Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room Death Valley New Year's Eve and Day

Wifey-pooh and I are a headin' to the Valley...No, not Steve C's beloved San Joaquin, but to the Ultimate Valley...Death Valley (btw "d.e.a.t.h." to me is an acronym for "do everything and try harder...that one's for you Bulldog34)

Anyhoo...looking to go a campin'. Woo Hoo! Good idea? I know it ain't skin blisterin' hot, but probably goose pimplin' cold. Went to recreation.gov and noticed Furnace Creek.

Packing the essentials like firewood, food, water in case the pipes freeze out there in DV. Oh, did I fail to mention preprandial libations such as Captain Morgan, Bailey's and IPA? Okay, now I have. Oh, yes and we are definitely going to Badwater! Bringing my poles to go anglin' fer the elusive Devil's Hole pupfish. Wait! Endangered species. Never mind. But I do want and hope to see these magnificent creatures.

With Disneyland and Vegas prepping for the festivities (been to DL on NYD 1989 and will never go again on any NYD...cheezits gripes what a crowd on 1989), we thought we would do something different. BTW, ain't goin' to Sin City and never will on any NYD, either.

I ain't never been there. Always wanted to go but I wanted to go during Feb when the flowers bloom. Wifey-pooh has. She is one-up on me.

Any advice would be a tremendous help.

If we secure a spot, hope to see some of you. Pull up a chair and sit down. Oh, BYOB

Outstanding! Used to be my favorite place to hike and camp - now it's # 2 behind Whitney. I hate it that I'll miss you, 'Tude - I won't be there till 2/23 for my annual DV getaway (yes - wildflower season!).

Furnace Creek is the only low elevation CG you can reserve in advance through nps.gov, but my favorite is Texas Spring. It's first-come, first-served, but there are a lot of sites. It's in the Furnace Creek area, just a mile from the Furnace Creek General Store. I like it because it's tent-only and doesn't have the bustle (and RVs) that Furnace Creek experiences. Sites have table/bench, firepit and water, and there are plumbed restrooms as well (no showers though). Has a more remote feel than FCCG. If you go this route, be careful where you pitch your tent - there really is a spring there, and it usually flows in the mornings and is dry by afternoon, when most people are selecting sites and pitching tents. You can see the rivulets in the ground to warn you where to stay away from. I've seen quite a few people get a very wet surprise in the mornings over the years.

There are a zillion canyons to hike, but many require 4WD and/or high-clearance to get to the trailhead, which I never have since I'm always in a rental. I'll go through my hiking logs tonights when I get home and see what recommendations jump out, but my favorite so far is the Keane Wonder Mine/Chloride City hike. Good elevation gain and a lot of ruins and mines, including an old tramway. Wildrose Peak (@ 9500 ft) and Telescope Peak (@ 11,000 ft - highest point in the park) are the bomb, but are generally snowy/icy in winter above 7000 feet or so. I've done them in the summer, but never winter.

When I'm out there in February I plan to climb Corkscrew Peak (recommended by BobR, Moosie and KevinR) and hike Surprise Canyon (recommended by KevinR). I'm getting the itch just thinking about it, and it's still 8-plus weeks away!

Bottom line, it may be hell on earth 8 months out of the year, but those other 4 months it's one of the most mesmerizing places on earth. The Badwater Basin hike is a death sentence in summer; in winter it's the easiest 16-mile afternoon stroll you'll ever make. Took me less than 5 hours last Feb.

Good beta, Bulldog34

You speaketh liketh you liveth out there!

I will definitely hit Texas Springs. Don't want to be around any RVers with their doggone gas-powered generators disturbing the peace and tranquility. Then again, I do have my .270...nah, I am a law-abiding citizen. Don't want to be in an Inyo or Kern County jail on NYD! Nope, wouldn't be prudent. But dang it, there ought to be a law banning such carbon footprint devices!

It is more of a sightseeing trip. We will bring our daypacks in case of the Death Valley "itch-to-hike" syndrome striking us early in the morning after downing a warm cup of joe!

Guess we can pack the crampons/snowshoes in case of snow.

Packing the solar shower. See? REI disease strikes again!

Have fun.

Great place to go! The two times I ever ran a marathon (7 & 8 years ago) was in DV in December. It started in Furnace Creek, went up (north) and back on the hwy 190, almost to the Salt Creek turnoff, I think. The weather was absolutely perfect both times.

> Good idea? I know it ain't skin blisterin' hot, but probably goose pimplin' cold.

No way is it that cold! Weather Underground shows highs of 68 to 70 and lows at 45 to 47.

