Some 10 miles south of Furnace Creek lies the entrance to Artist Drive, one of the more popular attractions in the park. For nine miles, this one-way road winds its way east, north, then west through the foothills of the Black Mountains, passing through rugged washes and across wide alluvial plains. We didn’t expect…
A couple of miles north of Badwater is a dirt road leading up a gentle grade to one of the many canyons that empty into Death Valley, this one containing a feature known as Natural Bridge. Here, centuries of water runoff through the canyon has hollowed out a passage below more obstinate rock, leaving a…
Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, so we had to pay the place a visit, if for no other reason than simply “because it’s there.” Like so many features of the desert, the relative distance on the map belie the true dimensions between points –…
We had been hearing about the wildflower “superbloom” at Death Valley for a couple of weeks, so we decided to drive out for the weekend and see it for ourselves. The closest hotel room/camp site we could find was in Ridgecrest, some two hours southwest of the main park facilities at Furnace Creek, so we…
Part II of our Indian Canyons adventure led up Andreas Canyon and back, a short mile-long excursion along a perennial creek that was flowing nicely. Similar to Palm Canyon, there was a picnic area at the mouth of the canyon, and we quickly passed through it as we made our way west up the…
Months ago, we had made some reservations at a golf resort in Palm Desert through an email advertisement, thinking we’d enjoy some nice spring weather and a chance to hike in the desert. As the dates approached, however, it looked more like the area was going to be hot, hot, and hot during our three…
Saddleback Butte is a prominent landmark in the desert east of Lancaster, its twin summits and namesake saddle recognizable from viewpoints throughout the Antelope Valley. We had first talked about hiking to the 3,651′ summit last spring when the area’s wildflowers were on full display, but other things took precedence and, before we knew…
Chelsea, Pedro, and the boys came up to Wrightwood on Friday night, planning to go to Joshua Tree NP the following day to do Chelsea’s pregnancy photo shoot with our favorite photographer, Holly Carlyle (we got to know Holly five years ago when she shot Chelsea and Pedro’s wedding, and she’s been a veritable…
As we’ve recently driven so many times through the desert on our way to Wrightwood, we’ve been making a list of hikes we can do on the way to and from, and prominent among those is the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve west of Lancaster off Hwy 138. We had been following developing wildflower reports…