DVA Blog Steve Hall's Death Valley Adventures
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"Welcome everybody to my Trip Planning blog for future hikes I am researching to take in Death Valley."-- Steve Owlshead Mountains hikingPosted on October 19th, 2009
During my Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 trips, I plan on spending a good amount of time hiking in the Owlshead Mountains. As of right now, I have only hiked two canyons in the Owlsheads. The picture above was taken during that hike. To start with for the Fall trip, we hope to hike Through Canyon, Granite Canyon, and Smoke Tree Canyon. I really love the Owlshead Mountains and am disappointed that they are not given very much attention. I hope to change that by sharing some outstanding hikes with you over the coming months and years.
Grey Wall CanyonPosted on October 11th, 2009
Grey Wall Canyon, also called Question Mark Canyon on some geology maps, was first reported on by American Southwest. The starting point for the hike is along Scotty’s Castle Road north of North Moonlight Canyon, but south of the Grapevine Ranger Station. According to a hiker, it is best to park around milepost 29 or 30 and head up the wash into the Grapevine Mountains. And as you can see in the Google Earth map above, there appears to be a spring right at the mouth of the canyon. We will be hiking Grey Wall Canyon at the beginning of our upcoming Fall trip.
Round Valley and Corridor Cyn headPosted on October 9th, 2009
One of the exclusive hikes I will be taking on my upcoming Fall trip is out to Round Valley and the head of Corridor Canyon. I feel that Corridor Canyon is one of the best canyon hikes in the park, but I have not had a chance to explore it much, outside of the upper, middle, and lower portions of The Corridor. This hike will allow me to see Round Valley, a place that there are no pictures of and very few people have ever gone to before. After checking out Round Valley, I will drop down into the head of Corridor Canyon and hike down as far as I can before I reach impassable dry falls. The Google Earth map above shows the general route I will take… hiking halfway down to Corridor Canyon via the usual route before turning off and heading north towards Round Valley.
Moonlight Cyn and North Moonlight CynPosted on October 8th, 2009
This map from Backpacker Magazine shows the location in the Grapevine Mountains of North Moonlight Canyon and Moonlight Canyon. These are the next 2 major canyons north of Red Wall Canyon. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get to these canyons on my Fall trip in November, but if not, I will definitely be hiking them in the late Winter / early Spring of 2010. As the map shows (location marked with the blue circle), North Moonlight Canyon has some pretty narrows. Moonlight Canyon also has some nice scenery and a massive beautiful dry fall (location marked with the tan circle). Both canyons require a 4+ mile hike up the fan just to reach the mouth of the canyon, so they are not easy hikes.
Trip Planning SectionPosted on October 7th, 2009
Greetings, everybody.
I’ve been wanting to add something to my web site for quite a while now that will allow me to keep in touch better and let you know what hikes and trips I’m planning for Death Valley in the near future. This will be a place where I can store my research and analyze potential hikes, as well as to hopefully report in live from Death Valley while I’m there (assuming WiFi is working wherever I happen to be camping).
I would like to give a big thanks to all those who have written in sending nice comments about the site. My original intention in putting all of my Trip Reports together in one place was to be able to share my trips to Death Valley with my close family and friends. But the site has kind of taken on a life of its own and I realize that many members of the public have been making use of my reports and pictures. That’s fine, but please remember to use other more authoritative sources (such as published guidebooks) before undertaking any of the hikes and check in with park rangers to get more details about the areas. Some of the hikes I report on are extremely difficult with elements of danger and risk, so that’s why I say on the main page that I do not officially recommend any of them. I would never want to see somebody follow in my footsteps out to do a hike and then end up getting hurt. And I especially don’t recommend hiking during the summer or hot weather. I’ve had a few e-mails from people who have sent me their hiking plans for months like August and September, and I had to write back and tell them “bad idea” basically. Also, just for the record, I do not travel or hike with people who I do not know. But I am very happy that many of you have been enjoying the site. 