Death Valley is a special place. I can’t think of another National Park where you can truly get away from it all like you can in Death Valley. Heck, it’s hard to think of areas that aren’t the over commercialized tourist infested zones that most National Parks are, like the vast tracts of Forest Service and BLM lands, that have what Death Valley has to offer those willing to wander off the beaten path. The distances are vast, the roads are rough and the mountains are rugged, and perhaps my favorite, the people are few.
And that’s precisely why, with a reasonable block of time to get there all the way from Central Oregon that we headed there for a long Thanksgiving weekend.
Yes, it’s a long drive to get there, but we broke it up over a 2 day evening / morning, and this story really starts where we turn off the pavement and head north towards the Saline Valley. When we hit the park border we aired down the tires, and we were off the pavement for 4 glorious days. Death Valley roads are rough, you have to try every trick in the book to make it tolerable, and thankfully airing down seems to smooth things out a bit.
We had an early start that morning, skipped breakfast (those waxy donuts don’t count as food, right?), and had our turkey early, in a turkey, cream cheese and cranberry wrap, as we made our way up the road. Turkey out of the way – check! Bonus – we didn’t sit around all day waiting for it to cook. We had the next few hours to see the sights as we made our way to our destination for the night.
We made our way over South Pass and around Hunter Mountain and encountered a warning sign. Deep sand looked to be eating BMW SUV’s up ahead. We have given some thought about wandering our way up Hidden Valley after our first and really only planned destination, but this sealed the deal, after our planned hike we’d spend the rest of our time in Saline Valley – but that’s an entirely separate post.
After dropping off Hunter Mountain – and wow, the awesome pinyon forest there – we made our way to our planned overnight that would position us for our hike near Goldbelt Springs. We had hoped for the perfect camp where we could just start off hiking the next morning, but alas, where the road ends at the top of Marble Canyon there is barely enough room to turn around, and we continued our search for a camp.
Our last Thanksgiving in Death Valley back in 2018, we spent a stones throw from an old wrecked car in Johnson Canyon. Maybe it will become a tradition. The activity near Goldbelt didn’t look too distant in the past. It turns out there was activity here as late as the 1960’s. It had every appearance that one day, the money ran out and everyone just walked away. Signs of modern comforts were scattered about; a fridge, gas stove, water lines, this was quite the luxurious place.
Before we knew it, the sun dropped below the ridgeline and there was a chill in the air. As we sat back and peered down the canyon we watched the sunset climb its way up the Grapevine Mountains across Death Valley.
When it was dark we fired up the telescope and watched the planets set below the horizon, but not before getting a good look at Saturn’s rings. Venus, Saturn and Jupiter were all in a line following each other across the sky. There are a lot of stars viewable here, but my favorite constellation of the trip had to be the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters. I couldn’t even begin to count the stars viewable in the telescope in this constellation.
Afterwards we cooked up our Thanksgiving of bacon wrapped filet, shrimp and grilled brussels sprouts and retreated into the camper and out of the cold biting wind. The next morning we folded up camp and headed down the canyon. I hiked Marble Canyon from the bottom on my first trip here, but this was an entirely new section to explore.
Not too far down there were remnant’s of a wire gate and not too further past was a rock wall. Did this keep the livestock from escaping down canyon?
We saw a lot of signs of activity on the way down canyon, mainly coyote and bighorn sheep tracks. We didn’t see another human footprint or see a person the entire length of our hike, which ended up clocking in at about 12 miles round trip.
Our turnaround point was a good spot for lunch and it was a Death Valley lunch through and through. A couple things on the menu were Death Valley sausage (spicy!) and some Carolina Reaper almonds. You have to match the snacks to the setting!
We made our way back up the canyon as the sun raced for the horizon. We were beat by the time we were back at the truck, but what a great hike it was.
Deciding the day earlier we’d head toward Saline Valley we knew where we’d look for a spot for the night. The wonderful pinyon forest around Hunter Mountain was where we set our sights.
We sat back and watched the last of the light as the sun set over the tips of the Sierras, just visible from camp, and we even got to snack on a couple pinyon seeds.
We didn’t have any particular items on the agenda for the following day. What would we see next? That’s a story for Part 2.
