Tin Mtn, Sheephead Mtn & Death Valley Wi ldflowers

“Saturday, 19 March 2005: http://community.webshots.com/album/302543008xIugPK

Jay and John (from the Wilderness Club at work), Rick Kent, Calhiker and Snow Nymph met on the Race Track road, 10.5 miles from Ubehebe Crater. This was my first time hiking with Rick Kent, who I met for the first time last summer at Williamson Bowl after seeing his signature in numerous summit registers. After deciding to back-track 0.7 miles to a larger turnout, we parked our 3 SUV's. After the obligatory trailhead group shot, we headed up the alluvial fan and into the clouds. Jay sent out the waypoints before the trip, so we had our GPS's to help guide us up the right ridge to the summit of Tin Mountain. We followed a faint use trail almost all the way to the top that consisted of a lot of steep bumps that didn't let up until the false summit. From there we hiked through patches of snow as we weaved our way through ice covered pinyon pines. Jay's GPS read 5 feet lower then the actual elevation when he placed it down next to the benchmark. We read and signed the register, and left 25 minutes later when the wind and cold made it hard to hang out any longer. This was another day with low visibility and no views. After another hour of descending we found a spot out of the wind to eat lunch. On the way down the clouds cleared for a few minutes at a time, and we were able to see the road below and the Racetrack to the south. The sun peeked thru as we got to the alluvial fan and temps got a lot warmer. We were back at the vehicles 8 hours after we started. Jay, John and Rick camped out again and hiked Last Chance Mountain on Sunday. Calhiker and I drove to Scotty's Castle to get gas, but arrived 5 minutes after they closed. We made it to Stovepipe Wells on fumes and waited at the gas station in a line that went out to Hwy 190. Got dinner and a shower, then drove towards Badwater to find a place to camp for the night. People had pulled over at every turnout! We found a nice spot about 8 miles off the highway on the west side of the valley.



Sunday, 20 March 2005: Photos coming

Sunday morning, as we were driving back down towards the highway, two Jeeps pulled over to let me thru. They rolled down their window and said, "Snow Nymph?", so I stopped. It was Dezdan and Lewis from one of the desert forums I go to. In the Jeep behind was Cat and her friend from Australia Andrew. I got an e-mail from her 2 weeks ago asking about the Hanging Valley Mine from my Mt. Tom Webshots album. It was cool meeting forum people out in Death Valley! We continued on to photograph the 100 year bloom in Death Valley, along with all the other bazillion people on the road. We stopped around Lake Manly, Ashford Mill and Jubilee Pass. It was so windy I didn't bother with the tri-pod, and the 20 or so Desert-Five-Spot pictures that I took are all blurry. We made it to Salsberry Pass by noon to hike Sheephead Mountain, which was short but cool! The small mountain range was a palette of beige, brown, and reds, covered with green grass and flowers. There were a lot of tiny white flowers that were like a lacey netting over some of the areas. We were rewarded with awesome scenery and views, and the weather was sunny and clear with occasional gusts of wind. I had to work to find the register, which had blown off the knife-edge summit. It was visible next to a bright blue, old glass bottle, which was shattered by the fall. Looks like the last entry was Jan 25th. The wad of papers were stuck under a small bush so it was protected from 2 months of weather. I put it in a baggie and placed it back on the summit with rocks on top. I also saw two entries by guys from the Wilderness Club from 2000. Played with two horned toads, a large one on the way up, and a baby on the way down. This was a short but fun and scenic hike. We took the Furnace Creek cut-off dirt road to Baker, a nice drive and shorter. There we had a quick dinner stop, then had to endure the grueling bumper to bumper traffic back to Torrance, and then on to San Diego for Calhiker.

Fun weekend!”

“cool landscape. Looks like another planet.”

“Corrine....say it isn't so....you playing with horny toads again?

>>>>>shaking head<<<<<<

Looks like you guys had a lot of fog....but in DV it don't matter...it's all good...I love those flower pics though....

Peace out my friends....

Can't wait for you to post your next hike....”

“Thanks, Snownymph, I always enjoy your trip reports and pictures. I was tempted to climb Sheephead Mountain when I was in DV a few weeks ago but was still wary about my neck (I had a neck muscle spasm, no fun!)

Anyway, I think this is Newberry milkvetch, Astralagus newberryi... http://community.webshots.com/photo/302543008/303027085jNgFga”

“Thanks for the pictures. I love hiking in the fog/clouds since I so rarely get to. Gives me another idea for a good Death Valley hike.
Sorry to butt in, but I gotta comment on the plant ID, since that's part of what I do for my job. Without being able to key out the plant, I would say Newberry milkvetch is a good guess. Check out the CalPhotos site ( http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/photos/ ) for some pictures of Newberry milkvetch. Very similar, and Tin Mountain is within the plant's range.”

“We stopped to photograph the 100 year bloom in Death Valley with everyone else.

Photos: http://community.webshots.com/album/302546754tUHsQB


Thanks for the name of the flower, BC & GG.

Hope to finish the Sheephead Mountain photos tonight.”

“Beautiful pictures SN!

The gravel ghost flower is very unique looking...I love how it has a bit of the lavender on the tips like...something about the desert gold that has a bit of whimsical look to them, they have such a happy look to them I guess!
Two of my friends were there last Thursday to Sunday..there 1st time to DV, they hiked Fall canyon & marble canyon, spent a day looking at the flowers, they loved it there, but way to many people they said!
Thank you for posting these!”

“Yeah, Death Valley has been really crowded thanks to write-ups in all the Cal newspapers about the bloom. I am used to there being practically no one there once you get off the main road. Still awesome, though, and just an amazing flower year.
Thanks for more pix! Gravel ghost is one of my favorite Mojave Desert flowers.”

“Very nice Snow. The "view thru the trees" is very good.”

“Very cool! Are you sure Calhiker likes the text of the photo of him in the flowers, "Calhiker frolicking in the flowers"?! ha ha! Great shots, great adventure! As I was driving south from Panamint Springs last Sunday, I was admiring snow covered Telescope Peak (or is that Telescope Peek?) looming above the desert and I was thinking that would be a great adventure to take a weekend and climb it and snowboard down some of those chutes. I think that would make a great adventure video. I thought of you and Snow Dude. Let's do it. Next spring. Be there.”

“MiT, I was happy with the Gravel Ghost. With the wind it took a lot of tries to get flower pics. I deleted a lot of blurry flowers. This last album has a picture of a line of cars on the road going by.

GaG, Thanks for that flower link. I've got it bookmarked now. On both hikes this weekend, we didn't see any people. On all the desert hikes we've done this year we didn't see anyone, probably because there isn't a trail out there. Its nice to have the place to yourself (especially for me, coming from the slopes of Mammoth)

jvz, I like that tree shot too. Kinda neat with the fog and ice and snow.

Buck, we joked about it and he said to leave it in because he had a goofy look. WLD started it. About Telescope . . . got splitboards, we'll be there! :-)”

“SHEEPHEAD MOUNTAIN PHOTOS: http://community.webshots.com/album/302547737UidbZW

Short, scenic, colorful hike. Great weather, clear & sunny compared to the day before. The horny toad was so cute!

(this is a new webshots account)”

“Looks like a very fun weekend. What an incredible variety of life. I liked the pinons with encrusted in ice.

I had an idea for photographing wildflowers in the wind.... Remember those old accordion-type fans from before air conditioning? You could stick a couple in your pack and use them around the flowers to stop the wind. I've been carrying and setting up my tripod on hikes lately only to discover that it doesn't matter. The wildflowers move in the slightest of breezes.”