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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
11/29/2019
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Gary and I spent about 9 days roaming around Death Valley the week before Thanksgiving, no real plan other than hike around in the desert a bit. Drove out via Trona and hit up Telescope Peak the first day. After that we just kinda picked some locations each night looking at the map. Rogers Peak radio towers, Charcoal Kilns, Jayhawker Cyn, Greene-Denner-Drake Mill Site, Greenwater, Saratoga Springs, Crystal Camp, Skidoo Mill Site, Owlhead Mtns and a few more along the way. I really like the whole Greenwater Valley area and the Saratoga Springs / Crystal Camp area has amazing colors, I totally recommend the Owlhead Mtns area. The Skidoo Mill Site was very cool also but you need to spend some time hiking around to find everything. We got perfect weather and went home just before the big storm rolled in.
I am losing energy these days to write up long trip reports so am just gonna post up a few pics here and you can see more of the trip photos here.
These are all B/W film using a very contrasty Rollie Retro 80s film, I kinda like it personally. Developed with Rodinal. Shot with an Olympus OM-4 and a 30-105mm Zuiko lens.
My last Trip Report for Death Valley was back in 2010, you can read that long trip report here.
Funeral Peak early morning
Saratoga Springs Mill Site, this was a great place to hike around for half a day
Owl Dry Lake, we found several 50 caliber and 20mm casings and the machine gun "belt" clips out on the dry lake.
Black Magic Mine is another great place to explore, here is Gary looking out towards Owl Dry Lake from one of the viewpoints
Greenwater Valley early morning
The feral burros have really taken over many areas of the park and surrounding BLM lands. They have a whole network of deep rutted paths all over out there.
If you like these photos, you can see the rest of them from our trip here https://www.darensefcik.com/Photography/Death-Valley/Death-Valley-11-2019/
I may add color photos also if the mood strikes me.
Total mylar balloons this trip: 5 (color photos on my phone)
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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tekewin Posts: 368
11/29/2019
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Love the burros! Nice shot of the kilns, too.
How was Telescope? Is there a lot of snow on it right now?
I've only been to Death Valley once so most of it is new stuff to me.
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Scooter Posts: 114
11/29/2019
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Had a week long trip planned last spring. All the dirt roads were washed out so postponed until this March. Was able to locate numerous rock art site locations on the internet prior to our trip. Spent the night on top Telescope Peak two years ago, everyone should put that on their bucket list. Thanks for the trip report.
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
11/29/2019
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tekewin wrote:
Love the burros! Nice shot of the kilns, too.
How was Telescope? Is there a lot of snow on it right now?
Probably snow now....we hiked the peak the day before all the rain/snow moved in. The hike is easy enough but there is some climbing to do for sure.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
11/29/2019
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Scooter wrote:
Had a week long trip planned last spring. All the dirt roads were washed out so postponed until this March. Was able to locate numerous rock art site locations on the internet prior to our trip. Spent the night on top Telescope Peak two years ago, everyone should put that on their bucket list. Thanks for the trip report.
Gary and I ran into one of the park volunteers (206) who asked if we could carry up a new register, the old one was full. The register that is there is new from my 2010 trip and all of the logs have been archived at Cow Creek. I think I have been up Telescope 4 times now.
Turns out a new register was already put in a couple weeks beforehand....we left our Nov dated register also.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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Buford Posts: 456
11/29/2019
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Nice. Death Valley is awesome. Was it crowded leading up to the holiday? I assume the Owlhead area had few if any people?
Lucky the road was open to the Telescope trailhead. We spent Thanksgiving at Mahogany Flats a couple years ago and I did Telescope and Wildrose Peaks.
Those b+w pictures are one style I am trying to replicate digitally and not getting there yet.
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Links to my photos: ABDSP photos, Bighorn sheep photos, ABDSP time lapse video, Wildlife photos (mainly birds)
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rockhopper Posts: 668
11/29/2019
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Telescope is a nice steady hike. It is between the highest and lowest points of the continental United States with great views in all directions. Glad you missed the big storms rolling trough. Photos are excellent. Glad you had a great trip. Our last week long trip in Death Valley my friends dog fell down a vertical mine shaft as we were walking in a horizontal mine in the Panamints. The dog survived! Even though he fell down about 80 feet, he landed in a soft giant cone of dust. Retrieving the dog was a chore. Went on 6 more days with the dog camping in the snow.
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
11/30/2019
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rockhopper wrote:
Telescope is a nice steady hike. It is between the highest and lowest points of the continental United States with great views in all directions. Glad you missed the big storms rolling trough. Photos are excellent. Glad you had a great trip. Our last week long trip in Death Valley my friends dog fell down a vertical mine shaft as we were walking in a horizontal mine in the Panamints. The dog survived! Even though he fell down about 80 feet, he landed in a soft giant cone of dust. Retrieving the dog was a chore. Went on 6 more days with the dog camping in the snow. That is sad about the dog but am glad he was fine. My son and I stopped at Minietta on a trip many years ago and he tried to get me to go down some of those shafts but no way would I go down them, just way too sketchy.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
11/30/2019
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Buford wrote:
Nice. Death Valley is awesome. Was it crowded leading up to the holiday? I assume the Owlhead area had few if any people?
Lucky the road was open to the Telescope trailhead. We spent Thanksgiving at Mahogany Flats a couple years ago and I did Telescope and Wildrose Peaks.
Those b+w pictures are one style I am trying to replicate digitally and not getting there yet.
More crowded than I expected...but only at Trona and Telescope...everywhere else we saw one car or none. Wildrose was fine while we were there, it snowed the day after we left..pity the couple of cars and hikers that headed up that day, it was windy and miserable. Owlhead mtns road was full of military contractor trucks to the Fort Irwin gate but after that I only saw one other person, I don't think many people go past Saratoga Springs. Death Valley is just vast, the road to the Crystal Camp parking spot was 40 miles one way on dirt roads.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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ziphius Posts: 911
11/30/2019
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Looks like a great trip Daren, thanks for posting. - Jim
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http://www.coyotelearning.org
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tommy750 Posts: 1049
12/1/2019
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Looks like a great trip Daren. Nice pics. I like those new K02s.
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Rocko1 Posts: 597
12/2/2019
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Great pictures! Looks like a nice trip.
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deborah Posts: 115
12/2/2019
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Thanks for posting! Great pictures. I love Telescope Peak. The flowers can be amazing in the spring.
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deborah Posts: 115
12/4/2019
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Nice pictures on your other site too. That's a serious vehicle by the Trona Pinnacles. Do you happen to know what it was for? Looks like someone was on a serious mission. 
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Rocko1 Posts: 597
12/5/2019
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Did you make it out to Devils Hole?
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tommy750 Posts: 1049
12/6/2019
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deborah wrote:
Nice pictures on your other site too. That's a serious vehicle by the Trona Pinnacles. Do you happen to know what it was for? Looks like someone was on a serious mission.
That's one of those expedition vehicles that can go anywhere as long as it's open terrain with a city block to turn around and your mechanic and accountant are on speed dial. Mercedes' Unimog and MAN are popular platforms. Big in Europe. Can probably pick up a nice used one for under $500K.
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
12/8/2019
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Rocko1 wrote:
Did you make it out to Devils Hole? Not this trip....years ago with my son however yes.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
12/8/2019
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deborah wrote:
Nice pictures on your other site too. That's a serious vehicle by the Trona Pinnacles. Do you happen to know what it was for? Looks like someone was on a serious mission. Was just one guy who just bought it and was cruising around. Said some place in Montana builds them off of military vehicles. Pretty interesting for sure.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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