The 20-hour drive home - that concluded our Lowest Peak in the Park - aka Into the Owlsheads trip - gave me a lot of time to think. The trip had been brilliant, with some predictable highlights, and some unexpected surprises. And I have to admit that joking around as we climbed Owl Peak - that it was the lowest in the park, perfect for the serial underachiever - had been a lot of fun.
But it also got me thinking. In the nearly four years that I've been visiting Death Valley, Owl Peak is the only summit I've ever climbed. And, I thought, what if I followed it up with the highest peak in the park? I mean, by doing the lowest and highest, it sort of follows that one has done them all, you know?
And so, now less than two weeks later, we're headed back. To hike to the top of Telescope Peak, and to explore areas in the Panamints - areas that we've driven by many times, but always enroute to somewhere else. Not this time though - this time, we're Pushing Into the Panamints.
Through Dunes, Arches and Canyons | Panamints 1 - The 20-hour drive home - that concluded our Lowest Peak in the Park - aka Into the Owlsheads trip - gave me a lot of time to think. The trip had been brilliant, with some predictable highlights, and some unexpected surprises. And I have to admit that joking around as we climbed Owl Peak - that it was the lowest in the park, perfect for the serial underachiever - had been a lot of fun. But it also got me thinking. In the nearly four years that I've been visiting Death Valley, Owl Peak is the only summit I've ever climbed. And,…
The Legend of Skidoo | Panamints 2 - Sleep came quickly on our tailings platform nestled into the drainage high in the Panamint Mountains. Sheltered from the wind, and with temperatures in the low-40°F range, it was one of the most pleasant nights of sleep I've had in a long time. It wasn't quite as good for @mrs.turbodb, but she certainly welcomed the nearly 11 hours of shut eye after the slog of driving we'd endured over the previous 48 hours. I'd set my alarm for just before sunrise, but my internal clock was having none of that silliness, and I awoke three minutes before Toto's Africa came…
Highest Peak in the Park | Panamints 3 - On a ridge at 8,133 feet above sea level, Mahogany Flats campground is reasonably well-known for cold, windy conditions. Luckily for us, the wind wasn't too bad, but temps did drop down into the 30s for much of the night - a nice change, actually, given that we we'd brought along two down comforters and had been rather warm on the first couple nights of this trip. We'd camped here - unusual for us, given that it is a campground and we generally prefer a more secluded setting - the night before in order to set ourselves up well for…
Rig Review - What worked and what didn't in Death Valley? - December 15, 2021. It's been three months since the last rig review, and in that time I've put another 10,000 miles on the Tacoma. With a nearly catastrophic failure, as well as a few great successes, it's time to dive into the good and the bad from the last several trips: Last Minute Rush (Oct 2021) Lowest Peak in the Park - aka Into the Owlsheads (Nov 2021) Highest Peak in the Park - aka Pushing into the Panamints (Nov 2021) Back for More (Dec 2021) Seemingly solved from previous Rig Reviews The Axle Housing is Cracked Oil Leaking from…