Saturday, March 16, 2024

Ubehebe Crater, Death Valley National Park, CA, March 10, 2024

This was the first day of daylight saving time, but I got up at my "regular" wakeup time, and tried for an early started. Drove off early, with the thought of maybe returning to a less-crowded Lake Manly this morning. But after considering the amount of backtracking on the road this would involved, I elected to head north, to Ubehebe Crater, after first heading down the Beatty Cutoff road towards Badwater. Pulled over and took a shot down the road (see previous post), then turned right and made the very long drive to Ubehebe Crater.

For context, it's about 56 miles from Furnace Creek Visitor Center to Ubehebe Crater, and about 45.5 miles and about an hour driving time from Beatty Junction to the crater. Had we gone to Badwater, first, that would have added another 35 minutes each way.

The Ubehebe crater is large, about 1/2 mile wide, and 1.5 miles to walk around it. It and its neighbors formed just a few thousand years ago, when magma contacted subsurface water, leading to a series of explosions. In addition to Ubehebe, there are several other, smaller craters to the south, incluidng Little Hebe Crater. That one is obviously smaller, but more clearly defined.

I elected not to walk to the bottom of the crater. However, on the drive back, I stopped about 1/2 mile from the crater, to walk, explore and snap pictures among one of several dense patches of flowers I saw on the way up. I stepped carefully, either in sandy washes or rocky tops, or on occasional fused tuff, where nothing was growing.

It won't be a "superbloom," but there is a lot of stuff blooming, now. Probably won't last long as the summer heats up, though.

As a BTW, there are no restroom facilities at Ubehebe Crater parking area, but there are flush toilets at the Grapevine ranger station, back on Scotty's Castle Road. Scotty's Castle, itself, remains closed, likely for at least another year.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Lake Manly, Death Valley National Park, March 9, 2024

Made it up to Death Valley over the weekend. Drove up on Saturday, March 9. Stopped at Dante's View on the way in, to get a view of the Badwater Basin from above. Then drove around and down to Badwater, itself, to see "Lake Manly" from the water's edge. That's roughly an hour drive, from Dante's View, by the way. Well under three miles of walking for the day, with maybe a mile up to near the "peak" of Dante's View, and 1/2 mile around Badwater. So not an offical hike, by itself. But something worth blogging and seeing.

"Lake Manly" was one of several names given to the recurring terminal lake at Badwater Basin. During ice age periods, the lake is large and persistent. During more recent periods, it has appeared only rarely, after major water events, such as when the remains of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Disturbance Hillary came through. Heavy rains returned in February of this year, expanding the lake and making it a sight to see. So we wished to see it. This'll be the first of three posts I'll make over the next week or so, from that trip.

From Dante View (no restroom facilities at the top, btw, but a vault toilet down the road about a 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile), I could see an area far below, where Badwater Road appeared to approach very close to the shoreline of Lake Manly. Later, as I drove south on Badwater Road, I could see an alluvial fan that appeared to pour right into the lake, meaning, a steep incline of dry land to the lake, and a possible dry approach to the water's edge. While I ended up parking near Badwater and walking out from there, my walk did confirm that I could have approached from that alluvial fan and reached the water a lot quicker.

It was crowded, but that was to be expected. Still, arriving as late was we did, I was able to park just 150 yards or so from the lot. Vault toilets there.

Kind of a party atmosphere, with many people trying for their instagram moment. You could walk along the narrow outlet from the Badwater Spring, over salty and mostly dry crust. The farther you walked, the more the dry spots thinned, and you'd be walking in toe-deep brine. Because this was normally a salt flat, you could walk hundreds of yards, while still having water only toe deep. Yes, great for a "walking on water" look.

Depending on where you stopped and how you framed your shot, you could get a bit of privacy and a wide open view over a smooth, glass-like surface, or an isolation shot, or a shot with posing people overlapping, as far as the eye could see.

The water is evaporating quickly. It was no longer deep enough (about a foot) for reliable kayaking, and the surface area was maybe 1/3 of what it was a month or so previous. But it's still a picturesque mirror for the desert and mountains surrounding the basin. If you just want to get to the water, I'd suggest parking 1/4 mile or so south of the Badwater parking area, just past mile marker 17. That's on the alluvial fan, that allows for a short, dry walk to the water's edge. For "walking on water" shots, maybe walk from the edge a bit further north and east.

