Death Valley – Furnace Creek (2) & Sunset

Death Valley National Park is one of the largest of all of the national parks. As such, and because it is the hottest, driest, and lowest, with very few amenities and services within the park, one needs to be aware of the logistics involved in doing things. This is our third visit with a Dory, and it was our favorite by far. How we get to and from the valley does seem to have an impact on my general impressions of the visit, and I will just say that taking Highway 190 from the southern approach is by far a less intense experience than taking the section of 190 from the north, between Keeler and Stovepipe Wells. For this trip, coming from Red Rock Canyon, we continued past Red Rock and over the Spring Mountains pass. I had avoided this route last time due to weather, and that was probably a good call. On a sunny day with no wind, it was lovely, going up and over a mild grade with gentle turns and passing lanes, and then passed through the comparative metropolis of Pahrump. There are all kinds of services here, including a Pinkbox Doughnuts located in the Pahrump Nugget Casino. We had seen billboards for this chain outside of Las Vegas, and apparently finding one had become a life goal for Richard. As we slowly drove through town, Richard spied the big pink door and said, “I want a Pinkbox doughnut.” I thought, “Got it, good to know,” in my head. He then more urgently noted that the driveway into the parking lot was imminent. I said, “You mean right now this minute? Like, you want me to pull over and stop?” “Yes, obviously!” he insisted. I now understand that when he makes doughnut or ice cream statements like that, he means for me to pull over immediately. With the dizzying array of choices, we limited ourselves to splitting a John Lemon and a chocolate glazed old fashioned. They were probably the best doughnuts we have had, and we’re comparing that to Johnny’s Donuts, a highly superior, gold standard, place located right in our home town.

The rest of the drive down into the valley was a slow coast with little traffic. We did not have reservations because we were planning to stay in the first come, first serve lot in Texas Springs. We have since learned that they do not allow generators, which complicates things like charging my e-bike batteries. So, we shifted to finding out whether there were any cancellations sites available in Furnace Creek, and as a last resort, we’d set up in the parking lot campground of Sunset. In fact, there was one small site available in Furnace Creek, so we took it, backed in, and got the blessing from a passing park ranger that it was ok to have wheels on the dirt. This later turned out to be false information and we had to move Dory onto the short paved pad and park Bruce in overflow parking by the bathroom. Annoying. We were also quite dismayed to find the dump to be in the worst state we’ve ever encountered in ten years of trailer camping. Without a hookup site in Furnace Creek, I now think there is really no advantage to staying there. Generally, the camp hosts seem a little more uptight, perhaps because they have to deal with people who don’t know how to use a dump, the generator hours are shorter, and it costs more than Sunset. But we had a two night reservation booked and were good to go for whatever we decided to explore in the park.

With time and sunlight left on the day, we thought about maybe getting in a ride around Artist’s Palette, but quickly realized that was too big a ride. Instead, we did some scouting for a plan to do that ride the next day, plus a hike up through nearby Desolation Canyon.

We began the next day by being the super smart party and driving the car to the foot of the exit point for the drive. From there, we got out our bikes and rode 3 1/2 miles to get to the start of the one way loop. This is a major climbing ride, starting from below sea level, and leaping right into a sustained uphill grade for the first couple of miles. The whole ride gains 1,900 feet in elevation and there are many many ups and downs along the way. I cannot imagine how much complaining I would have been doing if I were on a regular bike. I also don’t know if I could have done it. In the middle of the ride, you come to Artist’s Palette, a rocky jumble of contrasting colors, impossibly coexisting, like dollops of differently flavored icing on some crazy giant birthday cake. Once you hit the final stretch, you coast and roll through the natural twists and turns in the eroded valleys. Finally, you see a long, straight descent to the main road. If you are smart like we are, you see your car waiting for you down at the bottom.

We high fived at the end of the Artist’s Palette drive, and drove about a mile back up the road to the unpaved trailhead access road for Desolation Canyon. There is a half mile of hard packed dirt to get to the parking area. We were able to ride that with our bikes the previous day, but didn’t need to this time, because we had the car. This trail is really stunning, with only one significant challenge for me. All told, it is 3.74 miles out and back, with 822 feet of climbing, and a stunningly sweeping view from the top. The initial uphill march up the wash was not too bad, and you quickly enter a pretty canyon which you follow the whole way up. I had read trail descriptions and knew there would be two decent sized scrambles. Following the experience in Owl Canyon, I was wary of vertical barriers that could stop me going forward.

