently the wind had died down in the night enough to stop picking up dust but continued just enough to flush the dusty air out of the valley. It was surprisingly clear! I found a spot on the edge of the Echo Canyon wash with cell and some nice compositions in the direction of Zabriske and Twenty Mule Team. I got all set on a nice composition with Telescope Peak in the background.

Well it appeared the sky behind Telescope might fizzle so I made a last second decision to recompose on the better part of the sky anchored by the colorful badlands around Twenty Mule Team.

Twenty Mule Sunrise
​

After just one quick exposure there I setup the original composition and crossed my fingers. Indeed the color wasn't nearly as spectacular but I must say I think it came out quite well on its own nonetheless.

Telescope Backdrop
​

And I managed to successfully check in for my Southwest flight all at the same time! Since I was already up and about I headed to Furnace Creek for the overpriced breakfast buffet. It was a great improvement over the cold Pop Tarts that I ate the previous two days.

I had a schedule to meet this morning though as I was finally going to meet up with @turbodb after a few near misses in the past. He was over near Beatty and the plan was to run Titus Canyon together and then hike Fall Canyon. I pulled off the pavement just a bit before 8:30 and Dan was already there waiting. He led the way up the boring first section of road and we hopped out as we came to the first high point that starts to tempt you with color. We snapped a few shots and I had Dan run out in front so I could get a shot of his truck running the road.

Leading the Way
​

The upper part of Titus is quite spectacular even though the road is mostly known for the last few miles of narrows. We climbed up Red Pass and parked for more photos. There wasn't a soul around on the road this morning.

Red Pass
​

We switched spots and I led the way down. Maybe Dan will post some photos in his report. We stopped at the occasional sights along the way and made a nice trip of it. Eventually we got to the well known narrows which were spectacular as usual but I didn't stop for any photos. The sun angle wasn't particularly favorable for the narrows in the morning - it is a much more magical place photographically in the late afternoon.

We encountered the first other people just a little way from the end of the narrows where a few photographers had walked in from the parking lot. I had kind of expected to see a few more hikers in the lower canyon. We were spat out into the parking lot to find just a few other vehicles there.

Fall Canyon is the next canyon north from Titus and is one of the more well known hikes in Death Valley. It has an obvious trail that leaves from the parking lot at the mouth of Titus and is recommended by the park literature and the rangers. So I really expected we'd have a fair bit of company on this hike. As best we could tell though there were at most three cars of people in the canyon.

Despite its popularity I've actually never hiked Fall Canyon in all the years I've been visiting. It was nice to hike something new to both of us. It is a relatively short walk to the mouth of Fall Canyon and much like Titus it is almost immediately enclosed by high walls. There aren't true narrows right at the start though, those are about 2.5 miles further up the canyon. The high walls do provide plenty of shade over almost the entire route.

Fall Canyon
​

I can understand why Fall Canyon gets recommended so frequently. There is very little hiking in the sun. It is a gradual easy canyon bottom that isn't too sandy or gravelly. The distance is modest. It gives a good flavor for a desert canyon. It is long enough to give a desert newcomer a small sense of accomplishment.

It was great to chat with Dan the whole way up the canyon and exchange camping and hiking stories. As we approached where we expected the 18 foot dryfall that stops most hikers we finally found the other groups. They were all sitting and eating their lunches a little way below the fall. It appeared they were all one group. We said hi and kept on walking.

There is a bypass about 500 feet down canyon from the fall that we found relatively easily. It is just a bit of a chimney like climb with good hand and footholds followed by some ledge walking and short talus climbs. This probably stops a lot of hikers but it is definitely worth tackling as it provides access to the best narrows above the fall.

Narrows above the fall
​

The narrows go for quite some way with many twists and turns between wonderful strata. These aren't the narrowest or highest narrows in the park but they are quite long and a delight to explore. After reaching the end where the canyon opens up again we doubled back into the central narrows and ate our lunch. We had the narrows entirely to ourselves. So much for the crowds I had expected!

We worked our way back down the bypass and began the easy walk back down canyon. We didn't encounter a single person the whole way. Dan was such an engaging person to chat with I pretty much forgot to take photos. Dan was much more diligent so check out his report once he posts it.