The last shot was the next morning, driving down the Beatty Road cutoff. I was considering an early morning visit, but it would have required an addiitonal 1/2 hour of driving to Badwater, then turn around and heading north, towards Ubehebe Crater, which I hadn't been to, yet, and was a priority for me to see, this trip. So figure at least 90 minues later, and over an hour additional driving, for what was already going to be a fair amount of driving. So we elected to turn back towards Ubehebe Crater, forgoing a chance at a morning view of Lake Manly, up close.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, February 12, 2024

A variety of factors have kept me off the trail, which has been pretty damn frustrating. Finally managed a little excursion on Monday afternoon, February 12, 2024. Drove out to Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. The recent snows promised the potential of some nice skyline shots.

This has been a somewhat regular destination for me, although I don't think I've been there for a few years. Got there early, with time for a little walking before sunset. Probably only did two or 2 1/2 miles, though.

Took plenty of shots. Chatted with an LASD sergeant, for a bit. He was also there enjoying the view. I was just trying to make sure I wasn't going to get locked in there. The sign out front says the park gates are locked at 6pm. About twenty minutes before that, a truck came rolling around the road, announcing "final call" for the gate being locked.

I took my last shot around 5:48pm, then headed to my car, and drove slowly down the road, reaching the gate with a few minutes to spare.

After I got home, I saw a crescent moon, and wanted to try out one of my telescopes, an Orion XT8 Dobsonian that my wife found at a thrift store a number of years ago. It was getting hard to track objects with it, because it was so sticky when trying to push the tube in any direction. So I bought some new teflon bearings, which I installed over the weekend. The good news is that it's a lot smoother, now, and easier to fine tune the pointing. The bad news is, it's so slippery that it slides up or down in altitude, depending on how heavy the eyepiece I am using. I'm going to have to buy some new magnetic weights to keep the tube balanced.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Joshua Tree National Park, December 31, 2023

The last hike I took last year, but my first post of 2024. I got a very late start, partially because I worked the night before, and partially because the main goal of this trip was going to be astrophotography.

As a result, I wanted a really short hike, so I wouldn't feel too tired to make that night drive back into the park. Since I was planning to stay in Twentynine Palms, the obvious short hike choice was 49 Palms Oasis. It's outside of the main roads of the park, so you don't actually go past an entrance kiosk to get to this one. Instead, to get to the trailhead, you head north off of CA-62 on Canyon Road, which is about two miles west of the Stater Brothers shopping center in Twentynine Palms. At Canyon, there's a VCA animal hospital just east of Canyon, which may serve as a landmark, in addition to a brown NPS sign pointing the way.

This road is not super smooth, but fine for passenger cars. Just pay attention, especially after a storm, as sand and gravel will wash over the road, potholes may appear, and the edge of the pavement may suddenly shift inward, leaving less than two car-widths of pavement.

As I approached the parking lot, I saw numerous cars parked on the shoulder of the road, indicating the lot was full, earlier. By the time I got there (near 3pm, as I recall), however, there were several spaces available.

Although just three miles roundtrip, the trail itself did not feel that crowded, though it still required a few moments of waiting for oncoming hikers and slowdowns until I could pass other hikers.

The trail is well-defined, so sticking with the trail, if that's your goal, is easy. There's a good climb and descent both coming and going, so it can be a good workout. The more cardio fit will run the trail, both ways. Not me, though.

The end of the trial is obvious, with several signs indicating you should not be tromping down among the palms, although people do. I heard no running water this trip. Also, probably because of the temperature and the season, I heard no amphibians croaking.

On my return, it appeared the clouds were building. It was still comfortable, and the lighting was nice for photography. But my hopes for the night were not optimistic. Yet, surprisingly, after dinner and a walk around the motel, I did see Jupiter and numerous stars among holes in the clouds, so I wound up packing my astro gear and heading back out into the park.

Was considering the Sky's the Limit compound, but the gate was closed and locked. So the next paved parking area I knew of from the North Entrance is White Tanks. That's the trailhead to hike to Arch Rock, and also the California Riding and Hiking trail.

When I got there, there was one camper van, who were obviously planning to illegally camp in the parking area. But they were pretty dark, and I set up with my car between them and me. Also, during setup, I kept my car's dome light on, to see what I was doing. Didn't need to worry about anyone else's astrophotography or astronomy because no one else was out there doing that.

I set up my 80mm f/7 Astrotech refractor, which I bought a year ago, June. Paired with a .8x focal reducer, it yields a 448mm focal length, and an f/5.6 focal ratio, which is a fair telephoto length, and pretty fast for the focal length. My "good" camera is a Nikon D780. Used this set up only a few previous times, including when we were visited by Comet ZTF. Besides that, only one other effort, which was a pretty unsuccessful astrophotography session. So I was really looking forward to giving this set up another try.

