We took a small break from flowers to head to Death Valley and bag a few peaks with friends. Needle Peak wasn't even on my radar, Striped Butte on the other hand, I have looked at from afar several times and thought, I need to climb that. So, when our friend Howard, proposed the trip, we said count us in.
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| Striped Butte |
We also got to see a few interesting desert flowers, do some four wheel driving, visit some back country cabins, and check out some petroglyphs. Not bad for three days. We had thoughts of spending more days exploring, but based on a high wind forecast, and gorgeous flowers at home, we were content with three days.
We started off our journey with peak of desert flowers. Very nice.
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| Desert Five Spot |
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| Rock Nettle |
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| Gravel Ghost |
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| Cliffs on the drive in. |
We drove up and over Mengle Pass. Most of the road isn't too bad, but there is one short section that requires care.
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| Mengel Pass |
After our short stretch of four wheeling we were at the cabins. First up was Russel Camp, then on to Mengel Cabin and finally the Geologists Cabin.
As we still had time in the day, Striped Butte was next on our list. Five of went for it. BJ decided it would be her goal for the following day and she would try to rehydrate. Yes, it was hot on the drive in.
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| On the top of Striped Butte. |
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| Chuckwalla |
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| No idea what this flower, but I got a nice sharp shot of a tiny flower so... |
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| Needle Peak. It looks kinda gnarly. |
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| Scarlet Locoweed. |
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| Striped Butte from another angle. |
Bob, Bob, and Susan got an early start for the top of Needle Peak as the forecast was for wind later in the day. Howard and Chandler followed about an hour later being younger and faster. BJ headed off to climb Striped Butte as she didn't join us the day before. It was beautiful early in early morning light.
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| We are going up there! |
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| Yes it is gnarly and we climb through that. |
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| On the top! |
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| Now for the views. |
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| Owen's Peak is out there in the distance. |
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| We managed to beat those youngsters! |
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| Our happy crew on top! |
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| It is steepish. I will be extra careful and slow on the way down. |
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| Another view of Striped Butte. |
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| Interesting clouds herald the upcoming storm. |
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| Nice sunset. |
On our last day we went petroglyph hunting. I knew there were several scattered petroglyphs in the area and had planned to spend about an hour. We spent three hours and can't say we did a great job searching the area. Here are a few highlights.
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| Donkies! |
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| Aren't those little desert cockroaches cute! |
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| Freckled Locoweed |
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| Very nice petroglyphs. |
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| Not like any of the others. Hope this isn't a modern fake. |
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| We head out through Warm Springs. |
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| Part of the old mining buildings. Lots of new flood debris. |
