Death Valley National Park, Thanksgiving - Jeeping & camping trip!
11/25/07 07:27 PM Filed in: travel | off-roading
Day
1: Arrive at Death Valley
Thursday, November 22nd
At 9:30 am Thanksgiving day, we hit the road heading north-east where the land is dry, the tumble-weed is a plenty and the off-roading is superb! The drive out to the desert from LA is always interesting. About two hours east or north of LA your journey begins on roads that literally go on, in a complete straight line, for miles and miles with nothing but vast open areas between mountain ranges. Hues of orange, brown and green dotting the landscape from either side of the road with chocolate and caramel towering mountain ranges that inch closer with each mile on the horizon. The desert landscapes in California are dramatic to say the least and one of the coolest off-road sites so far was Red Rocks State Park, pictured below. This is about forty-five minutes south of the entrance of the park. These canyons were amazing from the road, so I'd assume they're pretty rad if you actually explore them.
Red Rocks State Park - off of highway 178 towards Trona, CA
After 5 hours of straight driving, we reached Death Valley's Wild Rose road entrance close to 3:00 pm but because the park is just that expansive, we didn't reach our camp at Stove Pipe Wells until close to dusk. We were lucky to get a site. The place was packed and the idea of driving miles and miles searching for a place to camp and risking not having a camp fire just was not appealing after that drive.
Cool illustrated map of Death Valley. We drove in from the bottom left through Wild Rose Canyon up to Stove Pipe Wells campgrounds.
Photo of our tent with the desert wilderness view!
On the flip side, the campground wasn't that great from any other angle besides the one shown above! The tent sites were only 10-15 feet away from a pretty large parking lot with no wilderness to cover up huge yacht-sized RVs. We were lucky to be on the north-west side of the campground because our site did have a nice view of the desert. Thanksgiving & Easter are Death Valley's busiest days, so the campground was noisy. Our biggest complaints were the ever-present hum of the RV generators, the not-so-fresh RV toilet smell raging through camp and other nuisances like car alarms going off early in the morning. After back country camping as much as we have, it's hard to settle for a parking lot camping experience.
You live and you learn :)
Since it was Thanksgiving, we had gotten some turkey slices and pre-made fixins' at Whole Foods to cook up at camp. Dinner was really yummy! We tried this cranberry chutney that was out of this world and it's always little things like that, that really made camping feel cush. The night sky was amazing! A full moon lit up the desert a pale blue for miles, so we were able to hike around that wilderness area behind our campsite, without our headlamps. We were hoping to see stars since Death Valley is one of the least light-polluted areas in the US to see the stars, but the full moon was equally beautiful and instead we saved some battery life on our headlamps.
Day 2: The Race Track, Tea Kettle Junction & Jeep off-roading
Friday, November 23rd
After a chilly night in the tent, we woke up to the low-toned rumble of the many RV generators in the parking lot. We enjoyed our french press coffee while strategizing the day's exact plan then Chris began to disassemble the Jeep in anticipation of the off-road trail that we would be taking to the natural site, the Race Track. Chris has been waiting almost a year for the day he would be taking the doors off of the Jeep, and finally off-roading in some crazy remote spot getting to those places our previous Honda couldn't have dreamed of! The Race Track was about a 2-3 hour drive north-east of Stove Pipe Wells, in a very remote location in the Panamint Mountains. We were close to it last time we visited the nearby Ubehebe Crater, but we couldn't chance getting our low-clearance Civic Si, leased-car stuck anywhere on that 20+ mile long road. The Race Track's natural area is actually a dried up ancient lake bed / playa and is named that because of the rocks that move mysteriously on their own leaving behind a grooved track in the mud. Wikipedia info - The Race Track Also, on the way to the race track is a landmark road junction called Tea Kettle Junction where some traveler once left a tea kettle, so others followed, and tons of tea kettles pile up with messages and things on them. Because this is considered littering, the National Park Service must clean up the site every few months. Here's a website with a bunch of photos of Tea Kettle Junction over the years.
I title this photo "happy husband"
Our Jeep with the doors off, top down, off-roading!!
Tea Kettle Junction!
Close-up showing misc messages on the tea kettles -the kettles get removed by the NPS after the junk builds up every few months
The Race Track playa!
One of the moving rocks with it's trail left behind on the mosaic tiling of dried up sediment..
Mars-like boulder landscape in the center of the Race Track playa..
Wind gear + layers of warmth; it was a tad chilly!
The long drive from Stove Pipe Wells to the Race Track was very nice, scenery wise with the doors off and the top down but when the wind kicked in and our elevation climbed, it got so cold, we had to pull over and put on all of our layers, wind gear hat & gloves. After which, we felt fine. One thing I wasn't expecting was how dirty everything was going to get. Oh my.. we're not just talking normal dirt here either. It rained white clay all over, inside, upside and under every which way imaginable on this Jeep. If we didn't have 4 layers on with wind gear we would turned into dust bunnies!
