Racetrack Dry Lake 2008

Sam's new Grand Cherokee at base of mountains along eastern edge of Saline Valley in western Death Valley National Park. Time stamps in all photos are one hour too far ahead (forgot to reset camera time from pesky Daylight Savings Time.) Saline Valley playa and Inyo Mountains in distance. See my personal web page at: http://bryanlallen.googlepages.com

Looking back at Sam's Cherokee. Short section of Lippincott Mine road to where we parked is quite rough, definitely high-clearance 4WD only.

Sam Duran.

Old boundary sign for DV National Monument; National Park boundary is now about 8-10 miles further west.

Climbing up the road towards Lippincott Mine & Homestake, looking back. Saline Valley playa in distance.

Climbing ever upward on the road; rather steep in places.

Moonrise over the mountains west of Homestake.

Next AM departing just west of Lippincott Mine area. Notice snow on Inyo mountains to west (yes, it was fairly chilly.) Somewhat overcast; overnight temperature was below freezing.

Sam Duran getting ready to walk onward.

At the southern edge of Racetrack Playa, looking north.

At the edge of the lake.

Photos & lunch were in order. Clouds from earlier in the AM had mostly dissipated.

Sam at the Racetrack.

One of the renowned "moving rocks."

Another rock with its track; notice that its track is a series of curves.

A rock which has moved; direction is from right to left. There is a dried "wave" of mud at the left edge of the rock, and a "wake" of dried mud on either side.

This is the same rock as in the previous photo; note the nice smooth curves the track makes, and the kink where the rock paused on its travels.

Up on the hillside which provides the source of the rocks, looking northwest.

Looking north with various rocks preparing for departure, and other rocks on their way. An island-like feature called "The Grandstand" is in the distance about two miles away towards the northern end of the playa.

Looking northerly along the eastern edge of Racetrack playa. Lots of rocks out there going places.

On the slope with the source rocks; note the fresh rock fall out on the lake surface.

Panorama taken from hillside at southeast corner of The Racetrack, where the rocks tumble down onto the playa surface and begin their wanderings.

A travelling rock and its track. This rock was only about three inches tall and was the lowest-profile rock we saw which had left a track. Once again note that the track is a series of "parking places" with the tracks in between being mostly curved segments.

A fairly small moving rock. It's interesting to me that each rock's track seemed unique and did not much resemble the tracks of its neighbors in terms of directions or lengths of segments.

Sam, the rock source, and lots of tracks & rocks.

Out on the playa, with lennies developing in the distance.

Out walking on the playa. The road is along the western edge.

Taking a break at "The Grandstand."

At the base of the Grandstand looking southwest.

Rock's-eye view (well, minus the shoes) of Racetrack playa, looking east from Grandstand with Cottonwood Mountains in distance.

Rocks out on The Racetrack.

Large crystals in the rock which makes up The Grandstand, made more visible here in a spot where the surface had recently spalled off.

Looking back at The Grandstand from the south; note people in photo for scale.

Our evening camp in a nice spot near Homestake, a couple of miles south of The Racetrack.

Cactus, buckwheat, and shrub.

Sunset approaches; looking back towards Racetrack playa to north.

Dinnertime preparations. My new SPOT location tracker is the orange device on the rock at the right. It sends out an "I'm OK" message with Google Maps link to selected e-mail addresses when you turn it on and press the "OK" button, using its internal GPS for location info and the Globalstar satellite network for communication. It can also send out a "Help" message to your contacts, or a 911 message to the GEOS International Emergency Response Center; I hope never to use that last feature.

Packing up the next morning; yay, sunlight!. It was rather windy and definitely cold overnight; I saw a low temperature of 24.3 F inside my tent. Brrr! But both of us had warm gear and other than frost on the inside of my single-wall shelter the cold was not much of a problem.

The Racetrack to north, and developing clouds. The low shrubs with brownish leaves are creosote.

Sign at eastern end of road leading past Lippincott Mine area and down to Saline Valley.

Butterfly, with somewhat worn left wing, which perched on Sam's shoe when we got back to his vehicle.

Same butterfly on ground. There were quite a few butterflies in this one location along the base of the mountains; we didn't see them anywhere else.

Bullet splatters on rock where someone had set up a propane tank, painted it pink, and used it for target practice.

The ground where the propane tank had been set and then painted.

The propane tank target; I pulled it down from the hillside and left it at the edge of the road with the hope that someone, perhaps a ranger, will pack it out.