Continued...
Our last day in Death Valley was a collection of short but interesting hikes,
a few of which weren't even on the schedule. Most of these were around the
periphery of the Valley in the lower hills with the last hike up at Aguereberry
Point, more than 6,000ft higher. We used up most, but not all of the available
daylight since Michael and I had more than eight hours of driving to do to get
home that night.
Mars Hill
This little bump is located at the intersection of Badwater Rd and Artists
Palette Drive. We had spent the night parked at the Artists Palette turnout up
the road - nice place to spend the night, not entirely legal. In the morning we
hiked up one of at intending to
climb up to Artist Palette Peak. We had fun the canyon, but
it didn't take long before things got - steep slopes with
poor footing - and we ultimately
gave it up because the peak is more easily climbed from 20-Mule Canyon on the
east side. After we returned, we drove down to Badwater Rd, at
the junction and to in all of two minutes. We
to ensure we'd found , then left a
register for good measure. This is the lowest officially named summit in the US,
but the next one is the lowest named feature.
Mushroom Rock
Michael noted that the topo map showed a "Mushroom Rock" even lower than Mars
Hill, so we drove a few hundred yards north to find it easily along the
. It is
not located where shown on the topo map,
but a good deal lower, right along the road. One website said the top had
fallen off and was lying
aside the feature but that is patently incorrect - it simply doesn't look all
that much like a mushroom, really, but it might be the only class 3 feature
with only five feet of prominence (
I stand corrected - see link at the
bottom - it really once was bigger AND looked more mushroom-y).
We managed to get four of us carefully
for a photo, then made a
of their own. Good fun.
Golden Canyon Peak
This one wasn't on my radar either, but Michael pointed it out from the PB
database, and it turned out to be the best scrambling of the day. The starting
point is at the about 2mi north of Mushroom
Rock. This is the trailhead for the popular trail up Golden Canyon. The standard
way to get up to the peak is to hike a few hundred yards up the canyon, then
into
a deep groove that can be climbed to the summit, well-described on SummitPost
and elsewhere. A little oblivious to this bit of info, we continued
for more than half a mile until we were on
of the summit. From here, to
discover that worked, albeit a bit hairy in places due to the
poor footing problem many of the slopes around here have. Four of us (minus
Laura) went up to which has nice views of
proper and the surrounding hills, left
at just east of the highpoint, then descended
which is fairly easy to find from above if you look
for . There were several other parties climbing up
as we were - guess they had done their homework.
Kit Fox Hills
Leaving Laura somewhere in Golden Canyon,
we drove north through Furnace Creek and then another 15mi to the junction where
SR190 turns southwest towards Stovepipe Wells. We drove north a few miles,
parking alongside the road of the Kit Fox Hills HP, a bit
more than a mile to the northeast. The hike is easy to start
, then gets climbing up
along the steep, crumbly ridgeline of your choice.
Then, more easy walking over to another quarter mile
away. We found a register there left by Carey/Adrian/Hanna back
. Ours made for the sixth additional party to sign in since
then. Our descent route was far better (safer), descending
to gain the lower washes before hiking back out to our car.
High Dune
This is the highpoint of the dunes to the east of Stovepipe Wells. We parked at
the NPS lot along SR190, quite popular for folks exploring the dunes. Laura
met us here but decided her sore foot wasn't getting any better and chose to
head home to Bishop. Four of us soldiered on. Most of the visitors seem to tire
of walking in the sand rather quickly, with few venturing more than about a
quarter mile. is located about a mile
of the parking lot, fairly close to the point we had marked on the GPSr - seems
these dunes aren't moving much, if at all. can
be tiring, especially if there is any sort of slope. The sand reaches a maximum
angle at about 34 degrees, at which point uphill travel is very difficult
because the sand lies at the angle of repose and any motion can bring down a
volume of sand. The trick seems to be to avoid the steepest slopes and weave
through the dunes looking for the low-angle routes. There are occasional
that make for solid (easier) walking and I would utilize
these where possible. It took us almost half an hour to cover
to the highpoint - not much point in leaving
a register here, we figured. One sand dunes is about enough for one day.
Aguereberry Point
Time to gain some elevation. We drove our cars west past Stovepipe Wells and
then south , parking at the junction for Aguereberry
Point. We then piled into Michael's Pathfinder for the 6mi drive out on the
high-clearance road to the overlook at Aguereberry Point, named for Pete
Aguereberry, a prospector who built the first road to this view spot.
at the end of the road says 6,433ft, but that seems to be more
than 100ft higher than it really is. There is a commanding view to
into Death Valley, though part of that view is blocked by
Petes Peak, one of the four points we had come to tag, all of them found in
Purcell's
Rambles & Scrambles. We first visited the higher
above the parking area a short distance to the east which
marks the highpoint of Aguereberry Point - an easy stroll that takes only a few
minutes. From there we continued east , finding a thin
use trail that leads down to the saddle between the two points, then
of nearly 400ft up to . It's mostly
class 2 with some easy class 3 scrambling in a few places. We left
atop the highpoint during our brief stay there.
are even better than Aguereberry Point. The roundtrip effort
to Petes and back took an hour. A quarter mile of
Aguereberry Point is Aguer BM, an easy hike from any direction. I hiked
from Aguereberry Point while the others moved the Pathfinder down the
road a short distance to make it easier for the return from the last peak. I
rejoined them on the way up from the southeast side. At we
found the and an extremely brittle register
. Seems a fire swept over the summit sometime in the past,
leaving the register cooked and dessicated. We couldn't turn the page without
bits of paper flying off in the wind. of Aguer BM is
South Fork Peak with between them (one actually
crosses the road at the bottom). This peak, too, is ,
even with a bit of snow lying on the shadier slopes we climbed.
It was about 4:15p by the time we finished up back at the car, the four summit
circuit taking about two and quarter hours. Good times. Now for the long drive
home...