March 20, 2014

Desert Adventures

Emily and I had a super fun trip to Death Valley recently.  It was a trip that we had looking forward to for a while.  We were intending on going two weeks earlier, but with torrential rain imminent in the forecast, backpacking up slot canyons created by flash floods seemed like not the best idea.  After I completed my 10 day work week, we had four days off to play. 

We adhered to a strict regimen of as much hiking in canyons as possible interspersed with copious ice cream and treats from the general store. 
 
The view from above looking down at the valley floor.


The highlight of the trip was an overnight in Fall Canyon, famous for its smooth-sided narrows.  During the entire hike we were dwarfed by walls rising thousands of feet on all sides.  After a few miles we hiked up the walls of the canyon to bypass a dry fall.  After that we didn't see anyone else the rest of the trip.  

Emily and our friend Molly in the narrows of Fall Canyon.

Molly is the tiny ant in the bottom of the picture.



This is where we had to turn around.


This is a short class 4 climb to bypass a 18-foot dry fall with perfectly smooth sides.




Our other backpack was to a place called Echo Canyon.  Most people drive the 4x4 road that runs through almost the entire canyon.  Most people with a truck that is.  We tortured the Honda Civic to the first couple miles and then hoofed it on foot, carrying massive amounts of water for that day and the next (only 20lbs that trip, 25 the other).  We had good weather and relatively cool temperatures, although as we were leaving on Sunday the thermostat had made it up to 95.  It was great to get some quality desert time in before we head back to the midwest (aka flatlands) for the unforeseeable future.  
Eye of the Needle lit up with the last suns rays.

This guy was in some rocks that I was sitting on.  Luckily I didn't suffer his wrath.  Emily wished we would have brought a tent that night!

We hiked to an old abandoned mining camp with tons of old junk lying around.