Month: October 2019

DV Oct 2019 Day 3: Head BM

For our final hike, we headed into the Quail Mountains to hike to the summit of Head BM.  This was my second time hiking in the new portion of Death Valley National Park added earlier this year.  I created a loop of two canyons which would include a visit to the summit.  The loop turned out really well.  The two canyons were very colorful, had lots of formations, and had areas of narrows.  Here are a few teaser images in advance of the report on this area.

Lowell heading up the narrow and colorful first canyon.
Steve and Lowell on the summit of Head BM with Owl Lake in the background.
A great view from the summit of Head BM showing Sugarloaf Peak (left middle), Porter Peak (left upper), Sentinel Peak (to the right of Porter), Telescope Peak, and Bennett Peak (right upper).
Dropping into the colorful canyon we would use to loop back.
The rock layers and formations were fantastic in both canyons.

DV Oct 2019 Day 2: Spring BM to Mill BM

For our second hike, we drove out to the Owlshead Mountains to visit two major summits.  We drove as close as we could to the Black Magic Mine, parked, and began hiking toward Spring BM.  From that summit, we traversed across the top of the range all the way to Mill BM.  Along the way, we had incredible views of Owl Lake, Owlhead BM,Con BM, and the backside crossover between Through Canyon and Granite Canyon.  It was an incredible enjoyable hike.

Standing on Spring BM and looking toward our goal of Mill BM far away.
Lowell posing by a crashed dart we found.
Getting my picture with Owl Lake in the background.
Incredible view of the northern tip of Owl Lake with Owlhead BM in the background.
We called the minor summit bump 921T seen here “The Castle”.

DV Oct 2019 Day 1: Upper Scotty’s Canyon

My brother Lowell and I recently returned from doing 3 days of hiking in Death Valley from Oct 18-21.  Our first hike was into Upper Scotty’s Canyon.  We started the day by renting a Jeep and driving up into Gold Valley for the first time ever.  Then, we climbed up to the saddle above Upper Scotty’s Canyon and went down the other side.  This hike was quite challenging with 3 major bypasses and is not recommended for the general public.  2 of the 3 people who did this hike sustained injuries during the hike.  But we made it to Timpapah Spring.  We also spotted 3 Bighorn sheep and pictures of those will be added to our Wildlife Page later.  Here are a few teaser images in advance of the hiking report to be released later.

Looking into Upper Scotty’s from the saddle (or canyon head).
Posing by a coyote gourd (or melon). We found lots of these in the canyon.
Lowell standing above the very challenging 3rd major bypass.
Arriving at Timpapah Spring, a place seen by very few people.
We saw 3 Bighorn sheep on the hike (a ram, an ewe, and a lamb).

Fiji (September 2019)

We recently returned from a family trip to Fiji, visiting the islands of Taveuni and Mana.  As part of this, we did a lot of hiking, snorkeling, and sightseeing.  This was our 5th trip to the South Pacific in the last 5 years.  Previously, we had visited the Cook Islands (2015), French Polynesia (2016 & 2018), American Samoa (2017), and Easter Island (2018).  I will have a couple of hiking reports coming out from our time in Fiji down the road, but in the meantime feel free to check out our family trip report video.