Finally outside the canyon and just a bit before the parking lot we ran into two hikers headed in. We had managed to hike one of the best known canyons in the park and other than walking past a group eating lunch once it had been be entirely in solitude.

Returning to the parking lot I got the tires aired up again for the drive back to Vegas. Dan got ready to continue his trip into the northern parts of the park. Dan and I shook hands and hoped we'd connect again. I think Dan has begun to realize he isn't going to bang out Death Valley in just one more visit. I've been doing it for about twenty four years now...

 

Another great trip report Ken! Your photos are always outstanding. I don’t know what you do in post but the colors are perfect. It reminds me of looking at old Velvia slides.

 

Truer words can not be spoken.
Spectacular trip report as always.

 

You're really making me want to head out to Ibex lol. I'd love to take my medium format camera out there and blow through a couple rolls of film

 

do it, love to see it! thinking the same.

 

Wow, Oman is gorgeous... I was reading this hunting book by Jack O'Connor and he was talking about his trips to Iran to hunt with the royalty... They sounded like amazing trips. It's nice that there are still a couple countries in the region that you can still explore w/o an MRAP.

 

Go Kot

Sometime way back in the build thread I mentioned my favorite cot and that it needed a post to itself. I was reminded of this when some bastard stole my damn cot over Christmas. So having now bought a replacement I figured now would be the time to post this. The main reason I'm posting is this thing is stupidly hard to find through a Google search unless you remember its specific name with odd spelling. Owners must have utterly failed at SEO.

It is very sturdy, well made and most importantly packs up ludicrously small.

The Go-Kot
​

These days I don't use a cot much since I have the Flip-Pac. But I did once use them all the time and I would have killed to know about this thing from the start. I got my first one only a little before I got the Flip-Pac. So many years wasted dealing with inferior cots...

You can find out more from the company's aptly named website: https://campingcot.com/

They are sold through some other retailers as well and so you can wait for a coupon opportunity or sale at some of the third party retailers and save a little.

It takes no time to setup or take down. You don't have to fight with it setting up or trying to fit it back in the small bag. Much of the size savings comes from the very low legs of course but the design is absolutely brilliant and elegant. If you haven't done cot sleeping before just remember to put a sleeping mat (like a Ridgerest) under you so you don't get a cold back.

This is so small it lives underneath all the other stuff I have crammed behind the rear seat in the truck. I brought my first one out to my old truck in carry-on duffel bag along with all my other stuff for a one week trip. It is that compact.

 

Sandy Peak

​

Random blast from the past here. Was going through old photos for a post in another thread and recently mentioned Sandy Peak to someone else when I remembered I had a photo from the peak. Route is in Zdon, doesn't seem to be in any of Digonnet's books which is a little surprising to me! It is all cross country and is a bit of a haul including some slightly scary moves on talus.

The view is absolutely amazing as you can see. Those are the Eureka Dunes below and the Sierras are in the far background peaking out behind the Inyos.

This shot was taken with an old Sony S85. A whopping 4MP of resolution! Back then the IR cut-off filters in cameras were kind of weak and so I could slap on a 830nm filter and still get enough light for a tripod mounted exposure. The noise was still horrific because of the old crappy sensor and 7 second exposure (those old sensors really stunk at long exposures). This is a combination of four exposures and some heavy noise processing to help as much as possible. No RAW back then so this from JPEGs which of course makes everything even worse.

It occurred to me that while Sandy has always been on my "must return to someday" list that there are so many other things on various lists it might not happen so I figured I'd post now for any DV lovers that follow this thread.

 

That is an amazing perspective. I need to hike up there.

 

so i'd like to be seeing Waucoba..must be off to the right out of frame?...surely not to the left?

 

Oh, sure, make me dig out and process MORE photos...

​

 

I’ve said this before in here and I am saying it again...

This IS THE BEST thread on TW!!!

Ken, I live vicariously through you!!

 

looking at that I imagine seeing Marble snake it's way toward Hidden dunes. a blog from several years ago had them camp at dry well and in the morning leave a vehicle at site and drive back around and into Marble as far as the track went, then hiked thru the canyon and out to the north tail of the saline range and dunes