“In this glare of brilliant emptiness, in this arid intensity of pure heat,
in the heart of a weird solitude, great silence and grand desolation, all things
recede to distances out of reach, reflecting light but impossible to touch,
annihilating all thought and all that men have made to a spasm of whirling dust
far out on the golden desert.”–Ed Abbey
March 31, 2015
Darwin Canyon Wash to White Mountain Talc Road
24.9 miles
3,700 elevation gain
Extreme is the essence of this journey from lowest to highest.
Today started with some fun class 3 and 4 climbing through Darwin Canyon, a fairyland of water and rock, then across the long hot Darwin plateau, and now finds me in San Lucas Canyon shivering in my sleeping bag so cold I can see my breath.
In addition, there was a very nice mix of characters, both human and wild. Ongoing entertainment throughout the day included: goldfish, various snakes, a very upset wild burro, a nice ranger that carried out our empty water bottles, lots of happy, hippy people heading out to Saline Valley, our personal fighter jets continued to escort us overhead, a gentleman in an old Ford with a bike on the back for when the truck breaks down, and super sonic speedy lizards.
And for the scariest…
At the end of the day hiking by headlamps in San Lucas Canyon, way out in the middle of nowhere, a camper truck was parked on the side of the road. Very fishy. We immediately were alarmed by flashing lights inside the truck and loud music and turned our headlamps off. Then we heard very loud mean yelling in another language that sounded like an interrogation, not a fight. Quickly Dan grabbed my hand and we sprinted about a mile ahead until we felt we were safe. Super frightening.
You just never know what the desert will throw at ya!
What We Did or Wish We Did:
-The guidebook description in the book “Hiking Death Valley” by Michel Degonnet of the route through Darwin Canyon is VERY helpful for safety and time.
-Get water before China Gardens near the falls, unless you want to filter out of the fish pond. China Garden is kind of dumping ground.
-We stashed water at highway 190 and carried out 6 liters of water, but if you have time an additional water cache 8 miles up Saline Valley Road would be helpful, especially if it is warmer weather.
PS the “interrogation” scene in the camper van gave me a very good idea for how to thwart passer-bys when I’m camped in the middle of nowhere and scared myself. I’ll just turn up the volume on the scary movie yelling at each other scene and grin as the scared hikers run away… 😉
I think that strategy would work! I hope you didn’t have a bad experience going through the area around Saline Valley.
Such ENTICING photos!
Yes, they were! I love the word enticing and just what I wanted to create.
Yikes! That sounds like quite a scary predicament to be in, smart thinking to turn off the head lamps. Love your pictures — particularly the one you captured of Lower Darwin Falls. Makes me want to go do some sort of waterfall hike this weekend here in San Diego.
King Snake and Gold Fish. Pretty cool. What a day you had! Great photos as always.
Really enjoyiny the details on your journey. This has been on my radar and all your tips have things you wish you had done are super helpful!
Great to hear from you Snorkel and thank you. I wondered about adding the detailed info. because things can change with time given the drought, snow levels, and temperatures. I plan to make a Lowest to Highest page with a bit more info all organized.
Great photographs! What extraordinary terrain.
Big big country with lots of swings in terrain, color, lighting, elevation and temperatures. Definitely not boring.
‘Red and yellow kill a fellow’ I see red on a yellow band however faint. Amazing trip!
I guess a guy really doesn’t want to find out if it really IS a Coral Snake!! love the photographs.
Boy that is so right!!!!! Snake…just get away.
The Snake is actually a Shovel-nosed Snake. They are non-venomous and relatively small. A great find. What an amazing hike. I have a friend doing this this weekend and had a chance to go but cannot fit it in. Got to go back and hike this journey…
Hope this helps! Learned this when we moved to Fl. 35 years ago. We have both kinds. Check the bands. “Red on Black, Friend of Jack”, King snake. “Red on Yellow, Kills a fellow”, Coral Snake. Google in Desert coral snake, found one similar to yours. Hard to see your colors. Enjoying your blog. Found you and Wired about the same time. You go Girls! Never thought of backpacking when younger just lots of hikes with hubby.
Big Granny (love that name!),
So glad for your info! It is a confusing pattern, but pretty sure it is a king snake. We also saw a sidewinder at night that we did not get a photo. Wired is on the move now in the red desert. So fun to know you are following along. I love that you can start this sport at any age! 🙂
Amazing photos!
Super fun taking and posting them. Thank you.
Regarding an ID for the snake whether – Red and yellow = kill a fellow (Coral snake). Red and black = venom lack.
The picture is hard to see detail. Which do you think it might be?
I agree. It was hard to tell because of the pattern and colors. We are pretty sure it is a king snake.