Death-Valley.net

Western Places :: RE: 2nd trip to Australia: Pt 2 - Kangaroo Island & misc stu

Snow Nymph — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:26:44 GMT

Author: Snow Nymph
Subject: Searching for wildlife on Kangaroo Island
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 2:26 am (GMT -7)

Monday, 24 November 2008
Koala Walk in the day, Duck Lagoon and search for Guanas at Kangaroo Island

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/6643026_4Dake#428159350_3G6iQ

WMonday, 24 November 2008
Koala Walk in the day, Duck Lagoon and search for Guanas at Kangaroo Island

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/6643026_4Dake#428159350_3G6iQ

We went back to the Koala Sanctuary to see if we could see the Koala joeys in daylight. We spotted at least 10 of the 14 we saw at night. Later we drove around looking along the roadside for Goanna's. We saw one, but it got away before we could get photos. We drove to Cygnet River, where we heard had some Koala's in the wild. We found 3 at Duck Lagoon. We didn't see many live Kangaroos since they are nocturnal, and this time of year its too hot out for them. We drove around Kangaroo Island to see some new areas before returning to Penneshaw to catch the ferry back to Cape Jervis.

Koala sleeping with Joey in her arms

Another Koala with Joey

Flowers

_________________
www.snow-nymph.com
We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

Tom — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:28:20 GMT

Author: Tom
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:28 pm (GMT -7)

MojaveGeek wrote:

Wow, all four narrows of Bighorn starting from the road at the bottom? You win one of those Hiker Dude awards too, Steve! That is awesome.

Yeah, 20 miles of cross-country hiking in one day is amazing! I will be very interested in seeing your trip report when you have the time to get it up on your website.

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

MojaveGeek — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:59:56 GMT

Author: MojaveGeek
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 11:59 am (GMT -7)

Wow, all four narrows of Bighorn starting from the road at the bottom? You win one of those Hiker Dude awards too, Steve! That is awesome. I'm sure you have some great pix too. Indeed, you spent a lot of time in canyons, but you sure got some of the good ones!

I may be a bit disconnected over the next week, but I'm sure looking forward to seeing your reports, when you have time!

Western Places :: RE: 2nd trip to Australia: Pt 2 - Kangaroo Island & misc stu

Snow Nymph — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:10:13 GMT

Author: Snow Nymph
Subject: Hanson Bay Marine Life and Nocturnal Koala Walk
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:10 am (GMT -7)

It was windy for us, but the skies were nice. I was prepared for shorts and tanks, but kept bundled up for this trip. It was warm in Adelaide til I got there, then it started raining for most of my stay there. It warmed up the last week I was there. Looks like I'll be going back a few more times. SnowDude's assignment is extended another 6 months. They're working on dates now, but he should be home Dec 23rd for 4-6 weeks. I'll get to see all 4 seasons!

Sunday, 23 November 2008
Hanson Bay Marine Life and Nocturnal Koala Walk

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/6643008_hQgDr#427962760_FqSgu

We walked along the beach looking for goanna's. We saw tracks of some kind of large lizard, but no luck. We saw a lot of marine life in the tidepools. When it got dark, we drove to the Hanson Bay Sanctuary for the Nocturnal Koala Walk.

Our cabin on the left

Cool plants

Cool waves breaking and water patterns

Cool marine life

Cool nightlife (Koala and a restless joey)

_________________
www.snow-nymph.com
We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

SteveHall — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:36:02 GMT

Author: SteveHall
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:36 pm (GMT -7)

Here was our final list of locations we visited by day:

Mon- Stretched-Pebble Cyn
Tue- Titanothere Cyn
Wed- rained out
Thu- Upper Monarch Cyn & Lower Monarch Cyn
Fri- Slit Cyn & Corkscrew Cyn
Sat- Fall Cyn
Sun- day off
Mon- Bighorn Gorge
Tue- Nemo Cyn

Tomorrow is our last day here, and we are either going to return to Nemo Cyn for some more hiking in that area, or go into Nova Cyn, and then head home. We went to quite a few other places I didn't list above, but it was mostly tourist stuff which I was getting new pictures of for my web site. Also we did all canyons on this trip, which is something I've never done before. Sandy Peak was one place we did not get to, but I will be getting to on the March trip, along with Dry Bone Cyn and backpacking through Cottonwood-Marble.

The hike through Bighorn Gorge was one of the longest and best of my entire lift. We ended up hiking 20 total miles, 10 miles in and 10 miles out. We saw both the mouth and the head, and all 4 narrows. It's going to make for an awesome trip report, probably the best I've ever done.

Mojave- I'll have to drop you a PM when I get home and let you know.
_________________
My Death Valley Trip Reports web site-- www.panamintcity.com

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

MojaveGeek — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:51:31 GMT

Author: MojaveGeek
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:51 pm (GMT -7)

I've been so envious of all you folks out there having fun in greater DV!

I am looking forward to trip reports, Steve. I'm pretty confused as to where you ended up going, given the storm. I want to hear more about Titanothere, of course, as my hike down the was aborted due to illness, years ago. And of course Bighorn.

if you went to secret places drop a hint and I'll PM you.