I used my Orion Sirius Mount. It's a goto mount, but for this sort of thing, I just tried to visually line it up on Polaris, and used the tracking function only to compensate for the earth's rotation. It's all unguided, and, because I don't know how to stack images, they're just single frames, typically between 30 seconds and 120 seconds, and ISOs of between 800 and 1600. The shots are then uploaded to my phone and processed in Lightroom for mobile. Some shots are cropped and/or rotated.

My astrophography subjects, in order of posting, were the Flame/Horsehead Nebula complex, in Orion, the Orion Nebula (M42), the Pleiades (M45), and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). From an objective point of view, they're pretty mediocre. But, for me, I'm pleased with the results. Will try taking slightly longer exposures in the future, especially on the Flame/Horsehead Nebula complex. My goal is not necessarily to go much deeper into astrophotography. To get serious would be to go down a rabbit hole of exposures, stacking, and processing techniques, and once it starts getting too much like work, it's no fun. Fortunately, the equipment and software available to the general public, including my dslr, is (figuratively) light years ahead of where it was when I was younger, so I can get reasonable results with only moderate effort, and I can settle for trying to improve on the margins.

Monday, December 11, 2023

Convict Lake towards Mildred Lake, hiked August 12, 2023

Hike from the summer, during my ill-fated Perseid trip. Second day in the Sierra. Convict Lake was a frequent fishing destination, back when I was in high school and before. Never got to hike around the area, so I was pretty sure this was going to be a destination during this trip.

There's a trail that goes around Convict Lake, and it's not particularly short, at a bit over 2.5 miles, because Convict is a pretty large lake. The other trail heads into the John Muir Wilderness from the far side of the lake.

Not long after you leave the parking lot near the outlet from Convict, there's this sign on the trailhead. If you click on the picture, you'll see a larger version, but the gist of the matter is that it says the bridge crossing Convict Creek, three miles ahead, is washed out, so plan accordingly.

So I was pretty sure I wasn't going to actually make it to Mildred Lake. I was pretty sure I'd stop at the bridge out, and turnaround. But I was open, depending on how I felt and how high the water was.

Well, it turns out, it's actually about four miles from the parking at Convict Lake to the bridge crossing, and by the time I got there, I was perfectly willing to call an eight mile out and back hike good enough for a day.

Despite being August and with the trail clear of snow, there were still some snow patches along the way, and their melt kept the water relatively high. But, unlike above Sabrina Lake, the slope of this creek and drainage meant far fewer stagnant pools, and basically no mosquitos. It was a more enjoyable hike, from that perspective, for sure.

On the other hand, with the faster drainage and dryer soil, there were far fewer wildflowers on this trail than above Sabrina.

The trail was well defined pretty much the entire way, up until just before the turnaround point, where use trails made the true trail less obvious. Still, once I got to the washout, there was no question that this was the place. Only the abutments remained. No sign of the actual bridge.

I was later informed that this was because it's not like the bridge got washed out this year. It's apparently been out for many years.

At the wash out, a side stream came in from the right, heading into the main stem. The bridge used to be just below that confluence.

The roar of the creeks was quite loud when standing near the water. And because I already knew (from my Alltrails recording) that I had gone four miles, I was ready to turnaround. However, in looking at my still shots, the water seems less powerful than it did in person.

Crossing would still require taking off my boots and splashing through swift water, but I think if I crossed the tributary, first, then either went further upstream or even crossed just above the confluence, the flow would not have been hazardous to cross. Yes, wet feet, and some time to dry my feet before lacing the boots back on, but not impassalbe, if I was committed. But I wasn't, because I didn't want to tire myself out too much, in the event of astronomy, later that night.

Spoiler alert -- It clouded out again that night, so I "saved" myself for nothing.

Returned the way I came. Passed only a few people who seemed prepared to continue past the water crossing. Almost everyone was on a day hike, and even then, it was a lot emptier than the trail around the lake.

Haven't been hiking much recently, for a variety of reasons. And not currently sure how many past hikes I still need to blog. So no more than maybe one more hike to post this year. So, Happy Holidays, and see you all in a few weeks!

Video from the crossing, here. Not sure if I uploaded it right. If not, I'll return tomorrow to fix that.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Valley of Fire State Park, NV -- Fire Wave / Seven Wonders Loop, and Mouse's Tank

Hiked November 6, 2023. While still having many older hikes that need to be blogged, thought I'd go ahead and put this more recent one up. It's the good season for visiting Valley of Fire, with the summer heat having passed into more temperate circumstances.

