February 19, 2025 - Death Valley

 

Title: February 19, 2025 - Death Valley
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Hike Info:

Type: Camping

Description:

I got up at 6:40 after a good night's sleep. Went for a short walk around camp and when I got back Sherri was up but Don had not returned from his walk. We are having oatmeal and cinnamon muffin for breakfast. Then Don came back right as we were about to eat.

Don walking the ravine

After breakfast Sherri and Don go up a canyon close to camp. I hang around camp while Sherri and Don go on a jaunt. Yesterday I found a horse trail in a canyon next to us. They followed that around for about 40 minutes before making their return trip.

I wait for the mechanic. Steve and Morgan come about 9 while Don and Sherri are out. Steve is the mechanic and Morgan is his wife. He checks out the battery and it is shot as well. So he orders another battery which will be brought by his boss. A delay is that evidently someplace in the phone tree, a wrong VIN was transmitted. Steve verifies the VIN.

About 11:30 the alternator and battery show up and the work starts. He gives me a bill, about $1,080. Morgan takes me down to Farabee’s and I pay the bill. I am thinking that this may be pretty reasonable. Apparently replacing an alternator is not as easy as it sounds, at least on a Highlander. Steve keeps taking off parts of the engine. This goes on all afternoon with more and more parts coming off as Steve tries to get to the alternator and then tries to make room to put the new one in. Some of the people from Farabee’s come up to either assist, encourage or check on the progress. About 5:30 they call it quits for the night. It is getting dark. Alternator is somewhat in place, but everything needs to be put back together again.

 They leave and we have dinner. Dinner is soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We discuss the situation and decide that we will leave tomorrow if the car is working by about noon. That should get us out of there by 1. Also tomorrow while they are putting the car back together again, Don will take Sherri down to the Borax Museum he discovered-we did not know about it.

One situation which is getting a bit critical is the device battery usage. Both Sherri and I are getting close to the end of our battery supplies. So we are conserving power a bit more than we did yesterday. I have been reading a lot on my device. By 9:30, we are all ready for bed. One thing which I am worried about, maybe not enough to keep me up, but enough to be on my mind as I fall asleep, is will Steve be able to get all the pieces and parts back together again?

What we were going to do, but did not:

Jensen Canyon/Mummy Canyon

Dante Point

Zabrinske Point

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola.	PB&Nutella or jelly Sandwich	Soup&Grilled Cheese	Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Don walking the ravine

Interesting colaration

Is Don resting or waiting?

Animals
 

Roadrunner

Roadrunner

February 18, 2025 - Death Valley-Vehicle on Life Support

 

Title: February 18, 2025 - Death Valley-Vehicle on Life Support
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Hike Info:

Type: Camping

Description:

I slept pretty well. There was a short time where the wind came up, but did not do any damage to our camp. I got up at 7. Don had gotten up before I did and returned from his walk. I walked over to a ravine on the other side of a hill to the north of our camp. There I discovered a path, but did not follow it.

I got back in time for Sherri to start our French Toast breakfast. Very satisfying. It is about 10 when we are finally ready to start our travels. The first place will be Badwater, the lowest place in the United States.

But then we had an intervention to our plans. The car would not start. A fellow camper was passing by-Dave from San Jose. He jumped our car and it started up. It then ran for 4 minutes and stopped and would not start again. There was enough power to give a series of messages: Brake System Not Working, AWS Not Functioning and Charging System Malfunction.

 

 

Don runs down to the service station while I work through “what do these error messages mean” and “what does the owner’s manual say?” None of which are particularly helpful. Don comes back with the news that the mechanic at the station is off today, but he has a phone number for us to call. Which would be helpful if we had a cell connection. That is spotty at best.

Sherri and I decided we needed to go down and make arrangements. Our campground neighbors, Jim and Joe from Colorado offered to take Don someplace close. Don wanted to go to Golden Canyon, about 2-3 miles away. So that is what happened.

Sherri and I go to The Ranch at Furnace Creek, we were able to use the cell phone. I called Ted at Snapps and ran through the symptoms. He suspects the alternator, but cannot confirm this unless some voltages can be taken. We walk over to Farabee Jeep Rentals which is where the mechanic works through. There we found out that the mechanic has three days worth of work already lined up, but another person from Pahrump could be arranged to work on the car.

