Grand Canyon - Boucher, Tonto, Bright Angel - Thimble Peak & Titus Canyon Road - April 2010

Return to alavigne.net home

NOTE: You have javascript disabled in your browser. This presentation will continue to function, but with only basic capabilities. In order to view this presentation will full capabilities, please enable javascript in your browser, then refresh this page.

[< Previous Page]

[page 1] [page 2] [page 3] [page 4] [page 5]

[Next Page >]

The Pre-backpack, part II

A sampling of Death Valley sights
Saturday, April 3

As it turned out, we had a decently quiet night in the Stovepipe Wells campground. There was no late-hour partying (at least around us), and the two big RVs next to us stayed silent. We got up just as twilight began to build in the east. We wanted to be up and ready to view and hike the Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes in the early morning light.

The slowly growing light gave us our first real look at the sea of RVs around us.

Austere Campsite

Packup at Stovepipe Wells

Dirt Flats and Flowering Creosote

After a quick breakfast and pack-up, we drove a few minutes down highway 190 to a pullout nearest to the Stovepipe Wells sand dunes. Access to the dunes is quite simple -- just walk through a few hundred yards of desert shrubbery and onto the sand. We decided to aim for the highest of dunes, which was about a mile or so distant.

courtesy PChen

Dunes Parking Lot

Heading for the Dunes

Path to the Dunes

courtesy JInnes

Sandy Sunrise

Sandy Shadows

In a virtual sea

It was fortunately a quiet morning wind-wise (it is very common in Death Valley to have breezy or windy conditions), so we didn't have to worry about blowing sand getting into our eyes and all of our gear. The downside to this was that the dunes themselves were criss-crossed with the tracks of many visitors, somewhat marring the scene. It would not be until the next windstorm that the dunes would get reshaped back to smooth, untouched sandy slopes.

courtesy PChen

The dunes

Expanse of Sand

Scoured and Deposited

It was still early, so there were only a few other people about -- mostly photographer types with tripods and remote releases. We made our way along the ridgecrests of interconnecting dunes, taking in the warm stillness of the morning (it was in the low 20s C already). Off in the distance, almost directly above the highest dune ahead, was the pointy little finger of Thimble Peak -- the very point where we had been about 12 hours before!

courtesy PChen

Sandcrest walking

Walking the crests

Climbing to the Highest Dunes

It took us about forty minutes of casual wandering to make our way to the highest point of the highest dune. The hoped-for sunrise light was muted by high clouds, but soft effect of them was still quite nice. The pictures show a somewhat softer take on the normally hard-edged early morning desert light scenes.

courtesy PChen

Morning Sand Chat

Photographer at work

Seeing a bug

courtesy JInnes

courtesy PChen

Tracks across the sand

Insect closeup

The highest dune

Atop the highest dune, we got yet another wonderful 360-degree Death Valley view. We could see way into northern Death Valley from here, with the the large wall of the Grapevine Mountains bordering it to the northeast (including, of course, our peak from yesterday: Thimble Peak). Our view to the south was somewhat limited, being blocked by the bulk of nearby Tucki Mountain in the Panamint Range.

After a short break, we headed downslope and meandered our way back to the parking area.

Untrampled view

Sea of Dunes

Pu at the Dunes

[< Previous Page]

[page 1] [page 2] [page 3] [page 4] [page 5]

[Next Page >]

Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board)

send feedback |

homemade custom message board

(7 messages)
(last message posted on Mon. Dec. 07, 14:52 EST 2020 by Andrew)