I spied the one that gave me trouble and didn’t immediately think it would be too bad. It has well worn foot holds in multiple spots to help you ascend. Once I was on it though, it wasn’t that easy to figure out where to put hands and feet as you got near the top. As I was working through how to do it, another couple appeared at the top and offered their hands to help me get up. I made a couple unsuccessful attempts, and then decided as a last resort to ditch my backpack and hiking sticks at the bottom to see if I could get up unhindered. With some butt assists from Richard, who was standing at the bottom, I did it! Richard quickly climbed back up, and then it was our turn to try to help the other couple down. The woman was clearly not liking scrambling any more than I did, but her husband stood at the bottom, guiding her feet into secure footholds and coaching her on where to put her hands. This was really helpful to watch. I clapped super hard for her when she made it down, and she looked grateful and a little teary. I wish I could say I felt elated and confident going up the rest of the trail, but instead, my mind grew preoccupied with how I was going to be able to get down.

There was one other scramble that was tricky, but didn’t pose nearly as much of a challenge. By the time we got all the way to the upper viewpoint, I wasn’t really present. My head was on that tricky scramble down below. I will give myself credit for not working myself into a panic attack, but that took a lot of mental effort during the whole downhill return hike. I did all the things. I acknowledged the thoughts, feelings, and physical effects that were happening. I validated what I was experiencing, rather than trying to talk myself out of it. I noticed when my mind wanted to spin up the “what ifs” and just re-grounded myself in the present moment. I got to the less tricky scramble and got down it with no problem. Then we came to the big one. Richard went down first and we did exactly what that other couple had done. He masterfully guided my feet into secure holds and advised me which way to scoot next. Slowly worked my way down, until there was one jump to the bottom. I was through it! I hugged my backpack (which I was happy to see was still there) and sat down to release all of the emotion.

We learned some important lessons on this trail. First, when I encounter a tricky scramble, I think it’s important I not only go up it, but also back down it, before proceeding. That way, I will gain more confidence from the ascent, but also not need to worry about whether I’ll be able to descend on the return. That will make the rest of the trail much more enjoyable, if it’s an out and back. Next, we learned a new skill in having Richard at the bottom, placing my feet if he can. And last, when I am ramping up in worry, it is super important for me to validate those feelings as responding appropriately to the circumstances. Negating, distracting, or minimizing the likelihood of something bad happening, does not soothe or ease the anxiety. Instead, it makes that voice talk louder. We also talked a lot about what happens in Richard’s mind once he starts on a trail. His tendency to get locked into a goal oriented objective (the end of the green line on All Trails, some particular view point, some number of miles or feet or climbs…) can end up being at odds with my tendency to weigh safety over “just do it.” We came off this hike having collected a whole bunch of new views.

Our second full day in the park began with a move to Sunset campground before heading over to park at the Golden Canyon Trailhead. This is one of the park’s most popular areas, so there are always lots of cars there, but it was no problem to park along the side of the road. The Golden Canyon section can be done as an easy 1.6 mile out and back, or can be combined with Red Cathedral, Zabriskie Point, Badlands Loop, and Gower Gulch. Or any combination of those. We did this as a loop with Gower Gulch and added the spur to Red Cathedral. All told, we did a little over 7 miles, with around 1100 feet of climbing.

Richard played an audio tour, which pointed out that there used to be a road running through the canyon to increase access for tourists. It has long since washed away during floods, until only pieces of it remain. But it is still there in places and reminds one of the power of nature over the human impulse to control and tame.

I was super focused on looking for the exact spots where “Star Wars” was filmed and was disappointed the audio tour did not call out the locations. I don’t know how many times I have seen that movie (the first one, to be specific, which is really the only one I acknowledge as legitimate), but images of R2D2 whistling down the canyon, surrounded by Jawas hiding in the shadows, are seared into my brain. I was obsessed with it when it came out. I took a bajillion pictures of the canyon and I am sure I found at least one that was a direct match. I know this because, that night we watched an unedited version of “Star Wars” and I grabbed shots with my phone while that section was playing so I could compare. I am a dork.

We had a great time on this trail, with no particular challenges until we got to the Red Cathedral Trail spur trail. There are couple of small scrambles, and places where you have to duck through some low openings, but there is an optional climb you can do to a viewpoint at the very end. The trail is steep and slippery with all the fine sand, and it gets very narrow and edgy right at the top. I went up it ok and enjoyed the sweeping views of all of the badlands, but rather quickly decided I’d be happier eating lunch at the bottom. The main trail would be easy for anyone to do.

