New River Hike

We woke Wednesday morning to a damp world. By noon the sky was starting to clear, so we decided to hike the New River trail I had found in a list of hikes on the web.

The start of the trail was quite inviting.

We followed the path into a beautiful green woods. I was very happy the trail was not  soft sand.  I had had enough of that on the beach.

The forest had quite a mix of trees. The colorful madrones contrasted with the lush greens.

This tree seemed to fascinate Craig.

In places it felt like autumn with many leaves on the ground.

After awhile we came to a short spur to the New River. By this time the sky was very blue with just some white clouds here and there. The sky reflection made the river water look blue.

Back on the main trail, the path became more and more sandy. We were happy to see a few benches along the way. I asked Craig if we got extra points for walking in the sand!  [From Craig: I told her that the miles counted double.]

 

We came out of the wooded area to a part of the path that overlooked a large, rough dune.

Following what we thought were footprints, we walked down along what seemed to be the trail.

It was not.

The footprints ended, as we started out across the open area looking for more. I wondered how such a civilized trail had turned into an unmarked old dune.

Obviously this was not right, so we turned back, retracing our steps to the last place we knew we were on the trail.

And sure enough, we spotted the pretty obvious logs that indicated which way the trail went!

We were soon back on the trail and into another wooded area, which took us toward the end of our hike.

The total loop was 2.4 miles.

I would like to come back and do it again at the end of the month to see if it feels easier. For now it was just about right!

Once again I needed to lie down when we got back to the Alfa. This kind of "tired" feels good!

Like life...

Mesquite Flats Dunes, Death Valley

On Wednesday, we started our day with a walk into the sand dunes at Mesquite Flats.  

Most of the Death Valley floor is either a hard salt and sand mix with a variety of scrubby creosote bush, desert holly, and salt grass. In this area and in one other, the sand has been trapped by the wind currents and has developed into shifting dunes.

I found my trekking poles came in handy, but were not really necessary.  The top few inches of sand were soft and loose, below that I could feel a hard base.

I now have a tactile understanding of why camels have big feet.

When I got to the top I was quite warmed up and took off my windbreaker.  It was quite a distance.  Everything is farther away or bigger than it seems.

There were many footprints along the ridges and on the sides of the dunes closest to the parking area giving evidence to the many people who have walked there recently.  I don't know how much of a wind it takes to erase them.

I'm glad we were able to experience the dunes, knowing the damage we did was temporary. Our tracks will be blown away.  

The park information indicated the dunes extend about two miles, getting smaller as they go.  This was taken from the top of one of the largest dunes.  It was neat to see the sand mostly unmarred.

We had two other small adventures Wednesday, but I will leave those for the next post. 

Weather report:  First week of January 2013, Death Valley National Park.  Overnight temps in high 30's.  No worry about freezing water hose or pipes.  Afternoon temperatures very comfortable in the mid to high 60's.  Sunny.  Great for hiking!

For more great pictures of Death Valley, check out Carol K's blog.

 She and Dave were here at the same time.