Lipstick on the Pig - A Trip to Death Valley (Jan 2022)

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Exploring Death Valley during the winter months is usually a good choice. Given the wintery-cold temps and snow elsewhere, the relatively cooler - but still pleasantly warm at 60-75°F - days in the desert a welcome break from the dreary days in the Pacific Northwest.

It was with this in mind that I decided to plan a trip to the southwestern Panamint Mountains to explore the area I'd discovered along the Pleasant Canyon-to-Lower Park loop on my previous trip just a month before. We'd rushed that section a bit - completing it in about four hours, and I hoped that giving myself 48 hours would do several of the spur roads and abandoned mines justice.

The only thing I didn't factor in was... winter.

We'd end up spending much of the trip at a series of spectacular talc mines. Talc of course is a primary ingredient in makeup, so you could say we were - essentially - putting lipstick on the pig.

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Part 1:
Change of Plans
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The loop through Pleasant Canyon and Lower Park tops out around 8,500' and judging from the landmarks we could see, snow seemed to start at 5,500' or so, and was full coverage by a little over 6,000'. That would mean slippery roads and a lot more effort needed to explore the mines - not to mention very cold days and nights - so we knew the plan was going to have to change. The question was, how? For now, we delayed the decision and decided to explore a couple of the canyons at lower elevations.

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Change of Plans - Lipstick #1​

 

...As with many dunes, the highest point can be deceiving when viewed from various angles below. As the running had commenced a few minutes earlier, I'd realized that - if the kids were after the highest summit - we had nothing to worry about; they were on the way to the second highest point, with no traversable path to the tallest dune! We plodded on....

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One Dunes Down - Lipstick #2​

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One Dunes Down - Lipstick #2​

 

...Besides summitting the dunes - which we'll get to in a moment - another reason for the trek across the sand blown landscape was to check out the remains of a mine that I'd spotted during my research. Hidden behind the dunes at the base of the Saddle Peak Hills, the Rainbow Talc Mine has an interesting history - the subject of one of the most recent battles between protection of the National Park lands, and the mineral rights of landowners. Plus, if the satellite imagery was right, it was going to look pretty darn cool!...

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Two Dunes Down - Lipstick #3​

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Two Dunes Down - Lipstick #3​

 

...The extensive complex of adits, ore bins, ore chutes and tramway networks at the Moorehouse was impressive to say the least. Completely by accident, we'd saved the best for last! In relatively good condition, these structures are massive - extending several hundred feet up the hillside and several hundred feet to each side of the dual ore chutes. As we parked the truck and began our exploration on foot, I'm sure @mrs.turbodb would have told you that I could barely contain my excitement....

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It's Mine, Mine, Mine - All Mines! - Lipstick #4​

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It's Mine, Mine, Mine - All Mines! - Lipstick #4​