Death Valley is a great place, I got back Monday from a 3 day visit fueled at first by the meteor shower.

If your not shy about being around nude people I was told the Saline Valley Warm Springs have a annual Potluck dinner on either New Years Eve or day, it's a wonderful oasis out there and the tubs are kept in great shape by volunteers, the down side is it's about 52 miles of dirt road from 190 or 30 miles or so from the north out of Big Pine, a friend and I made it out there in a mini van but high clearance is recommended, also at this time of year you may need chains to get over North or South pass depending on which way you go.

I have some pics of the springs in this set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roguephotonic/sets/72157622735145645/

Although the main tubs I didn't take pictures out of courtesy for the nude occupants.

Here are some pics from this weekend although i'm still uploading as I type this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roguephotonic/sets/72157622886208271/

Have fun where ever you go! the solitude is wonderful out there!

Oh, the tourist thing . . .

Scratch the cool hikes then, but do wander out a couple/three miles or so onto Badwater Basin with just a bottle of water. Walking those cracked, baked salt flats with a snow-capped Telescope Peak rising 11,000 feet directly before you is an experience worth a couple of hours time. Also, knowing that if you did the same thing in summer, you'd probably die - well, it's just neat.

The other worthwhile day sights on the southern end of the park are: driving through Artist's Drive on your way to Badwater; Golden Canyon interpretive trail (again, on you way to Badwater); driving up Dante's View; driving to Zabriskie Point; walking the sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells.

Another cool thing to do is driving up to the charcoal kilns at Mahogony Flats (Emigrant Canyon Road, to your right on your way into the park from the west on 190 - has a sign that just says "Wildrose"). These are at about 7000 feet or so - right about snowline most winters. The kilns themselves are cool, but it's the drive back that's so much fun. One, you have a nice view of the snowy Sierra off to the west. Two, the Emigrant Canyon Road, although relatively straight, is filled with dips and rises. At a nice rate of speed, it's a really fun ride back down for about 15 miles. Park Rangers patrolling in vehicles are rare as hens' teeth in DV - but you never heard that from me . . .

On the north end there's always Scotty's Castle (additional fee, dammit!). Very cool place, and intriguing that anyone would build a mansion in DV - especially pre-A/C. Right around the corner is Ubehebe Crater, an extinct (dormant?) volcano. You can hike down in to the crater, about 500 feet, or around it, maybe a mile and a half. Well worth it - the landscape up here in the north is so radically different from the southern part of the park. Lots of black volcanic soil.

One other thing: if you camp, be sure to take some time to watch the sky at night. DV is one of the blackest, darkest, clearest places on earth in the winter. The sky comes alive like I've never seen before or since! Also, the temps: I've spent probably 50 nights in DV in the late winter - maybe a half dozen went below freezing at sea level. Wind has been my biggest issue over the years - stake and rock those guylines down really good.

You also mentioned Bailey's - Bailey's and hot chocolate are just killer on a cold night by the campfire! I built a firepit in our backyard pretty much for that purpose.

Beware: gas is only available at two places in the park - Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells. At both stations the price runs about $1.00 higher than the prevailing price of gas outside the park. But hey, you live in California so you're probably used to paying ridiculous gas prices! In Atlanta it's currently $2.45 . . .

And if you have a 4WD, high-clearance vehicle, a whole new set of wonders opens up for you in places like the Panamint Valley in the south and the Racetrack Playa in the north (the mysterious sliding rocks).

Oh yeah, and I do liveth out there 'Tude! A week a year, anyway. It's my version of a timeshare . . .

Hey Rogue, I noticed you mentioned the Dante's View Road was closed this past weekend - what gives? Snow or road work?

Your pix are da bomb!

As I understood it's closed because of snow but I know for a fact there was no snow up there!

Maybe it will be opened again but I don't know.

Get gas at Stovepipe Wells, it was 90 cents cheaper then anywhere else!

Yes, the "touron" thing as Moosie would say...

This trip is sort of spontaneous. You know, we were sitting in front of the TV and my wife says Death Valley. Say what? And we weren't watching anything that had anything to do with DV. We were watching some special about China on the Travel Channel.

Then it goes from there. Just like the posts on this site.

Great beta from everyone. Thank you, Bulldog34, for the timeshare version. BTW, nice timeshare!

Does anyone see a correlation between this thread and the photo thread? You betcha! I hope to post a TR (if you want to call it that) with pix. Woo Hoo!

Happy Holidays and Have fun.

Cr@p...

Can't leave until 1100 NYE.

Contingency plans...

Adapt, improvise, overcome.