It is a land of extremes. Hottest, driest, lowest: A superlative desert of streaming sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, multicolored rock layers, water-fluted canyons and 3 million acres of stone wilderness. Home to the Timbisha Shoshone and to plants and animals unique to the harshest deserts. A place of legend and a place of trial. Death Valley.
Our trip into the Valley of Death started on March 23rd. It was going to be a trial for us and the new rig (Toyota FJ Cruiser picked up 2 weeks earlier). We had to prepare to be totally self-sufficient for the duration of your trip. For 5 days, we moved about this remote, starkingly beautiful part of California. We logged over 500 miles of travel in the park, driving on everything from smooth paved roads to rocky, rutted-out steep trails on the sides of mountains. We never camped in the same spot twice, always wanting to explore a different area of the park. It was the first time we tried this expedition style of traveling/camping and we fell in love with it. We returned back to civilization in Lone Pine, CA on the 27th, where we decided to stay the night and get a good meal before heading back home to San Diego in the morning.
Our trip into the Valley of Death started on March 23rd. It was going to be a trial for us and the new rig (Toyota FJ Cruiser picked up 2 weeks earlier). We had to prepare to be totally self-sufficient for the duration of your trip. For 5 days, we moved about this remote, starkingly beautiful part of California. We logged over 500 miles of travel in the park, driving on everything from smooth paved roads to rocky, rutted-out steep trails on the sides of mountains. We never camped in the same spot twice, always wanting to explore a different area of the park. It was the first time we tried this expedition style of traveling/camping and we fell in love with it. We returned back to civilization in Lone Pine, CA on the 27th, where we decided to stay the night and get a good meal before heading back home to San Diego in the morning.
First stop on the way to Death Valley was to check out the Trona Pinnacles. The Trona Pinnacles is one of the most unusual geological features in the California Desert Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit from springs of streams), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side.
First stop on the way to Death Valley was to check out the Trona Pinnacles. The Trona Pinnacles is one of the most unusual geological features in the California Desert Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit from springs of streams), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side.
Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D40) |
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