I had visited Valley of Fire numerous times previously, most recently in February 2021. Never managed to blog that, though. So I think this is my first hiking blog entry for Valley of Fire State Park.

It's a little over an hour of driving time from the Las Vegas area. Depending on where in the Las Vegas Valley you're coming from, there may be little difference between heading north on I-15 and taking Exit 75, then heading east to Valley of Fire, or heading through Lake Mead NRA and Northshore Road, then heading west into Valley of Fire. It's faster via I-15 (assuming typical traffic), but the drive through Lake Mead NRA is more scenic, more leisurely, trivially fewer miles, and with vault toilets at several spots along the way. No food that way, however, unless you bring it with you, or possibly if you detour a not insignificant distance to Calville Bay. Also, you'll need to pay a Lake Mead NRA entry fee, unless you already have a pass.

By contrast, if coming from I-15, you've got the Love's travel center at U.S. 93, and the Indian casino/truck stop at Exit 75, for food, gas, and flush toilets.

Because I already have the park pass, I took the scenic route.

I was slightly surprised to find the entry kiosk to Valley of Fires Tate Park from the east actually staffed. I think on my last visit, you either had to pay at the visitor center or via a self-serve "iron ranger." Entry is $10 for Nevada residents and $15 for non-residents. I don't know if they check IDs or just go by car license plates, but $15 was fine by me, even if I was only going to be there about a half a day.

Figured I'd hit the "Fire Wave" place, again. This being a Monday, I figured it would be emptier than when I was last here, on a weekend. And it was somewhat emptier, but far from empty in the park. Parking was also still limited, as they now only allowed parking in designated lots; no roadside parking.

The "good" news is that makes it a mile or so walk from Parking Area 3, rather than just a few hundred yards from the road (still not very far, of course), and the longer walk from either side meant you'd spread out the arrivals, hopefully.

Last time, I was annoyed by a family who just planted themselves near the most scenic area, and let their kids run around the rocks. Made it impossible for anyone to get just regular pictures of the "Fire Wave." This time, there were no "permament" residents, but there was a foursome of hikers that moved with amazingly glacial speed. They spent literally 10-15 minutes walking the 150 or so yards to get out of my shot. By then, I only had a few moments before additional hikers appeared. Still, at least I did get a chance for a few photos of unpopulated sandstone.

It's not as otherworldly as the actual "Wave" in Arizona, but it is a beautiful spot, and the alternating colors of sandstone stripes make for a nifty shot.

Once at the Fire Wave, you can either retrace your steps back to Parking Area 3, or continue on a loop, cross over the highway, then head up the "Seven Wonders" loop, returning to Parking Area 3 from the other side of the south and west.

More scenic rocks along this hike, including some that are purple. No idea of the chemical composition it takes to make purple sandstone. The whole loop is about 2.5 miles. On the return, I observed what looked like an unofficial trail that would also take you to Parking Area 4, near the White Domes at the end of Mouse's Tank Road. So if Lot 3 were full, you'd have that as an option to still get to walk to the Fire Wave, though with a somewhat longer trek involved.

Meanwhile, the shot above was taken just southwest of Parking Area 3, looking into the Seven Wonders. Looks very Zion-esque.

Once back at my car, I next drove back down the "Mouse's Tank" road, which starts near the visitor center and deadends north, near the White Domes trailhead. I parked in the picnic area across from the Mouse's Tank parking area, and took the short, roughly 3/4 of a mile out and back trail to Mouse's Tank. The "tank" is a spot of relatively impervious stone that holds water late into the year, and was used by a Paiute renegade named "Mouse" (or "Little Mouse") when he was on the run. The tank, itself, is not a lot to see, by itself.

The main attraction on this trail is that there are a lot of petroglyphs visible on the walls (generally the walls on the north side of the canyon, or your left, on the way in, and right, on the way out). At least those are the ones I saw. There was one interesting thing on the south side wall, but I'm not sure if it was a petroglyph or just natural weathering. That's the first of the "petroglyph" shot in this post.

Petroglyphs can be tricky, and their visibility can vary widely depending on which way you're walking and where the sun is. I actually didn't see that many on the way in, but, on my return, as I walked slower and spent more time looking up, I saw a surprisingly large amount. And, as just noted, almost all seemed to be on the north side of the canyon.

