death valley

[goofball]

got to death valley for a couple days lately, never been. gonna go back. VERY cool. had planned to do up red wall canyon down fall canyon as a 3 day loop. wellll, got 15 minutes up red wall and the climbing problem was more than we expected. could not surmount that stupid polished marble chute/chockstone combo. crap'ers. so we went to our b-game. still pretty damn cool, even if not what we planned. i was so anticipating that loop, but have no regrets. even when "the plan" does not work out, it works out, cause the only real plan is to play outside.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/561987687xxkKRr


a concretion in marble canyon




marble canyon narrows




mosaic canyon

[sparker1]

Hope you at least did Golden Canyon to Zabriskie Point. I love DV.

[goofball]

Hope you at least did Golden Canyon to Zabriskie Point. I love DV.

we did the tourist pull out for zabriskie point, she had already been up golden canyon and said it was really nice. those alluvial fans are something. especially the aerials. WOW. google earth really shows off the color and nature in motion in a way being on teh ground is incapable of conveying. it was very nice there...

[Randi]

Hey Jason! Whaddya mean you couldn't make it over the chock-stone? Even my kids made it up that thing! Conditions change and it's been a couple of years since I did it. Here's a picture of where the floor was when were there ~ Thanksgiving of 2006.

I've always wanted to do Fall canyon from the top, but haven't gotten around to it yet. There are some spectacular narrows in there up above the first dry fall, and I don't know if you know this, but there is an exposed but stable trail you can take on the right to bypass it.

When were you in DV? Were you in California while I was in Utah? Like last week?

Lemme know next time you're coming out and maybe I can play tour guide. I know the area pretty well. It would be fun to hang out with you again. I missed seeing you at FF!

Did you climb the 18' dry fall at the end of Mosaic? Take the canyon to where it ends at the mud walls? That's where we climbed up to the ridge and went down Grotto one year. It was one of the most heinous climbs I've done - rotten rock, loose scree, very steep! But fun none the less.

It was my daughter Sarah's 1st DV canyon adventure. I couldn't keep up with her, and she was waaaay ahead and I was terrified that she'd slip and fall so I had to enlist the aid of two young bucks to stay with her and keep and eye on her. Towards the top about 100 ft from the ridge, we were crawling on all fours! You'd make a foot of progress and slide back four! Finally we were at the top!

If you check out Chris B's photos below, you'll see one of a bobcat and sheep skeleton lying right next to each other. The only logical scenario we could think of was that the cat attacked the sheep and they both fell off the cliff. If you look closely, it seems that the bobcat was deteriorating more slowly than the sheep, like maybe he was still alive but broken and fed on the sheep for a while before he succumbed to his injuries.

http://www.dankat.com/swhikes/grotto.htm


I'm glad you had a good time.
DV is amazing!

Hope to see more of you this year than last! : )

~Randi

got to death valley for a couple days lately, never been. gonna go back. VERY cool. had planned to do up red wall canyon down fall canyon as a 3 day loop. wellll, got 15 minutes up red wall and the climbing problem was more than we expected. could not surmount that stupid polished marble chute/chockstone combo. crap'ers. so we went to our b-game. still pretty damn cool, even if not what we planned. i was so anticipating that loop, but have no regrets. even when "the plan" does not work out, it works out, cause the only real plan is to play outside.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/561987687xxkKRr


a concretion in marble canyon




marble canyon narrows




mosaic canyon

[R]

Can you post a Google Earth link to those spots? Thanks. -R

[goofball]

Hey Jason! Whaddya mean you couldn't make it over the chock-stone? Even my kids made it up that thing! Conditions change and it's been a couple of years since I did it. Here's a picture of where the floor was when were there ~ Thanksgiving of 2006.

whatever... i could of so totally climbed the heck out of that but sonja was nervous and i didn't want to freak her out. you know how it goes when women are along, gotta coddle 'em.

I've always wanted to do Fall canyon from the top, but haven't gotten around to it yet. There are some spectacular narrows in there up above the first dry fall, and I don't know if you know this, but there is an exposed but stable trail you can take on the right to bypass it.

we had some hiking dv book and it had beta on the fall/redwall loop. it recommended up fall and down redwall and had bypass info, so NATURALLY we decided to do it the other way.

When were you in DV? Were you in California while I was in Utah? Like last week?

yep'ers.

Lemme know next time you're coming out and maybe I can play tour guide. I know the area pretty well. It would be fun to hang out with you again. I missed seeing you at FF!

ditto that ! we'll actually be moving to vegas this summer sometime. gotta get out of this shitty ass cold crap/white stuff. need a year round WARM environment.

Did you climb the 18' dry fall at the end of Mosaic? Take the canyon to where it ends at the mud walls? That's where we climbed up to the ridge and went down Grotto one year. It was one of the most heinous climbs I've done - rotten rock, loose scree, very steep! But fun none the less.

we climbed this -



about 20 feet + in all, big and chunky like stairs. then we saw this w/ a bypass route around it -



about 20 feet + as well. turned back here due to time. we really want to go back to mosaic though. gorgeous.

It was my daughter Sarah's 1st DV canyon adventure. I couldn't keep up with her, and she was waaaay ahead and I was terrified that she'd slip and fall so I had to enlist the aid of two young bucks to stay with her and keep and eye on her. Towards the top about 100 ft from the ridge, we were crawling on all fours! You'd make a foot of progress and slide back four! Finally we were at the top!

If you check out Chris B's photos below, you'll see one of a bobcat and sheep skeleton lying right next to each other. The only logical scenario we could think of was that the cat attacked the sheep and they both fell off the cliff. If you look closely, it seems that the bobcat was deteriorating more slowly than the sheep, like maybe he was still alive but broken and fed on the sheep for a while before he succumbed to his injuries.

ewwwwwwww...

I'm glad you had a good time.
DV is amazing!

Hope to see more of you this year than last! : )

~Randi

i just consulted my magic 8-ball and it said "definitely". so we'll see you soon !

hope you had a great time at ff. did ram say i said hi ? i asked him to pass a howdy on to ya a bit before the fest so he may have forgot. hope all else is well for you to.

ttyl ! o god, i just typed t-t-y-l. shoot me now...

[goofball]

Can you post a Google Earth link to those spots? Thanks. -R

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.61...z=12&t=h&hl=en

i hope that is useful ? i don't know how to get the link to google earth itself. i got this google map sat image though. it is not near as good an image but maybe will help you find it easier in google earth. this is the southern boundary, just outside park. once in google earth if you just scroll north from that point you can see those alluvial fans exiting the canyons.