The plan for this trip to Death Valley was to do something completely different than normal - spend the vast majority of our time out of the trucks, hiking some of the beautiful canyons that the desert has to offer. Looking back now, a little over a year since the trip took place, it was just the first of such trips - and it opened up an entirely new perspective for me when visiting the park.
The best stuff is found only on foot.
Sit back and enjoy as we explore Kaleidoscope Canyon, Room Canyon, the Smoke Tree Slot Canyons, and more - it's a side of Death Valley that I'm willing to bet you've never seen before!
Hiking Death Valley (Feb 2019) Part 1 - The Day the Tent Closed...with Us Inside Before it even began, the trip was off to a rough start. See, we'd planned - if you can call deciding to go on a trip just a few days prior to departure, "planning" - to leave two weeks earlier, but inclement weather caused us to push the trip back. Even so, the weather report was iffy just a few days before the new date - something we decided we'd ignore so we could get out and explore. Plus, by pushing the date, we'd gotten a couple of friends - Ben @m3bassman, Zane @Speedytech7,…
Room Canyon and...Water Crossings? | Hiking Death Valley #2 - The night passed much more peacefully than the one before and we slept extremely well on our new Exped Megamat Duo 10 - a great fit in the @cascadia tents Mt. Shasta, and significantly more comfortable than the foam mattress. Hoping for a dramatic sunrise, I was up early to explore camp. In the end, given our location in the pass - there wasn't much color in the sky, the weather seemed to be holding and the temps were warmer than the day before, and I was happy to explore the hilly area around camp to see what secrets it held.…
We Trek Miles Across the Desert | Hiking Death Valley #3 - Our sleep was short-lived, the wind continuing to pick up as the night wore on. In fact, this chapter technically starts on February 15th, since it was 11:45pm when we awoke to the most violent shaking of the tent I've ever experienced - significantly more violent than the night I spent with Monte @Blackdawg and Mike @Digiratus at the base of the Henry Mountains in Utah. I'd already gotten up once to secure the ladder, tying it to a full 5-gallon jerry can of water and the slider of the truck to ensure that the fold-out half of the tent wouldn't make…
Rig Review: Hiking Death Valley - What worked and what didn't? - Rig Review is a new type of post that I'm going to try to write up after most trips, where I'll note any things that worked really well, or could have been better. The idea has always been to optimize the Tacoma build and setup over time, so there's nothing really new from that perspective. I won't talk about everything I've got going on - just new equipment to the trip and/or any outliers that deserve a mention. At the very least, I figure that long-term, real-world reviews of the products I use are good for everyone! February 18, 2019.…
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