Death Valley is really, really big. As you enter and look at the salt flats, dry lakebeds, rocks, mountains, alluvial fans and sand dunes, everything looks kind of close and moderately sized. Then you find out you are looking across a valley 14 miles wide and from elevations that range from -282 to over 11,000 feet in one view. As you travel and hike it seems as though you are going up gradual slopes and grades, until you start to head back down and realize this is pretty steep.
Climbing and descending the 100-200 foot sand dunes at Mesquite Flats is a wonderful and beautiful experience. We were there at sunset to see the play of light and shadow, and also got to experience a minor sand storm. Close inspection of the small dunes on the edge of the area revealed all manner of tracks from rodents, birds and lizards.
Hiking into steep walled canyons of rock, marble and mudstone in several places let us glimpse the stark hard arteries and heart of this place. We were able to lie on our backs on a dry lakebed in Panamint Valley and feel the warm hard earth seem to soften as we relaxed into its grasp.
With the recent and abundant rains it seemed there was at least small evidence of vegetation almost everywhere, but we were able to drive on dirt roads through canyons that looked more like the moon or mars than earth. It makes you realize the relative rarity of finding places without any vegetation or animal life.
On one trip we found ourselves walking on warm moist salt flats at -282 feet at Badwater, 30 minutes later we are hiking in a mudstone canyon at +1000 feet and an hour later we are shivering at Dantes View at +5,475 feet looking over Death Valley to snow covered Telescope Peak at over 11,000 feet.
We felt the intensity of the sun in the desert even though the temperatures were mild and even a bit cool. We felt the sting of wind blown sand a few times, and saw a density of stars that we haven’t seen for a long while.
Our home base was at Stovepipe Wells, a good central location. We were able to tour Scotty’s Castle to the north, Badwater to the south and Panamint Springs to the west.
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