This trail was accessed by continuing past the Golden Canyon and onto the Badlands Loop trail. You climb and climb and climb across big golden hardened sandstone dunes, until you come to an intersection with the access trail to Zabriskie Point. We opted out of climbing up to the crowded viewing area and turned to walk down the Gower Gulch wash. There are no trail signs at this intersection, so we relied on visual clues, plus All Trails GPS technology to reassure us we were doing the right thing. This trail is far less popular, which means the walking surface is rocky, with no well worn tracks to follow. We puzzled the entire hike over why this was the case. Later, navigating the final exit through the tight canyon walls, we understood why.

On our way, we delighted in the green sections, whose true color I just cannot capture in photos, try though I did. We also spied an abandoned Borax mine, which has been sturdily gated off. Just past that, the trail descends rapidly as the canyon walls narrow. This generally means things get technical. You can imagine flood waters washing over the wide troughs, getting rougher as the canyon walls close in. Finally, you come to tumbling cascades of huge boulder falls where the only way past is over or through. Richard did an awesome job checking in with me, but none of this trail proved to be anxiety provoking at all. I would say it was the perfect level of challenging; just enough to be exhilarating and make me feel just a little bit badass. The last bit takes you on a half mile return, along the base of the mountains, toward the parking area, which is clearly visible once you exit the canyon. Do be careful at the very end of the canyon though. I thought the trail went straight, and was about to investigate what looked like a big descent. That, in fact, is at least a twenty foot plunge down to the valley floor. The actual trail takes a sharp right, which is hard to see. I thought this was a five star day. And there was celebratory ice cream to be had at The Ranch Ice Cream Parlor, just across from the campground.

At last we come to our final day. We decided to face our challenges head on and get a peek at Sidewinder Canyon. This had the potential to trigger all the super tricky trouble traps, but we figured, why not just do it? I was strategic in suggesting we take on an achievable goal before hand, so that we could dip our toes in Sidewinder and maybe not have to do the whole damn thing.

The low hanging fruit in question was the Willow Canyon Trail. To get here, you have to drive 30 miles down Badwater road before you get to the trailhead. It is located in the same parking area as Sidewinder, but is completely unmarked. To find the trail, you leave the parking area and head north, hugging the low lying hills, until you come to an opening into a large wash. You basically follow the grey gravelly rubble all the way up until you finally find the opening of the canyon. The walls of the mountains start to close in and you get to a narrow passage that goes all the way up to a two tiered waterfall at the end.

I did not believe there would actually be water flowing, but lo and behold, there it was! Before coming to the end, you cross over a couple of little waterfalls and crystal clear small pools. There are some scrambles, but again, nothing that triggered me. There were plenty of places where I handed Richard my hiking sticks because I needed my hands to climb, but that was it. The reward of sitting, all by ourselves, at the foot of a legitimate waterfall, in the middle of Death Valley, was one of the highlights of the trip.

Another aspect that was fascinating about this trail is that you can make out evidence of how the outflow of the dry river bed has changed over time. Maps show river beds going one way, but you can see how floods and erosion has actually changed the course of the wash. It’s pretty cool and I highly recommend it. But I wouldn’t count on maps alone. I’d use something like All Trails or Guru Maps to stay on course. It was about 5 miles out and back, with 855 feet elevation gain.

After returning from the first trail, we started across the parking lot to start up the Sidewinder trail. The whole point of this trail is to explore the multiple slot canyon spurs along the way. It is a sloggy uphill trudge of about a mile before you get to the first official slot canyon. Oof. It is really hard to go uphill in deep loose gravel.

There was some discrepancy on exactly which slot canyons are part of the official three, vs which are “bonus.” We thought we were doing Slot #1, but I think in fact, we did a “bonus canyon” instead. Anyway, it looked super cool and was marked by a clearly human built arrow on the ground, so we went all the way up it. This one is very rocky, but in every place you have to get over boulders, there are plenty of hand holds or walls you can push against to lift yourself up or down. I felt it was technical, and I needed to use my hands and feet, carefully placed, to get past some 6-8 foot climbs, but I never felt overly exposed or in danger of falling.

