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Well, we escaped out on the western side of Yosemite and the Sierras (since the Tioga Pass was already closed moments earlier), narrowly avoiding possible closures of all escape routes out of the valley. Down and around the last echo of the Sierras below Lake Isabella, we rounded and headed through Barstow and Mohave up into the Panamint Valley.

The unstable weather chased us and we went from full sun... to clouds boiling over the Sierrras... to darkness and heavy rain needing double-speed windshield wipers. Do NOT get caught in a wash. This is why there are signs like this, out in the middle of the flat scrub. (this pic from an earlier trip)

The rain comes and the windshield wipers are on double speed. Ten minutes up the road you can see the start of channelled water flow down the middle, but actually the mountains are in sunshine ahead of us. Another 20 minutes and we're climbing up the alluvial fan out of the valley, and it's nothing but sun.

Fortunately the rains hadn't messed up the roads from Thorndike up to Mahogany Flat. Sometimes that road is so brutal you can barely scrape and skid up it with a four wheel drive high clearance jeep in low low gear. But it was decent this time. We set up camp, the skies are clear and you can see for miles and miles...

For dinner it's corn and smoked salmon on the grill. What a fantasitc place for cedar plank salmon, that some of us have such great memories of.

The next morning it's off to Telescope Peak, a fourteen mile jaunt with a sunny day ahead. The sun is rising over Death Valley and the salt flats.

A couple of hours up the trail on the switchbacks, I run into these two guys, who are placing caches of water.

It's getting a bit breezy, and the clouds are coming in, billowy-like, and less like thunderheads. Dave heads down for sunnier climes and I stay to linger and explore.

While at the top it's a chance to chat with new arrivals. Hanneke and Bodewes are from Holland, and in the small world department, are into medical engineering (stem cell research) and renewable energy policy analysis. In a previous life I was in biomedical, and now am deeply involved in renewable energy developmental systems..

The clouds continue gathering and the winds dance. Curents coming up the canyons generate some wild formations.

Up the canyon side they're making preparations for their marathon hike from Badwater, across Death Valley's floor, up to Telescope Peak and then down the other side all the way over to Mount Whitney. Trail named "Dirt" on the left and "Shaggy" , these guys are in great shape judging from their speed up the switchbacks. See you later and the best of weather and luck on your odyssey.

Back to the Ammo Box and there's this little package waiting there. The little booklet is a gem, left by a meditative soul, and is a great complement to the painted stone keeping it company.

Now finally it's time to head down, and it'll take a couple of hours at constant pace to do the 7 miles of trail back to Mahogany Flat.

Coming round one of the corners at the completion of the Bennett's Peak trail section, a long lens captures the Ranger Station miles down and away near Wildrose.

After a good meal, and a night's sleep, it's off down into Death Valley proper, for a visit to the museum/bookstore and see what's new since last time. Today there are lots of active people either practicing for the upcoming (hot) marathon or else getting some arid road bike miles in.

Traveling down the roads on the long alluvial fans of silt in the canyons, you can imagine how invigorating it would be coming down on a bike!

This area of the Panamint Range has a storied history of hard rock mining for gold back in the 1800's. A side trip to an old mining camp shows well preserved history...

Back at camp Debbie pays a visit from next door, and we talk about some of the good hiking near her home in Malibu. Latoya Cyn and Point Magoo are both pretty good. We're all heading out now and down the "road" to Thorndike and beyond.

And even the guys from China Lake have some fun rocketing down the valley on their afterburner.

Sometimes I can hear them coming.

This time, I read through the entire summit logbook of the National Park Service, and have saved all the pages of entries for you to read if you like. It's worth the time, to see and read the comments of people from all corners of the earth who hiked here, and this just in the last two months. Click any page to see an enlargement. Try page 7 or 14 for example!

Here are a couple of pages of its quotes. Lemme tell you, sitting on a mountain peak with just the earth and the sky, reading these and thinking about them is a wonderful way to invest time.