Continued...
I had one day left on my desert jaunt before heading home. I'd spent the third
night in a row camped outside Beatty, NV, only a short drive from Death Valley
NP. I had planned to spend the day hiking to Chloride Cliff and other summits
to the south of Daylight Pass, but the weather was proving more of a factor
than anticipated. It was cold and blustery, the sky roiling with clouds that
looked like they might bring rain or snow. Rather than commit to a longish
hike (my van was ill-equipped for the high-clearance drive to Chloride Cliff)
that might be spoiled by weather, I decided to do a series of shorter hikes to
summits I'd found in Purcell's Rambles & Scrambles and had noted the
day before when I was hiking the north side of the pass. Ultimately, snow
would drive me off the mountain and west to bluer skies on the other side of
the park. No shortage of peaks there, either, as it turned out.
The Loner / Boundary Monument 93
These two summits are located on the east side of Daylight Pass a short distance
from the highway. I parked at a convenient turnout that would give me easy
access to both summits. The Loner is the lower of the two, but more impressive,
with rocky features that made for better scrambling. came
shortly after I had started for The Loner from , a direct
route of less than half a mile that took just over 15min. The
had been ever so brief, less than a minute before it was
hidden again by a .
Looking northeast I could see that precipitation had already begun falling over
the Bullfrog Mtns in the distance. I wasted no time in heading down the
of The Loner and then south to the higher
a mile away. 35min was spent in getting from one
summit to the other. As the name suggests, the CA/NV border goes directly over
,
noting the invisible line almost directly over the highpoint. The monument was
first established in 1899, some 26yrs after the erroneous Von Schmidt Line
of 1873 had placed the border a mile further east. John Vitz had placed a
register here , only a few months before the summit was visited
by Gordon & Barbara. A few other interesting scraps had been left by
and his pal who climbed it
independently in 1988 on the same day. The weather was growing more iffy all
the time and was now dropping snow on Prospect Peak only a few miles to
. I quickly tucked the register
away, put on all my warm clothes and jogged back down towards the highway. I
didn't quite manage to get back to the van before the snow started
,
but luckily it was only a few minutes' worth and I didn't get more than a bit
damp.
I expected to be done for the day and to start heading home early, but as I
drove west across Death Valley and SR190 I found the weather improving - partly
clear skies and little wind. By the time I had reached Panamint Springs it was
quite pleasant and I decided to get some more hiking in.
Darwin Falls Wilderness PP
The Darwin Hills are found just outside the western boundary of Death Valley
NP and south of SR190. Extensive mining took place here in bygone days and some
impressive ruins and the barely existing town of Darwin still survive to the
south. A swath of land northeast of the larger hills and adjacent to the park
have been preserved as the Darwin Falls Wilderness. The highpoint of this is a
small nubbin next to Darwin BM (I had climbed the latter, but not the highpoint
a year earlier). Aside from the highpoint which wasn't as easy to access with
the van, the most prominent point in the
wilderness is an
alongside SR190 with 462ft of prominence. It
seemed a short enough hike, so it was to this that I turned my attention.
The summit is less than 2/3mi from the highway at its closest approach to the
northeast. I parked near this point and climbed to the summit in about 30min.
Composed primarily of broken volcanic rock, the trick is finding a line of least
annoyance over softball-sized rocks that cover portions of the slopes on the
northeast side. A cliff band near the summit is easily surmounted through one
of several weakness that can be found. There are two flattish points vying for
the highpoint. The topo map shows an extra contour and a spot elevation at the
southern point, but the extra contour appears to be an error. I found no
register or cairn in either of the locations though I made a modest search
around each. My descent was much the same route after exploring a third point
to the northeast that turned out to be lower than the other two. Not a very
satisfying summit, but there are nice views overlooking
and to the east. Two fighter jets raced by as I was
climbing,
sweeping up in a high arc before diving down into Rainbow Canyon and out of
sight. I was envious that they were having more fun than I.
Peak 5,657ft / Peak 5,740ft
Two random summits on either side of Saline Valley Rd, each with about 300ft
of prominence. I had hiked to the nearby Jack Gunn Peak a year earlier, but
came back for yet more obscurity. The two summits aren't particularly memorable
for the climbing but the northern one,
has an old on
its south side, a short distance from the road. I had not noticed this on my
previous drive through the area. The cabin is
(as minimally as any public-use cabin typically is), worth a quick visit if
you're in the area. Writing is scrawled on the (I
added my own name to the ceiling) and there are various
to amuse one for at
least a few minutes if not an overnight stay, assuming you can keep the fear
of hantavirus quelled.
Talc City Hills
My last stop was a visit to a pair of minor summits in the
, site of extensive , now
ceased. The two together took
only 45min roundtrip. These and two other nearby summits (Eagle Point and
Skunk Stripe Peak) that I didn't climb are also found in Purcell's book - it
seems no roadside rockpile is too small to get a mention in the expanded second
edition that has swelled to some 950 peaks. Embarassingly, the only reason I
didn't these last two was that I didn't know they were so close by
until I had already driven some miles west on SR190. But I worry not - I have
no doubt I will back to this area yet again sometime in the future...