Now I start to think about my next trip.

Trip Reports :: RE: Dolomite Canyon and the big white tank below Towne Peak

MojaveGeek — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:48:45 GMT

Author: MojaveGeek
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:48 pm (GMT -7)

There is a pretty big area called "red amphitheater" on the map. It is at the confluence of two big washes. After they join, the pick up an old road (at the former boundary, I believe) which goes by an old quarry site and gradually gets better as it nears Hole-in-Wall.

So, back to that confluence (I got there from 190). The broader wash heads straight toward Schwaub Peak. Start up there, and then take a right at the first side canyon from the right. Head up canyon a ways (a mile? probably less) and you'll gradually climb into a red sandstone stratum, which has lots of nice ripple marks. I stopped where the stratum was about 100? feet above the canyon bottom, with lots of chunks broken off and in the bottom. I bet there is more magic further up that canyon, but my troops were ready to mutiny so turned back there.

I consider this to be high on the list of "obscure" places. I found one vague hint about it on the web. I posted a pic of the place some time ago, I think in response to your trip report about a year? ago.

Looking forward to your Dolomite to Albatross hike. If you went all the way, you one mean hiker dude!

Death Valley Backcountry :: RE: Mengel Pass

Ice — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:39:16 GMT

Author: Ice
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:39 am (GMT -7)

We crossed West to East (Goler to Butte Valley) on Saturday, November 29, 2008. It was about 4 days after the big rain. No problem. I ran my '96 Suburban with a 3 inch lift and mudders...that's it! (....however, I probably won't do that again with that ride) Very busy road that day since it was Thanksgiving weekend.

Ice
_________________
...burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail, poisoned in the bushes, and blown out on the trail...

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

David_Bricker — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:43:41 GMT

Author: David_Bricker
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:43 pm (GMT -7)

Well, unfortunately, our DV trip is over. Just made it into Lost Wages. Had a really good time. First time for a bunch of mud on the vehicle on a trip through DV.

Enjoy the rest of your trip, Steve. Looking forward to hear more about your travels. Hope to meet up with you again, and maybe get in some hiking this time.

David Bricker / SYR

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

SteveHall — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:15:44 GMT

Author: SteveHall
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:15 pm (GMT -7)

David,

It seems like you timed your arrival perfectly to avoid getting your tent wet from that massive storm. It was a good thing you could get a room.

I'm really glad the weather has improved and been beautiful the last few days.

On Sunday I saw the strangest thing... there was a couple who took their dog on the hike up Fall Canyon. When they got to the bypass, we watched as they tried to force the dog to climb up the bypass. But it didn't want to go and kept jumping away. Finally, they gave up and hiked out, but I couldn't believe my eyes.

Today we did tourist stuff and went out to Devil's Hole for a while. Tomorrow we are leading our assault on Bighorn Gorge. We got some good advice to hike in from the bottom. It's 8.6 miles from the road to the 4th narrows, so I hope we can make it!
_________________
My Death Valley Trip Reports web site-- www.panamintcity.com

Western Places :: RE: 2nd trip to Australia: Pt 2 - Kangaroo Island & misc stu

Candace_66 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:32:52 GMT

Author: Candace_66
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:32 pm (GMT -7)

You definitely had much nicer conditions at Remarkable Rocks than the rain and howling wind that was going on when I visited in June! I really couldn't go out on them at all, but at least I saw them, LOL!

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

gedstrom — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:23:18 GMT

Author: gedstrom
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:23 pm (GMT -7)

Candace_66 wrote:

gedstrom wrote:

Does anyone know of a site that has pictures of the highway 190 washout above Furnace Creek Inn back during the 2004/2005 winter season? That would really have been something to see! (From a safe vantage point, of course)

There are some pictures on the Las Vegas Nat'l Weather Service page:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/vef/projects/DeathValleyFloodSurvey.php

Thanks, Gary

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

Candace_66 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:09:48 GMT

Author: Candace_66
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:09 pm (GMT -7)

gedstrom wrote:

There are some pictures on the Las Vegas Nat'l Weather Service page:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/vef/projects/DeathValleyFloodSurvey.php

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

David_Bricker — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:45:36 GMT

Author: David_Bricker
Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:45 pm (GMT -7)

Glad to hear you got to do Corkscrew Canyon. Hopefully, it was worth the wait. Also glad, it sounds like you're dried out.

We faired real well, as we didn't set up our tent until Wednesday afternoon. So, we missed the brunt of the rain. The new tent had a minor leak on one seam, even though I had sealed them.

Tomorrow, we're headed out to meet a friend and do some touring of Searles Valley. Will be fun to see some new stuff there.

David Bricker / SYR

Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

SteveHall — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:16:16 GMT

Author: SteveHall
Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:16 pm (GMT -7)

I'm back with another part of my DV blog, here on Friday night at Furnace Creek. I'm not sure if anybody is reading this, but I'm bored so I'll write it anyway. Again, Wednesday was a lost day as we had to recover from the rain. About the only thing we did was meet up with David Bricker to do a DV exclusive. Then, Thursday we hiked both Lower Monarch Canyon in the morning and Upper Monarch Canyon in the afternoon. They were both great, although I liked Lower even better. My upcoming trip report will tell you why. Today (Friday) we hiked Slit Canyon in the morning and Corkscrew Canyon in the afternoon. All we've got left are Bighorn Gorge, Sandy Peak, and Fall Canyon, if we decide to do them, plus a lot of little tourist stuff to do.