But he will not be coming until tomorrow. But if things work out, he will bring an alternator with him. In the meantime, I need to trot back up to camp and get the VIN number for the Highlander. Sherri will at least explore the Visitor Center while I run this errand.

That process takes about 45 minutes. It is a little over a mile in each direction. The VIN is on an old insurance card, so I just brought that. Tyler says that they will have an answer in a couple of hours. So I go and find Sherri at the Visitor Center. I am ready to sit down for a while and there is no place in the Center, but some benches in the shade outside provide what we need. We sat down for a while talking and musing-nothing profound. Next to us there seems to be some sort of testing going on. I have not seen this many LE’s in one place at a National Park before. Hope iot is not connected with the layoffs our President is inflicting on the Parks.

We start to get hungry, so we start going back to camp. We go past Farabee’s, but Tyler is on break and will not be back for another hour. At camp, Sherri and I have our lunch. About when we finish, Don comes in after enjoying Golden Canyon. He has his lunch and then goes off exploring some more. For me? I am tuckered out and take a nap, waking up at 3:20, a lot more refreshed. Time to go back and see if we have any word yet on the plans for tomorrow.

I find Tyler at the gas station, filling up a jeep. They found an alternator and it will be coming with the mechanic in the morning. We then talk about the name Farabee. Sherri had seen a book by Butch Farabee at the Visitor Center-National Park Ranger. I was wondering what the connection was. Tyler notes that the Butch side went more north in New England while his relatives headed south to Florida. Eventually making their way to Moab where his great-grandfather inadvertently started into the Jeep rental business. Now the only Jeep rental by the Farabee’s is in Death Valley.

When I got back, I talked with Dave a bit. There was a discussion about the various places we both had been. While he did not know about Jensen Canyon, but when I mentioned the Mummy there, he knew what it was and had learned it to be Mummy Canyon.

Sherri made us dinner-skillet chicken, pasta and vegetables from Birds Eye. Pretty tasty and filling. Don, Sherri, and I all talked about the possibilities of what tomorrow held and when the repair would happen. When it got dark, we lit the fire from wood Don brought from his property near Pine Flat. Sherri and I, well maybe particularly I, usually do not have a campfire, so this is a good treat out in the desert. We burnt all the wood. Around 9:30, we wandered off to bed. A bit more tired than our exertion warranted.

The places we did not go today, which was on our list:

Badwater

Devil's Golf Course

Artist Palette

Visitor Center

Borax Mine

Maybe Desolation Canyon-before Sherri gets up

Trail Lesson: Be prepared to change for the unexpected.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
French Toast/Turkey Sausage/syrup/jam	PB&Nutella or jelly Sandwich	Skillet dinner	Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Animal

November 17, 2021 -Death Valley: salt Creek and Ubehebe Crater

 

Title: November 17, 2021 -Death Valley: salt Creek and Ubehebe Crater
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals 

 

 

 

 

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking
Trail: Salt Creek Trail
Trail head:Salt Creek Parking Lot

Destination: Loop
Distance:  0.91 miles ¹
Elevation Rise: 128 '
Descent: 129‘
Maximum Elevation: -191'
 ¹Data and maps are from Google Earth as I did not turn on my GPS

Hike Info:
Type: Hiking
Trail: Urehebe Crater and Little Hebe Crater
Trail head: Ubehebe Crater Parking Lot

Destination: Little Hebe Crater
Distance: 2.09 miles
Start Time: 1:27
End Time:  3:18
Travel Time:  1:51 (1.31 mph)
Moving Time: 1:15  (1.67 mph)
Elevation Rise: 572'
Descent: 576‘
Maximum Elevation: 2,885'

GPS Tracks

Car Mileage: 120 Miles

Description:

It is a special treat to be able to have a tent up only for privacy without a rain

Salt Creek Area

fly. When we went to bed, the moon brightened up the interior of the tent much better than a night light would have. But this morning when I woke up at 5am, there was no hint of morning, just bright stars overhead. I put on my glasses and gazed up at them, feeling very fortunate to be an audience for this show. I would doze and then awake to the beginnings of a morning sky, Finally around 6:30 I got up to find that a wind had come up to cool us down.

