Backpacking:

	Ohlone Wilderness Trail
	South Desolation Wilderness
	Bull Run Lake

Trip Reports:

	Pinnacles 03/04
	Death Valley 10/03
	Reno 07/03
	Fourth of July 2003
	Memorial Day 2003
	Carson-Iceberg 11/02
	Yosemite 10/02
	Mt. Whitney 08/02
	Carson-Iceberg 07/02

Other Links:

	Birds
	Wildflowers
	Gear
	External Hiking Links

Golden Canyon/Zabriskie Point hike:

After about a mile, we came to the junction with the Zabriskie Point trail and turned right on it. The trail climbed steeply, but we didn't mind stopping every few hundred yards to take in the increasingly gorgeous vistas as the sun started to peek over the Funeral Mountains to our east. As the rocks bathed in the golden early morning sun, their striations became apparent. Dark, light, brown, red, and every color in between. Some of the striping looked pretty reminiscent of bacon, actually :)

Upon getting to the base of Manly Beacon, the trail leveled out a good deal, and we continued on the rolling trail with many short ups and downs as we entered, then left, drainages. This would definitely be a dangerous place to be in a flash flood! We passed a bunch of old abandoned mines along with numerous signs admonishing visitors to stay the heck out of them. We feasted on amazing views of Manly Beacon, the Red Cathedral, and occasional peeks of the valley floor, as we continued towards Zabriskie Point.

It took longer than it seemed like it should have (probably due to the somewhat meandering trail), but we eventually got to the Zabriskie Point parking lot at about 8:30 and walked up the paved path to the lookout. There was a large group of young 'uns there, probably an art class judging by the fact that they all had sketch books. We snacked on beef jerkey and gummy worms, but didn't stay too long, the views from the point itself being not too very different than what we'd been seeing for the past mile or so. It was rather satisfying to hike to this popular place that probably 90% of the park's visitors drive to.

On the way back we considered going down Gower Canyon to make a loop of it, but I wanted to go to Red Cathedral, so we returned the way we came (if I had it to do again, I'd take Golden Canyon to the Red Cathedral, retrace my steps to the Zabriskie Point trail, go to the point, then return via Gower Canyon). It was amazing how quickly the lighting changed everything - our colorful hike up had turned into a monochromatic moonscape on the way back (still very beautiful at any rate)!

We hadn't seen a single other person on the Zabriskie Point Trail, and until we were just past Manly Beacon, that trend would continue. There we passed a couple who looked to be rather put out by the steep initial ascent from Golden Canyon. They said they weren't going much farther. Once we got back to Golden Canyon, there were more people by far, but still not that many. We turned right and walked towards Red Cathedral. The trail through Golden Canyon ascended gently until we came to a large rockfall blocking the trail. Although it certainly looked possible to scramble around it, we were tired and had a rather full agenda, so we decided we were plenty close enough and turned around, heading back to the car.

The hike back was uneventful save for a lizard sighting and some really crazy green striped rocks. A raven greeted us upon our return to the car, and we headed on to our next destination. This hike proved to be my favorite in Death Valley (and one of my top 5 anywhere). Even though it was a Sunday in prime Death Valley visit season, there were almost no people on the trail to Zabriskie Point, and the geology and vistas were just amazing.

==> See also my photo gallery from this hike.

Rhyolite:

We stopped at the "visitor's center", really nothing more than a man sitting on his porch next to a weird building comprised mostly of glass bottles, and walked around the very-Nevada building. Its grounds were filled with miniature buildings made up of shards of pottery and glass. Interesting and strange, much like most of Nevada! We drove around Rhyolite, stopping periodically at interesting-looking ruins a-plenty. The most interesting building was definitely the old train depot, which was unfortunately surrounded by a chicken-wire fence, preventing us from really getting to know it.

Other highlights included the red light district, old general store, school building, and most interesting, an art installation on private property just outside of Rhyolite. From ghost bicyclists to abstract crucifixes to rusty iron miners with penguins to naked pink lego ladies, everything here was most unusual! Some nearby dilapidated buildings also proved interesting - I was pretty taken with this area overall! I've only been to a few ghost towns (Bodie & Drawbridge mainly), and this visit very much piqued my interest in visiting more!

Titus Canyon:

We descended from Red Pass on a somewhat narrow road (we were glad it was one-way, and that my car is a compact!) and before long came to another ghost town, Leadfield. According to the sign:

"this was a mining boom town founded on wild and distorted advertising. 300 hopeful people swarmed here and a post office was established in August, 1926. In February 1927, the post office closed and the town died."

Bummer for the investors (not too unlike the stock market circa 2001!). Most of the ruined buildings were in shadows, so we didn't bother venturing very far (in good light, there would likely be much to see here, however!). Continuing down Titus Canyon, we shortly arrived at the site of some ancient native american petroglyphs (stone engravings).

These too were very interesting. Some of the poundings were obvious (deer/elk, the sun, etc.) and some were not, but all were fun to look at and speculate about. Not long after leaving the petroglyphs, we exited the canyon and drove back to our campground on the highway. We made one last stop to look at very-old wagon tracks from settlers' days, still quite visible in the desert topsoil. The sun put on a nice show for us as it set and we neared Furnace Creek. Upon arrival at camp we cooked tortellini, marinara sauce, & sausage, downloaded and viewed the day's photos on my laptop, watched the stars in the amazingly-clear sky, and went to bed.

Previous Day

Trip Home

Next Day

• Day 1 - Driving to Death Valley (w/Panamint Valley & Devil's Cornfield)
• Day 2 - Death Valley Double Century & Artist's Drive
• Day 3 - Golden Canyon-Zebriskie Point Hike, Rhyolite (ghost town), Titus Canyon Drive
• Day 4 - 20 Mule Team Drive, Dante's Peak Hike, Devil's Golf Course/Salt Creek, Mosaic Canyon, and Stovepipe Wells dunes
• Day 5 - Returning home via Alabama Hills & other Hwy. 395 treats.