Earlier, when Chris was buying our national park entrance fee at Stove Pipe Wells, he bought a great book with 40 off-road places to go in Death Valley; many of which you can back country camp. The only issue is fire. Most back country camping doesn't permit fire in the wilderness, for obvious reasons in this dry state of California. We both agreed we'd willingly give up the camp fire for our next trip, in exchange for being able to hear the gentle sounds of the desert wilderness instead of RV generators.
When we got back to camp at dusk, Chris started scouting out the next off-road trail we'd be exploring on Saturday. The Cottonwood canyon trail was pretty close to our camp and it was also an oasis in the middle of Death Valley, which seemed really cool to check out. We ate fire-grilled cheese burgers and corn on the cob for dinner. There's just something extra yummy about a fire-grilled anything! Another moon-lit sky came, we finished off our beer and off to bed.
Day 3: Mosaic Canyon, Cottonwood Canyon & more Jeep off-roading
Saturday, November 24th
We woke up early to the sound of someone's car alarm going off in the parking lot at 6:30 am! So we got up and had breakfast; eggs with apple slices, o.j and coffee. We always eat well when we're away from home! Before we knew it, we were heading out with the Jeep again, this time with the doors on!
This is 2 miles on the road into the back country towards the canyons.
The road began east of the Stovepipe Wells airstrip and travels up the broad alluvial fan before reaching the canyon mouth. Eight miles in, the road drops into the wash and becomes rocky and rough. One mile past the end of the first narrows, a side road leads up Marble Canyon. Hikers can continue up this canyon beyond road's end to see some of the finest canyon narrows in the park, but we drove up and quickly left, wanting to spend the most of our time at Cottonwood Canyon.
One of many narrow canyons we drove through..
At the road's end up Cottonwood Canyon is a flowing stream lined with cottonwood trees and a great place to find wildlife in the desert. We saw and heard many Gambel's Quail and also saw lots of large animal scat on rocks near the stream. Supposedly that is an area known for Desert Big Horned Sheep sightings. We would have been very lucky to have seen one, but not this time.
Gambel's Quail (not our photo - via Flickr.com)
Cottonwood Canyon!
Giant rock pile hills at Cottonwood Canyon
Canyon route back..
Back at the campground, lots of ravens.
Another full moon in Death Valley!!
We made spaghetti for dinner and ate around the campfire and before we knew it, the moon was rising. Chris grabbed his camera & tripod and went at it testing out different settings to get the best moon shot. It was about 6 pm, and although we had already paid to stay this night, we decided to pack up and head home. From our past experience traveling around the holidays we knew it would be better to drive home the night before versus anytime tomorrow as all of Southern California returns from their vacations also. It makes you thankful for places like Death Valley, that really give you the sense of being in the middle of no where, away from all of the crowds.
Thanks for reading!
jenn
Thursday, November 22nd
At 9:30 am Thanksgiving day, we hit the road heading north-east where the land is dry, the tumble-weed is a plenty and the off-roading is superb! The drive out to the desert from LA is always interesting. About two hours east or north of LA your journey begins on roads that literally go on, in a complete straight line, for miles and miles with nothing but vast open areas between mountain ranges. Hues of orange, brown and green dotting the landscape from either side of the road with chocolate and caramel towering mountain ranges that inch closer with each mile on the horizon. The desert landscapes in California are dramatic to say the least and one of the coolest off-road sites so far was Red Rocks State Park, pictured below. This is about forty-five minutes south of the entrance of the park. These canyons were amazing from the road, so I'd assume they're pretty rad if you actually explore them.
Red Rocks State Park - off of highway 178 towards Trona, CA
After 5 hours of straight driving, we reached Death Valley's Wild Rose road entrance close to 3:00 pm but because the park is just that expansive, we didn't reach our camp at Stove Pipe Wells until close to dusk. We were lucky to get a site. The place was packed and the idea of driving miles and miles searching for a place to camp and risking not having a camp fire just was not appealing after that drive.
Cool illustrated map of Death Valley. We drove in from the bottom left through Wild Rose Canyon up to Stove Pipe Wells campgrounds.
Photo of our tent with the desert wilderness view!
On the flip side, the campground wasn't that great from any other angle besides the one shown above! The tent sites were only 10-15 feet away from a pretty large parking lot with no wilderness to cover up huge yacht-sized RVs. We were lucky to be on the north-west side of the campground because our site did have a nice view of the desert. Thanksgiving & Easter are Death Valley's busiest days, so the campground was noisy. Our biggest complaints were the ever-present hum of the RV generators, the not-so-fresh RV toilet smell raging through camp and other nuisances like car alarms going off early in the morning. After back country camping as much as we have, it's hard to settle for a parking lot camping experience.
You live and you learn :)
Since it was Thanksgiving, we had gotten some turkey slices and pre-made fixins' at Whole Foods to cook up at camp. Dinner was really yummy! We tried this cranberry chutney that was out of this world and it's always little things like that, that really made camping feel cush. The night sky was amazing! A full moon lit up the desert a pale blue for miles, so we were able to hike around that wilderness area behind our campsite, without our headlamps. We were hoping to see stars since Death Valley is one of the least light-polluted areas in the US to see the stars, but the full moon was equally beautiful and instead we saved some battery life on our headlamps.
