A few weeks ago, my friends Will & Susan invited me to Death Valley for Memorial Day Weekend. Now, most of you know that I’ve been a visitor to DV for some time now. To you newbies, you might be saying “Death Valley?” What I said was “Memorial Day Weekend?” You know, traffic? Crowded freeways? Booked up campsites? WHO WANTS THAT? But this was Death Valley! It might sound ominous, and god-forsaken, but it’s far from that. Most of my favorite images were created there. There is so much s p a c e out there, you can’t help but feel your spirit expand to fill it. And then there’s the silence…
This trip was to climb one of the highest landmarks overlooking the Valley: Telescope Peak. It’s part of the Panamint range and it borders the Valley to the West. It’s been in my viewfinder as a background for years and now I was going to GO THERE.
Mahogany Flats, where we camped, is located at an elevation of 8,133′. The weather cooperated well enough. Saturday night, while windy, got down to the low 30’s, but the sky was cloudless and the sky was brilliant with stars. I laid down in my sleeping bag with my head outside the tent to take them in before turning in for the night.
Sunday it was much warmer, by about 20 degrees. We headed out at 8:30 AM after a good hearty breakfast. At 1:30PM, we still had not arrived. You see, the girls were not quite as conditioned as we should have been, so we were doggin’ the whole way up. People who passed us on there way up were on their way DOWN by this time.
You see, Telescope Peak is 11, 049′. We only had about 3,000 ft to climb with a distance of 7 miles one way (do the math). At 5 miles and 9, 890′, the girls ran out of go. So a decision was made to let Will forge ahead. As he conquered the peak, we set a new goal: let’s get to 10,000′! So after an hour’s rest and renewed but short-lived energy, we tackled the short ridge and made it! The view was still spectacular.
When Will returned (it took him another 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to the top from where we were and only 30 minutes to get down!), we all hiked down, quite satisfied with our accomplishments. We were on the mountain 10 hours! That evening, I set up the telescope and showed them the newly slivered Moon, Jupiter and three of his moons, Saturn with rings, and a few hundred stars. It was the perfect way to end a nearly perfect day!
You can go here to see more photos ~ http://www.sendpix.com/albums/06060620/nlscc0z1eq/
And Will’s ~
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildbell/sets/72157594159921517/