We knew we wouldn’t have time to do all the slots, so we prioritized and slogged up the loose wash to get to #3. Now there were markers in front of the entrances, and All Trails aligned with where we thought we were. We bypassed markers for #1 and #2. Slot canyon #3 had a lot of narrow twisting passages, some low doorways, and a couple of very tight squeezes down low. Richard went through a very small hole, which he didn’t need to do because there was another way through to the right. It was fun just to find your way through the obstacles. There was a pretty nice tall scramble for me to practice on, and Richard snapped a triumphant picture of me, which will remind me in times when I feel defeated, to go slow and tiny, foothold by foothold. There it is again: just keep swimming.

We called it a day and started down the wash and back to the car. We certainly did not want to be scrambling, or picking our way through rocky terrain back to the car, after dark. Even with headlamps, no thank you. It was a super great day. With both trails, we hiked almost 9 miles and climbed almost 2000 feet. Health says I got 26,902 steps and burned 1,393 calories. Not too shabby.

As we wrap up this stay, there are a few things I want us to remember for next time. It is a really good call to stock up on groceries before entering this park. From the south, the last chance to do so is really in Pahrump. The “stores” down in the valley are little more than touristy gift stores. The one at The Ranch had some extremely expensive food items, but selection is very limited. The “store” in Stovepipe Wells has even less and is more like a minimally supplied gas station store. Do not count on food supplying in the desert. They also only carry regular gas at Stovepipe Wells, so if you have a car that needs premium (like we did eight years ago), you will be out of luck. The driving from Pahrump is a million times easier than from the west, through Panamint Springs, so I would maybe say that would be my preferred way in or out of Death Valley. Plus, if you go through Pahrump, there’s a Pinkbox Donuts.

The other lesson was that, of all three campgrounds in the Furnace Creek area, the Sunset “parking lot” turned out to be my favorite. I got somewhat better occasional cell service there than from the Furnace Creek campground. And you don’t feel self conscious at all running generators. Nor are there camp hosts telling you not to put your wheels, or even stabilizers anywhere on the dirt. Why? It makes no sense. When he was insisting we move, even though we were leaving the next morning, he said if others saw us parked in the dirt “it would lead to mayhem.” You get none of that at Sunset. And lastly, there is just no good cell service down there. There was wifi for me at The Ranch, but not for Richard’s Verizon phone. The only consistently reliable wifi was from behind the Visitor Center. Small groups of people would gather there at night, with their phones aglow on their faces, in search of little bits of service. So just know that when you go, in case there are any important connectivity things you need to do. I know it seems like first world problems to be frustrated about the lack of internet in Death Valley, but when you know ahead of time, it helps.

In addition, we are also learning that it takes a long time to recharge my bike batteries. We have wanted to run the generator anyway, just because solar does not work very well in low winter sun. It seems to take up to three hours before the bike battery fully charges, and that’s a long time to run a generator. We need to remember this and maybe be strategic about when we book sites with electric hookups to coincide with big bike rides. The Aventon charger also seems to be tripping the generator right when the battery reaches a full charge. Like it suddenly draws a lot more right at the end of the charging cycle. Richard is going to do some research on Aventon e-bike charging to see if there are any better ways to manage this.

As we head into the new year, I take lessons with me that I learned from Death Valley. The first is to always look for waterfalls in the desert. Of any place on earth, Death Valley seems the least likely to contain waterfalls. If you can be surprised here, you could be surprised anywhere. It may be that this year will bear down on us like the sun in 132 degree heat. It may seem like hope and joy and optimism are all dried up. Still, look for those waterfalls. They may be hidden and hard to find, but they are out there. The other lesson is to find ways to be brave, in teeny tiny ways. Brave doesn’t mean not being afraid to try that one next step, and sometimes it might mean going back down and rethinking before trying again. Sometimes there aren’t many footholds in life, but almost always, there are others there who will help you up. Those are my deep thoughts for this year. Be well, friends.

Post script – OMG Richard found the world’s most amazing resource. For next time: https://www.panamintcity.com/exclusives/starwars.html

Total miles from Red Rock Canyon: 116.0, 19.9 mpg, 3 hours 55 min. Site 60 in Furnace Creek, F5 in Sunset parking lot campground. Barely any cell service, despite phones showing 3-4 bars of LTE or 3g. At Sunset, ATT came in from time to time, especially at night or in the morning. Wifi hotspot for ATT at The Ranch, and really fast NPS Visitor Center wifi behind the visitor center. Dump at Furnace Creek was left in a disgusting state, and it’s a curby dump, so zero stars on that experience. Sunset dump was good and used by campers who seemed to know how to use a dump. Overall, ended up with strong preference for Sunset.