The Borax Man of Death Valley

Gepenre's Illustration of the Borax Man

I've been traveling to Death Valley since I was very young. One of the earliest trips I remember was over Thanksgiving in 2007, and we camped high up on the exposed alluvial fan below Hanaupah Canyon in our then-new off-road tent trailer. The nights were particularly cold that year, even though the summer had been among the hottest since the 1980s. The winds were howling, though by comparison not unusually much. To my ten-year-old self at the time, it was a night of terror. The winds, coupled with the chill and unphathonable darkness of the Death Valley Night, led my mind into a maze of fear of the dark, the wind, and the unknown. While on a brief expedition outside, I remember looking out onto the porcelain-white salt flats of Badwater Basin and seeing a shadow, from my vantage no larger than a toothpick but the size and shape a human would be from several miles away. The full moon cast a shadow on the flats from something standing out on the salt. It was then is retreated into the safety and warmth of our mobile home. As the winds howled on, the memory gradually faded into obscurity.

Death Valley Petroglyphs #2

One of the larger designs

Another plain view site that I visited back in 2013, this interesting site was also on the main path from the valley bottom to the high mountains above, in this case between Mesquite Flat and Hunter Mountain. At first they blend in well, but once you start seeing them, there are glyphs everywhere. The designs themselves aren't terribly vandalized, but there are false designs everywhere as well; images of teepees, chiefs, and bows and arrows are found at several spots. Other glyphs in less-visible spots- were pristine and very nice.

Death Valley Petroglyphs #1

Note the spray paint on the rock.

This is a site that is in plain view, and as such is (in my opinion) the most endangered rock art site in Death Valley. Viewing the deliberate deterioration of such works of ancient art are truly terrible and illegal, so it is wise to view this as a lesson in why these sites should be protected.

With that covered, time to talk about the site. There are a few small panels, each packed with unique designs. When I heard about it, I thought this site would be smaller, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the extent of the glyphs. The tuff here is not found anywhere else in the vicinity, so it's easy to see why the natives chose this area to do their doodling. Unfortunately in some of the glyphs it is difficult to tell if they are original or vandalism.

The Yeager Mesa

The Yeager Mesa is one of the most difficult to reach places
in the Santa Ana Mountains.

The Yeager Mesa are two meadows high up the walls of Trabuco Canyon, in the heart of the Santa Ana Mountains. These twin meadows are nestled below a dense forest of Bigcone Spruce and oak woodland. The canyon below is chocked with alder, sycamore, maple, and scraggly oaks. The trail to this high oasis begins at the end of the Trabuco Canyon Road, starting east on West Horsethief Trail, ascending the floor of this incredible canyon. From time to time a trickle of water surfaces to form the segmented Trabuco Creek, babbling through the trees. After some time of easy hiking the bottom of a steep slope appears, with obvious signs of use ascending its face. The path up the front face of Yeager Mesa is only a quarter mile in distance, but over 400 feet in elevation gain. It's slippery, steep, and often muddy. It is very treacherous. The reward at the end, however, has surpassed almost everything I've seen before. The meadow plastered with small Bracken ferns, and the spruce forest behind towering above. The area burned in the 70s, but the larger, old growth trees are charred but still grow. The pictures you're about to see were taken on two trips, the first was in October, the second on the shortest day of the year after a week of drizzle. The conditions on both trips were some of the finest hiking conditions I've witnessed.

Striped Butte Fossils and Spring Flora

Striped Butte is the dominant landform of Butte Valley, and is, as the name implies, striated with different colors of rock. When I was here the spring bloom was on its tail end, but still made for some nice macro pictures. All of the visible fossils are marine organisms, mostly sponges and coral, so apologies if the title misled you to massive jurassic bones and skulls. Other formations in the park, including the Lost Burro formation and the Tin Mountain Limestone include larger corals and sponges, also pleistocene lake deposits include Mastodons and other larger fossils.

Greene Denner Drake Mill

1946 Pontiac Streamliner

Up in the Panamint Mountains on the slopes of Pinto Mountain is a small,  very well preserved mill camp with a cabin and what remains of a mill. Small, remote, and quiet, it sits at the end of a long-closed road in a small canyon among the sagebrush awaiting the next visitor.

First view of the camp from down canyon.

The history of the location is partially lost to history, and only a small amount of its history is known for certain.

The Gnome's Workshop

The salt stream

This fanciful small canyon is a wonder of salt sculptures and tiny waterfalls. The small path hugs the top of the canyon and sometimes drops down into the gully to see the salt up close. There are many whimsical spires and the small waterfalls in the canyon are rather photogenic. The water is highly briny, and the area is marked on topo maps as "Salt Springs." These small waterfalls cascade over small clay ledges and form grottos. On one of the falls, the high salinity has caused salt to form an overhang. As small as this canyon is, it is one of the most fun places to visit on the valley floor.