Continued...
Our third day in Death Valley NP had us venturing up and over Hunter Mtn and
into Hidden Valley where we went after a couple of lesser summits in the area.
White Top made the list because it appears in Zdon's Desert Summits
while Peak 6,020ft is a P900. The other four were simply additional bonus peaks
we could do in-between to keep us busy. As it turned out the plan sort of
stretched us thin, not on daylight or energy, but on gasoline. We'd already
driven more than 150mi dirt road miles in the Jeep the previous two days and
it was going to be close as to whether we could do all we planned today and get
back to a gas station without
running out. Because we had two other vehicles, it wasn't as dire as it might
sound - we had contingency plans to fetch gas if needed, and really only had
to get back to our campsite at the end of the day. And besides, this would be
a good test to see must just how many miles the Jeep can get with the needle on
"E".
White Top Mountain
The summit lies in the center of the Cottonwood Mountains, near the end of a
rough 4WD road that climbs to the crest of the range from Hidden Valley. It
appears that some white quartz rock was prospected here but no significant ores
were extracted, despite the numerous roads that seem to pervade the area. One
can drive to half a mile from the summit but we
stopped a quarter mile short of this with the Jeep as the road has deteriorated
greatly. to the summit was pleasant enough, taking only 20min
with s most of the way, particularly east and
into Death Valley. There are higher peaks in the range to , but
none to the south where one can easily see to Telescope Peak 46mi in that
direction. Because of the easy access, the peak is fairly popular. A handful of
scrap pages were filled with entries dating as far back until
Gordon & Barbara left a more decent register with nearly 40
pages in use since then. The was less than two
weeks prior to our arrival. in the Jeep we started the long drive
back out through Hidden Valley where we found Tom becoming a little concerned
about the gas situation - seems the drive out to
White Top and back was an extra 30mi that might have pushed things a bit.
Ubehebe Talc Mine
Lying between Ulida Flat and Sand Flat at the south end of Hidden Valley is a
small collection of hills around the Ubehebe Talc Mine.
forks off
the main Hunter Mtn Rd to reach the Talc Mine ruins. We drove about half way to
the mine, stopping where the canyon forks to start a loop of the four summits.
The first of these was Goldbelt BM, the highest of the group with almost 500ft
of prominence. We approached from the northwest, following a wash
, then climbing to before reaching
in a little over 20min. Richard Carey and Mark Adrian had
left a register , since visited by Sue & Vic Henney as well as
- one of those obscure registers where I know all the
names. We continued our loop by , down to the central
drainage between the four peaks, then up the southwest side of Peak 5,590ft.
The dark gray rocks near the summit contain a large amount of ancient
. About five minutes behind me in reaching the top,
Brian and Tom whiled away some time examining various fossil finds they came
across. Because the summit isn't very high, we were surprised that we could
see in the distance over the crest of the Inyo Mtns nearly
50mi away, the only part of the Sierra Nevada visible. We were not surprised to
find no register on this minor summit or the next two, either. We spent another
hour covering the and downs over the last two summits.
was not
found where we had expected it at spot elevation 5,663ft, but another point a
quarter mile to the NE that we had first passed over. Later I would send a note
to John Kirk at LoJ to correct this. After the last summit we
to the to check out some of and
left lying about before
to the Jeep shortly after 1p.
Peak 6,020ft
We were all a little concerned about the gas situation by this time but Tom
knew I was very interested in the last summit. I had to admit that "I would
probably lose a little sleep over missing this one," but it would be ok if we
had to miss it. We had to drive another 3.5mi one-way on a spur road that leads
to west of the peak (the road continues another mile to an
abandoned mine). Our driver was cautiously optimistic. The road was fairly
rough, showing no sign of recent use once we started climbing up out of Sand
Flat. itself was fairly easy, one and quarter mile
, taking us about an hour and a half. There was an old
register left by Wes Shelberg. A second party had visited in
1984, leaving some trippy, somewhat inspirational on several
pages, then no one until had visited a month before us. The
summit provides a nice vantage looking down into the various forks of the
, eventually emptying into Death Valley near
Stovepipe Wells.
Canyon Point, a prominent DPS summit and one of the last to be added to that
list, can be seen to good advantage at the head of Marble Canyon to the south.
After to the Jeep, our full energies were now focused on our
diminishing gas reserves. Beers from the cooler helped to marshall our resolve
to face this potential crisis, and by the time we had climbed back up and over
Hunter Mtn we were much more relaxed - not just because the beer was
particularly refreshing, but because most of the 17mi back to SR190 were
downhill. For that matter, so were most of the miles to Lone Pine. The Jeep
proved to be up for the task and managed to make it Lone Pine without skipping
a beat, taking a healthy 18gal drink when it reached the filling station
(which may indicate we still had a few more gallons of gas from the 20gal tank).
Our only trouble was Brian's truck incurred just before reaching
the pavement at SR190. Ahead of us by some distance, he'd already jacked up the
car and had the spare installed when we caught up with him. He would have it
all back together and catch up to us before reaching Lone Pine.
We had dinner at the Merry-Go-Round chinese/american restaurant in town before
driving back out to Swansea on the northeast shore of Owens Lake to settle in
for the night. We planned to give Tom and the Jeep their biggest test
on the Swansea Grade to the crest of the Inyos the next morning, both
now flush with full tanks...
Continued...