I was especially intrigued by the one panel, with many antlered animals, presumably deer, though, potentially, elk. Obviously, they're pretty scarce within 100 miles of the place, now. But, long enough ago? Yeah, the area would have been wetter and forested, and deer or elk definitely around.

Alternatively, it's possibly more likely that these were made long after the last ice age, by an artist who traveled a bit and saw or knew of deer and elk from his or her own travels. No idea which version is more likely.

I returned to my via an alternate route, in a mostly-fruitless search for more petroglyphs. This took me up a short canyon that was immediately north of the one the official trail took. Only one possible petroglypth, though it was deeply etched, so I'm not sure if it was ancient or modern. I did see this pretty nifty rock, though.

All told, about three miles total walking, so just enough to qualify as a day of "hiking" in my blog. Nice way to spend a late fall day.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Sabrina Lake Past George Lake, Inyo National Forest -- Hiked August 11, 2023

One of two hikes I took around the Perseid Meteor shower, back in August. Friends booked the group campground in the White Mountains for meteor and general astronomical viewing. I was happy to join in on the astronomy, but wasn't feeling the need to camp, so I booked a room down in Bishop. Turned out to be a good choice, since there was clouds and rain pretty much every day (except, ironically, for the first night, but even that was only partially astronomically clear).

It was quite a contrast from recent years. Because 2023 was such a heavy snow year, the snow coverage in Auguest 2023 was still a good deal more than July 2021, for example. Not to say that it was all that snowy, but it was, at least, not completely dry. Of course, that meant more mosquitos!

Fourth picture from the top, by the way, if you click on the shot to enlarge it, you'll see a mosquito, top left-center. They were swarming, and you could hardly take a shot without them getting on your hands.

But that meant lots of greenery, lots of wildflowers, and lots of running water. It was gorgeous.

I gave some thought to continuing on down into the South Lake drainage, to Tyee Lakes, but the threatening weather deterred me. I didn't want to wind up getting soaked, and there was plenty of thunder and stormy weather around me during this hike. I only got showers on me, however.

So, at the pass, looking down, and a cross a small patch of snow, and knowing I'd be descending now and need to climb back up that to get home, decided better of it.

This still made a nice walk, far enough to get tired, not too far to get too tired. But it also meant I got back into Bishop as darkness fell, and I lacked the motivation to then head back into the White Mountains for some astronomy. Not that it would have been great seeting, but, in the benefit of hindsight, this was the least cloudy night up there of the three I had to choose from.

As noted previously, the return only meant sprinkles on me, not a major downpour that I feared. Plenty of time to snap flower photos. Lots of columbine, including some whitish columbine.

This hike was out of Lake Sabrina, at the western terminus of CA-168, 19.3 miles, and 23 minutes from the Travelodge in Bishop, where I was staying. From Lake Sabrina, there are a couple of backcountry options. The one I took looped over towards Tyee Lakes, over towards South Lake. The other trail heads past Blue Lake. I took that hike, to Dingleberry Lake, the previous year, to near Dingleberry Lake. Oddly enough, I don't think I ever blogged that hike, or at least I can't find my write-up.

Both trails take off from a bit below the Sabrina dam, on the south side of the creek and lake. About two-thirds of the way along the lake's south side, the trail splits, with the side to Tyee Lakes going up steeply to the left.

So it was a slow slog up a long climb, but with the blue waters of Lake Sabrina set off against the granite cliffs and patches of snow below. About 800 vertical feet later, you're in the George Lake basin. Relatively level, and often adjacent to running water, and lots of greenery, along with the aforementioned mosquitoes.

George Lake is the largest of the lakes in the basin, and the last you come across. At that point, the trail begins another steep climb, this time, to the northeast. Looking back the way you came, you seem more steep granite cliffs, now above George Lake, rather than Sabrina.

Another 800 foot vertical gain puts you at the pass into the Tyee Lakes Basin. Those lakes aren't visible from the pass, however, as they're tucked below the more granite cliffs that you can't see from the pass. At the pass was the pictured patch of ice. The trail would continue in that direction, first at a gentle slope, but then steeply down a creek canyon to Tyee Lakes. Because of the threatening clouds and the big climb it would take to get back if I continued, I turned around here, and made it back to the car with only drizzles catching me. The rain was light enough and intermittent enough that I stopped for plenty more wildflower pictures along the way back.

Don't have the Alltrails recording handy, but it says 6.3 miles roundtrip to George Lake, so probably 9-10 miles roundtrip from Tyee Pass. Plenty enough for me to get tired.