Death Valley - Superbowl Weekend

[SunMan]

I had a friend visiting for 2.5 weeks from Australia and since the DV Rally cancelled due to rain (and me wanting to avoid another weekend drinking ourselves silly) I decided to show him some sights and take him out to Death Valley. Rain was in the forcast but it didn't look too bad. Our plans for an early start were somewhat thwarted (note: Aussie visitors can be bad for your health) but we finally hit the road at the crack of noon!

First stop, Trona Pinnacles:

 

[SunMan]

Running out of time after our early start i decided to look for a place to camp, someplace new. We decidied on checking out a road out behind Panamint Butte up towards the Big Four Mine. After awhile the road ended up not being much of a road but rather a wash with barely readable tracks...evntually we found a pretty remote spot. This is apparently the closest you can drive to the Panamint Dunes. Even with all the clouds the views were pretty incredible:

 

[SunMan]

Feral Aussie lost and perplexed by the vastness of Badwater..."Where's the booosh mate?"

 

[SunMan]

We hit the usual tourist spots, Mosaic Canyon, Devils Cornfield/Golfcourse, Mesquite Dunes, Badwater, and Artists Drive all of which I'll spare you. Wanting to be home to catch the game we decided to head back near Stovepipe Wells so we would have an easy shot home Sunday afternoon. We decided to check out Cottonwood and Marble Canyons, it was drizzling pretty good and on the way in we stumbled upon a German Hiker out in the rain and offered her a ride. We eventually found found a pretty sweet site to camp.

Caves seem to bring out the primitive side of man much like fire. So here we have Men (and woman), Cave, Fire, Meat on an open fire, and tequila. Needless to say things got a bit ugly, but not a bad way to spend the final night:

 

[SunMan]

Lastly, couple of rigs we spotted on the trip...all in all we spent 3 nice days in DV and were still home in time to catch the game!

 

[chnlisle]

As always great pix. Thanks Sunny.

 

[DirtyDog]

Looks good! Sure like the look of that cave campsite.

 

[ski3pin]

Looks like a great time and adventure. Thanks for the write up and photos!

 

[craig333]

Where can i get some aussies to make me go to dv?

 

[SunMan]

Looks good! Sure like the look of that cave campsite.


I could see a night spent there on a future DV Rally for sure!

 

[Tomas Tierra]

Where can i get some aussies to make me go to dv?


Be careful what you wish for Craig-o.

Would like to have been a bat on the wall of that cave, that night...can only immagine..How's your German?

Cool that you took an Aussie traveler out there to see on e of our national treasures...The Aussies are generous as all, it will come back when you get down there M8!!
Good on Ya Sunman!

 

[Ted]

Caves seem to bring out the primitive side of man much like fire. So here we have Men (and woman), Cave, Fire, Meat on an open fire, and tequila. Needless to say things got a bit ugly, but not a bad way to spend the final night:

To us, meeting people from other cultures is one of the highlights of travel. But based on this story, we can only hope you didn't start any international incidents.

Looks good! Sure like the look of that cave campsite.

My thoughts exactly.

I could see a night spent there on a future DV Rally for sure!

You lead, we'll follow.

 

[Marc]

Looks like a good time Suni. I too have a couple of OZ friends from my old racing days and after every time I've been with them for more than a few days I think I'm ready for the Betty Ford Clinic.

 

[Silvertip47]

Great pics and write up!!! thanks.

I sure want to get down to DV some day!!!!