Death Valley interlude. Winter 2023.

January 2023
Feast or famine. Fire or flood. Not enough or too much. This seems to be the new normal of weather patterns. The winter of 2023 can certainly be described in terms of too much, snow. all. at. once. Though we never want to complain about getting snow/rain in west, it doesn't necessarily have to come all at once. As I write this post in mid March this winter has been the gift that keeps on giving.

So in late January we experienced a bit of a break. Sunshine was calling and we had to go. Digging out and loading up the camper for a week, we hit the road once again for Death Valley. Still very cold at our house and knowing there is water available at Furnace Creek, we didn't try to load up with water before leaving as it would have froze in our tanks and plumbing. We spent the first night in our usual Panamint Valley camp spot, then moved on the next day to the 'parking lot' camp that is Sunrise campground at Furnace creek. I bought a lifetime National Park pass, (America The Beautiful Pass) for the same price as those poor souls that are not-of-our-age category pay for an annual pass, then paid half price camping at the campground. Finally, a perk to being old! After finding a site and filling our fresh water, I climbed up on the camper roof to do some leak repairs that first afternoon.

For the next several days we stayed at Sunrise. I rode my bike to Badwater and met Joannie who drove the camper out there. First we walked out and visited the salt flats. Following that we wanted to find Helios Canyon, a technical canyon we had done 10 yrs earlier. It's not named on any maps that I'm aware of, just named by first the descent team as are most of the technical canyons dropping down from the Black Range. We remembered that the 2nd stage of the final rappel dropped you right out on the valley floor a short distance from the road. I think there was 9 or 10 rappels all together incuding a big 160 footer. It wasn't diificult to re-find the canyon and interesting to look up the final rappels. This was the first technical canyon of several that we have done in Death Valley.

Moving on we decided to revisit Natural Bridge Canyon. This is the most well known of the natural bridges within the park. A very short hike will take you to the large bridge spanning the canyon. From there you can continue hiking up canyon by climbing a minor dryfall but shortly thereafter is a major blockade in the form of a much steeper dryfall. I have climbed up this dryfall but beware, it is complicated route finding to get back into the canyon below the dryfall without a rope to rappel the fall. By then it was time to head back to camp. No campfires or charcoal fires are allowed so we ended up having to cook in the camper. We still enjoyed going for ice cream and sunset drinks lounging about outside first though.

The next day I had planned to ride my bike up Echo canyon to the old Inyo Mine site. Inyo Mine was both the first and best gold discovery on the west side of the Funeral mtns. It was a long uphill to the mine site climbing some 4,000 ft from Furnace creek where I started, but the 4x4 road was in good condition and never too steep. Along the way I passed a number of natural arches, the largest being the named 'Eye Of The Needle' arch. The road passed under both the west and east sides of the arch and from above on the east side it presents an awesome landscape with the background falling away towards the valley floor and the Panamints with Telescope peak rising behind. When I finally arrived at the mine site, it presented numerous old ruins and rusting machinery. The mine may have been the best on this side of the Funerals, but even so it never amounted to much. I still get fascinated though thinking of the work it took for this to happen in this remote of a location. For example, all the water used at the mine for processing, drinking etc was hauled up the canyon from Furnace creek at great expense.

Joannie and Wyatt had spent the day doing walks and exploring around Furnace Creek. We found the good ice cream shop thanks to that exploration. And upon my return to the campsite we went and partook of that luxury. Unfortunately we had to leave the next day but it was a glorious escape. Death Valley has a multitude of winter getaway adventures. From hiking and cycling to technical canyoneering and off-roading and sightseeing, we're never at a loss for something to do.