Sherri got up shortly afterwards and we had oatmeal. We put the camp away and went to the market to pick up ice. Then on to the Death Valley Visitor Center. We toured the museum-I was hoping to find out something about Jensen, but nothing there. We asked the rangers on duty some of our lingering questions:

• Since we are going to the dunes and someone died there recently, what safety precautions should we have? He recites the normal stuff-water and don’t get lost, …
• There is a road on the west side of Death Valley. What things of interest is there over there? Just the canyons up the side of the mountains.
• Where can we find out about Jensen? Who? Unknown.
• What scat did we see? Either a goat if large or rabbit. (Probably a rabbit.)
• Is the leg we saw yesterday of a goat? Looks like it.

I suspect they were hoping that we did not have any more questions, which we did not. But we can see if we can be puzzled about other things today.

Old Stovepipe Well

We traveled up the road, turning off at Salt Creek. This is a spot where a variety of pupfish reside. We went on the mile or so interpretive trail which is built on a boardwalk. It was a nice leisurely walk. But we were disappointed not to see any pupfish. It was not from the lack of observation. They may have been hidden in the weeds along the edge or in another part of the creek.

We returned back to the car and continued on north. On thing which our Salt Creek venture did for us was to help us realize it is still pretty warm in the open sun. Our next stop is the Old Stovepipe Well area. We had hoped to hike into the Mesquite Dunes, but we were thinking this would not be fun under this sun. When we parked, two ladies were taking pictures. I took there picture for them. We chatted for awhile. They definitely are not hikers, but they wet our interest in going up to the Ubehebe Crater.

Ubehebe Crater

So off we went, 30 miles more to the north. The road is good and all paved, so we made good time. Several cars were already in the parking area. Our first order of business, after glancing into the crater was to have lunch. Once that got taken care of, we decided to hike up a little ways. Going counter-clockwise, we ascend up a steep, gravely slope. This is more plodding than a problem. But once we get the hang of it, we are able to look down into the crater.

Because of the gravel, Sherri is not wild about going on, but she does. Down a slope and up another slope gets us to the Little Hebe Crater trail. We take this branch off of the trail. It is a short ways to the Little Hebe Crater (what is a hebe anyway?). Sherri is content to look at it. I going around it-clockwise. It is a nice walk. A couple from San Jose is celebrating their birthdays today-we talk for a few minutes and I rejoin Sherri.

Sherri returning to parking lot

Sherri decides she wants to go back the way we came and is content to do it on her own. After considering this, I continue to go around Ubehebe Crater. The uphills, I plod up, meeting the couple again at the top. We talk some more about hiking-they think I am a fast hiker. I got them fooled. 

 

 

 

Little Hebe Crater

 I continue around. I am feeling better about my walking than I have in a long time. My stride has rhythm and a bounce, at least on the downhill slopes. And I am enjoying this time out, not because of being without Sherri, but because I am feeling good about my walking.

Gary coming in

By the way, the Crater is a wonder each side has different coloration, markings and erosion patterns. This bit of scenery helps in my feel good time. Towards the end of the circuit, it is uphill. I wonder what kind of hike is this where both the start and finish are uphill slopes? But it is a good walk and glad I did the whole thing.

We travel back to home, that is back to camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 . The sun is starting to go down, lightning up the sand dunes. I can see why the dunes attract photographers in the mornings and evenings. We get back to camp at 4:29-yesterday we noted we should be trying to get back to camp around 4:30-accomplished. Sherri makes Frito boats for us. A satisfying meal. I spend the rest of the evening catching up on my blog entries. Then we go to bed at 8:00.

 

 

Background

Pupfish. This is an endangered fish found only in a couple of places in Death Valley. They are very small, about 1½ inches in length-sometimes growing to 3 inches. We were looking for something even smaller. Take a look at Wikipedia for more information.

Best Easy Day Hikes Death Valley National Park. We went on two hikes listed in this book on this day:

• Salt Creek. The book has a pretty accurate description. If w had read it closely, we would have understood that we should not expect to see the pupfish in November.

• Ubehebe and Little Hebe Craters. Pretty good description, plus added information about the volcanic geology of the area.

Extra Photo's

Gary walking the rim of Ubehebe CCrater

Gary and his new friends on Little Hebe Crater

Gary on Little Hebe Crater

Sherri on Little Hebe Crater

Little Hebe Crater

Dry pond

Side of Ubehebe Crater

Gary doing the initial climb on the rim

Sherri going up at the start

Dragon Rock

Trail around the rim of Ubehebe Crater

Ubehebe Crater

Rim Trail

Gary finishing up on the Little Hebe Crater

Animals

Lizard