In Lower Monarch Canyon:

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My Death Valley Trip Reports web site-- www.panamintcity.com

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

gedstrom — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:54:33 GMT

Author: gedstrom
Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:54 pm (GMT -7)

Does anyone know of a site that has pictures of the highway 190 washout above Furnace Creek Inn back during the 2004/2005 winter season? That would really have been something to see! (From a safe vantage point, of course)

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

David_Bricker — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:49:45 GMT

Author: David_Bricker
Subject: Re: Rain all over Death Valley
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:49 pm (GMT -7)

gedstrom wrote:

I must have driven right past you. I was staying in Beatty and left Death Valley via Hwy 190. I would have been going past Stovepipe Wells around 9:20am on Wednesday. I drove over a number of debris flows on the way out, but nothing serious.

This one was a couple of miles above Stovepipe Wells. The timestamp on the picture is 9:28am.

Gary

We crossed that one going east about 8:50am. It had rained at PSR since about 2:00am. letting up around 8:00am.

Steve: Hope you got all dried out OK. We got lucky in that we didn't set our tent up until Wednesday afternoon, so missed the bulk of the rain.

David Bricker / SYR

Photography Forum :: Natural Bridge - Then and Now - 2008/1958

gedstrom — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:59:07 GMT

Author: gedstrom
Subject: Natural Bridge - Then and Now - 2008/1958
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:59 pm (GMT -7)

I took a few more pictures of the Natural Bridge and found the best one to try to align with a picture my father took 50 years ago. I have made it into a 12 second video. You start off seeing the scene as it looked this past Tuesday. After 3 seconds, it will fade to the 50 year old picture. After 3 more seconds, it will fade back to the current picture. I have aligned them as well as I can. Maybe sometime I will work on getting the color balance more consistant between the two pictures. In the old picture, that little kid in the red jacket on the right of the picture is me. One thing you will notice is that the floor of the canyon is higher now than it was 50 years ago.

http://gbe.dynip.com/Then_And_Now/Natural_Bridge.wmv

Gary

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

TrailHound — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:44:03 GMT

Author: TrailHound
Subject: Rain
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:44 pm (GMT -7)

Good news for the spring wildflowers. A few more like these and it will be another bloom of the century.

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

gedstrom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:33:24 GMT

Author: gedstrom
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:33 pm (GMT -7)

D.A. Wright wrote:

Looks like the wells overflowed ... or the outhouse ...

That's what happens when you drink too many beers!

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

gedstrom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:11:24 GMT

Author: gedstrom
Subject: Re: Rain all over Death Valley
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:11 pm (GMT -7)

SteveHall wrote:

We couldn't escape it last night, and we heard nobody could. It rained from 2:am to 8:am without stopping.

Western Places :: RE: 2nd trip to Australia: Pt 2 - Kangaroo Island & misc stu

Snow Nymph — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:00:05 GMT

Author: Snow Nymph
Subject: Remarkable Rocks, Admirals Arch & Seals, Snake Lagoon Hi
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:00 pm (GMT -7)

Saturday, 22 November 2008
Remarkable Rocks, Admirals Arch, Snake Lagoon hike at Kangaroo Island

PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/6642992_oa3my#424905265_YBY4g

We drove to Flinders Chase National Park, and checked out some of the sites in the area. We got to watch seals play and swim laps in pools by the shoreline. We also saw another Tiger Snake and this time I got photos! We did a short hike from Snake Lagoon to Sandy Beach before heading back to our cabin at Hanson Bay.

Remarkable Rocks . . . they're huge and the only thing that stands out in that area

Admirals Arch, where the seals play

Got a photo of a Tiger Snake yawning before it took off

Hiked Snake Lagoon to Sandy Beach along Sandy Creek.

Flinders Chase National Park (recovering from 2007 fire)

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www.snow-nymph.com
We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

Dezdan — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:45:10 GMT

Author: Dezdan
Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:45 pm (GMT -7)

Bummer! Wet tents are no fun!
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Upcoming Trips :: RE: November trip for Bighorn Gorge

SteveHall — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:07:04 GMT

Author: SteveHall
Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:07 pm (GMT -7)

Haha I figured I may as well use this as a DV blog right now. Yesterday, we did Titanothere, which impressed us greatly. Today we did nothing but dry our sleeping bags and recover from the rain.

At Titanothere yesterday in The Neck area:

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My Death Valley Trip Reports web site-- www.panamintcity.com

Death Valley Talk :: RE: Rain all over Death Valley

D.A. Wright — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:01:50 GMT

Author: D.A. Wright
Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:01 pm (GMT -7)

Looks like the wells overflowed ... or the outhouse ...
_________________
D.A. Wright
"Happy Trails to You, Until We Meet Again."~Roy Rogers & Dale Evans