chomp
03-27-2006, 10:16
Hey All -
Well, I finished up my photos from Death Valley this weekend. Two weeks ago, VSA and I flew out to Vegas with the intention of spending a week in the southern desert canyons of Utah. However, several storms and lots of snow made that plan a little infeasible. So, instead, we planned on traveling all around in an attempt to avoid the bad weather. Our first planned stop was Death Valley, but instead of staying for a couple of days and moving on, we fell in love and spent a whole week there.
Death Valley is amazing - its the largest National Park south of Alaska; there is just so much to do and so much varied terrain. It is the forth lowest point in the world, Badwater, at -282. However, just four miles away is Telescope Peak at 11,049. Make no mistake - Death Valley is everything you think it is, but it is also so much more than that. We easily spent a week there, and could have spent another week if we have a 4WD car. If you wanted to backpack (you have to carry all of you water since there is almost no water), you could spend a month.
The highlights? Tons of canyon hiking. Considering my only experience with this was The Narrows in Zion, I was blown away. We did hike 2 peaks. The trailhead to Telescope Peak was to rugged for our rental, but we did bag Wildrose peak at 9000+ and right next door. Also, we hiked the 5,678 Ubehebe Peak which towers over 2000 feet about a dry lake called "The Racetrack". We hiked in 2 sand dunes, one of which had a 3500 peak. We hiked around 1 volcanic crater. And a we got a tour of a castle in the middle of the desert. Oh yea, we hit Zion and Bryce for 1 day just to see them covered with snow. Good times. Here are the photos. The full journal will be on the way:
http://gallery.backcountry.net/chomp-deathvalley
chomp
Well, I finished up my photos from Death Valley this weekend. Two weeks ago, VSA and I flew out to Vegas with the intention of spending a week in the southern desert canyons of Utah. However, several storms and lots of snow made that plan a little infeasible. So, instead, we planned on traveling all around in an attempt to avoid the bad weather. Our first planned stop was Death Valley, but instead of staying for a couple of days and moving on, we fell in love and spent a whole week there.
Death Valley is amazing - its the largest National Park south of Alaska; there is just so much to do and so much varied terrain. It is the forth lowest point in the world, Badwater, at -282. However, just four miles away is Telescope Peak at 11,049. Make no mistake - Death Valley is everything you think it is, but it is also so much more than that. We easily spent a week there, and could have spent another week if we have a 4WD car. If you wanted to backpack (you have to carry all of you water since there is almost no water), you could spend a month.
The highlights? Tons of canyon hiking. Considering my only experience with this was The Narrows in Zion, I was blown away. We did hike 2 peaks. The trailhead to Telescope Peak was to rugged for our rental, but we did bag Wildrose peak at 9000+ and right next door. Also, we hiked the 5,678 Ubehebe Peak which towers over 2000 feet about a dry lake called "The Racetrack". We hiked in 2 sand dunes, one of which had a 3500 peak. We hiked around 1 volcanic crater. And a we got a tour of a castle in the middle of the desert. Oh yea, we hit Zion and Bryce for 1 day just to see them covered with snow. Good times. Here are the photos. The full journal will be on the way:
http://gallery.backcountry.net/chomp-deathvalley
chomp