Lighthawk
Weekend warrior
This year we were able to cobble together the Christmas / New Year holidays into a twelve day road trip. 
The itinerary was debated back and forth and we ultimately decided we needed to include our annual trek to Saline Valley in addition to visiting new terrain in Valley of Fire and Gold Butte, NV.
We left town the Saturday before Christmas, happy to skip out of the social vortex.
Travels were easy with open roads. Tahoe was dry, very different than last year when we skied on the shore in Kings Beach. We continued south, visiting Bridgeport and taking a soak. Ultimately, we went to Mono Lake, using MarkBC's camp just past the road closure on 120E. It was our coldest night at 15F. I precooled our 3-way fridge before the trip, but never lit the propane and did not use the DC mode on the fridge either. Otherwise we would freeze our veggies. Instead everything was fine, and our refer was essentially used as a storage box with no cooling for for the first 24 hours of our winter travels.
Some morning shots of Mono Lake, taken from camp:
In a perfect world we would have been able to use North Pass to enter the valley and exit via the South Pass. Instead we had some good news and some bad news. We met some nice folks airing up their Eurovan at the turn off to North Pass and learned the road was freshy graded. Sweet! Easy entrance via North Pass, but South Pass was out of the question, requiring a rerouting of our travel plans. With smoothly graded road we were at the spring in just two and a half hours. There was fresh snow on the pass, and we stopped for a moment. Four days later, going up the canyon it was a bit icy and I was glad to have the camper keeping the rear end attached to the hard packed snow.
http://www.lighthawkphoto.com/Travel/Death-Valley/20883777_H3w8hH#!i=3006384060&k=kPf4H4s&lb=1&s=A
I believe Lawnmowerman refers to this as Five Mile Grade. He said he put it in neutral . . .
The washed out section at Willow Creek is completely repaired but there's the usual up and down on the final seven miles to the springs. There were a total of eight camps by the time we left, after spending a few days.
We enjoyed some longer hikes, heading up the colorful wash north of the springs. I plotted a course up the left branch of the drainage, then cross country up the brown patina tinted hillside heading for a faint saddle about a thousand feet above.
We explored the two pour overs and decided to do go up the ridge between them. If I wasn't carrying a DSLR camera and was without dog, we could have done either canyon directly.
We enjoyed the remote location, marred as it was by consistent flyovers by the US Military. I think the jets buzzed the springs four or five times.
After crossing the saddle and taking a lunch break, we walked down a smooth burro trail along the ridgeline with a canyon on our right. We've done another loop hike from the Lower Springs to this canyon and down to the Chicken Strip. On this hike, we were running short on time, so we just took a look without dropping in for the hike.
Heading back to the springs.
Temperatures were mild at 1600' and I was able to get out and do some night photography.
The vibe of the place affects everyone
Even Callie got into the touchy feelie mode
I was worried about the dog on this trip with the risk of cactus spines and also wearing of her footpads on the rough desert rock. Callie did great the whole trip and was an excellent hiking companion. There was little to no water for her on the trail, so we would share our camelbak water with her by squirting it in her mouth.
to be continued
The itinerary was debated back and forth and we ultimately decided we needed to include our annual trek to Saline Valley in addition to visiting new terrain in Valley of Fire and Gold Butte, NV. We left town the Saturday before Christmas, happy to skip out of the social vortex.
Travels were easy with open roads. Tahoe was dry, very different than last year when we skied on the shore in Kings Beach. We continued south, visiting Bridgeport and taking a soak. Ultimately, we went to Mono Lake, using MarkBC's camp just past the road closure on 120E. It was our coldest night at 15F. I precooled our 3-way fridge before the trip, but never lit the propane and did not use the DC mode on the fridge either. Otherwise we would freeze our veggies. Instead everything was fine, and our refer was essentially used as a storage box with no cooling for for the first 24 hours of our winter travels.
Some morning shots of Mono Lake, taken from camp:
In a perfect world we would have been able to use North Pass to enter the valley and exit via the South Pass. Instead we had some good news and some bad news. We met some nice folks airing up their Eurovan at the turn off to North Pass and learned the road was freshy graded. Sweet! Easy entrance via North Pass, but South Pass was out of the question, requiring a rerouting of our travel plans. With smoothly graded road we were at the spring in just two and a half hours. There was fresh snow on the pass, and we stopped for a moment. Four days later, going up the canyon it was a bit icy and I was glad to have the camper keeping the rear end attached to the hard packed snow.
http://www.lighthawkphoto.com/Travel/Death-Valley/20883777_H3w8hH#!i=3006384060&k=kPf4H4s&lb=1&s=AI believe Lawnmowerman refers to this as Five Mile Grade. He said he put it in neutral . . .
The washed out section at Willow Creek is completely repaired but there's the usual up and down on the final seven miles to the springs. There were a total of eight camps by the time we left, after spending a few days.
We enjoyed some longer hikes, heading up the colorful wash north of the springs. I plotted a course up the left branch of the drainage, then cross country up the brown patina tinted hillside heading for a faint saddle about a thousand feet above.
We explored the two pour overs and decided to do go up the ridge between them. If I wasn't carrying a DSLR camera and was without dog, we could have done either canyon directly.
We enjoyed the remote location, marred as it was by consistent flyovers by the US Military. I think the jets buzzed the springs four or five times.
After crossing the saddle and taking a lunch break, we walked down a smooth burro trail along the ridgeline with a canyon on our right. We've done another loop hike from the Lower Springs to this canyon and down to the Chicken Strip. On this hike, we were running short on time, so we just took a look without dropping in for the hike.
Heading back to the springs.
Temperatures were mild at 1600' and I was able to get out and do some night photography.
The vibe of the place affects everyone
Even Callie got into the touchy feelie mode
I was worried about the dog on this trip with the risk of cactus spines and also wearing of her footpads on the rough desert rock. Callie did great the whole trip and was an excellent hiking companion. There was little to no water for her on the trail, so we would share our camelbak water with her by squirting it in her mouth.
to be continued