Day 2: The Race Track, Tea Kettle Junction & Jeep off-roading
Friday, November 23rd
After a chilly night in the tent, we woke up to the low-toned rumble of the many RV generators in the parking lot. We enjoyed our french press coffee while strategizing the day's exact plan then Chris began to disassemble the Jeep in anticipation of the off-road trail that we would be taking to the natural site, the Race Track. Chris has been waiting almost a year for the day he would be taking the doors off of the Jeep, and finally off-roading in some crazy remote spot getting to those places our previous Honda couldn't have dreamed of! The Race Track was about a 2-3 hour drive north-east of Stove Pipe Wells, in a very remote location in the Panamint Mountains. We were close to it last time we visited the nearby Ubehebe Crater, but we couldn't chance getting our low-clearance Civic Si, leased-car stuck anywhere on that 20+ mile long road. The Race Track's natural area is actually a dried up ancient lake bed / playa and is named that because of the rocks that move mysteriously on their own leaving behind a grooved track in the mud. Wikipedia info - The Race Track Also, on the way to the race track is a landmark road junction called Tea Kettle Junction where some traveler once left a tea kettle, so others followed, and tons of tea kettles pile up with messages and things on them. Because this is considered littering, the National Park Service must clean up the site every few months. Here's a website with a bunch of photos of Tea Kettle Junction over the years.
I title this photo "happy husband"
Our Jeep with the doors off, top down, off-roading!!
Tea Kettle Junction!
Close-up showing misc messages on the tea kettles -the kettles get removed by the NPS after the junk builds up every few months
The Race Track playa!
One of the moving rocks with it's trail left behind on the mosaic tiling of dried up sediment..
Mars-like boulder landscape in the center of the Race Track playa..
Wind gear + layers of warmth; it was a tad chilly!
The long drive from Stove Pipe Wells to the Race Track was very nice, scenery wise with the doors off and the top down but when the wind kicked in and our elevation climbed, it got so cold, we had to pull over and put on all of our layers, wind gear hat & gloves. After which, we felt fine. One thing I wasn't expecting was how dirty everything was going to get. Oh my.. we're not just talking normal dirt here either. It rained white clay all over, inside, upside and under every which way imaginable on this Jeep. If we didn't have 4 layers on with wind gear we would turned into dust bunnies!
Earlier, when Chris was buying our national park entrance fee at Stove Pipe Wells, he bought a great book with 40 off-road places to go in Death Valley; many of which you can back country camp. The only issue is fire. Most back country camping doesn't permit fire in the wilderness, for obvious reasons in this dry state of California. We both agreed we'd willingly give up the camp fire for our next trip, in exchange for being able to hear the gentle sounds of the desert wilderness instead of RV generators.
When we got back to camp at dusk, Chris started scouting out the next off-road trail we'd be exploring on Saturday. The Cottonwood canyon trail was pretty close to our camp and it was also an oasis in the middle of Death Valley, which seemed really cool to check out. We ate fire-grilled cheese burgers and corn on the cob for dinner. There's just something extra yummy about a fire-grilled anything! Another moon-lit sky came, we finished off our beer and off to bed.
Day 3: Mosaic Canyon, Cottonwood Canyon & more Jeep off-roading
Saturday, November 24th
We woke up early to the sound of someone's car alarm going off in the parking lot at 6:30 am! So we got up and had breakfast; eggs with apple slices, o.j and coffee. We always eat well when we're away from home! Before we knew it, we were heading out with the Jeep again, this time with the doors on!
This is 2 miles on the road into the back country towards the canyons.
The road began east of the Stovepipe Wells airstrip and travels up the broad alluvial fan before reaching the canyon mouth. Eight miles in, the road drops into the wash and becomes rocky and rough. One mile past the end of the first narrows, a side road leads up Marble Canyon. Hikers can continue up this canyon beyond road's end to see some of the finest canyon narrows in the park, but we drove up and quickly left, wanting to spend the most of our time at Cottonwood Canyon.
One of many narrow canyons we drove through..
At the road's end up Cottonwood Canyon is a flowing stream lined with cottonwood trees and a great place to find wildlife in the desert. We saw and heard many Gambel's Quail and also saw lots of large animal scat on rocks near the stream. Supposedly that is an area known for Desert Big Horned Sheep sightings. We would have been very lucky to have seen one, but not this time.
Gambel's Quail (not our photo - via Flickr.com)
Cottonwood Canyon!
Giant rock pile hills at Cottonwood Canyon
Canyon route back..
Back at the campground, lots of ravens.
Another full moon in Death Valley!!
We made spaghetti for dinner and ate around the campfire and before we knew it, the moon was rising. Chris grabbed his camera & tripod and went at it testing out different settings to get the best moon shot. It was about 6 pm, and although we had already paid to stay this night, we decided to pack up and head home. From our past experience traveling around the holidays we knew it would be better to drive home the night before versus anytime tomorrow as all of Southern California returns from their vacations also. It makes you thankful for places like Death Valley, that really give you the sense of being in the middle of no where, away from all of the crowds.
Thanks for reading!
jenn