Death Valley, February 2nd, 2014 – Texas Spring Campground

The immense alluvial fans in Death Valley. 

Death Valley is filled with amazing sights and extremes; extreme elevation change, extreme heat, extreme geology and climate changes. The valley was shaped by glaciers and faulting. Little grows here so the earth is laid bare in its rough beauty to tell its story.



Our camp at Texas Spring Campground.

One of the most amazing things to me is the alluvial fans that flow out of deep canyons. They were formed 20 to 30 million years ago during the Cenozoic Period when things were very wet. Can you imagine what a sight that would have been as walls of water, mud and rock came flowing out of the mountains?

We stayed four nights at Texas Spring Campground near the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. This turned out to be our favorite campground because of the colorful badland formations surrounding it and the little stream from a spring in the mountains that flowed by our site. In the evening as dusk takes the last of the light the coyotes chorus in the hills. What more could you want from a desert.



A bike ride in Death Valley.

Heading up Artists Drive.

On our first day we ride our bikes south to Badwater. The road rolls up and down across the alluvial fans that flowed out into the basin. It’s not as flat as we thought a ride in Death Valley was going to be. We were thinking REALLY flat. I guess they didn’t make the road in the bottom because of the sediments and sometimes it can become a lake. The ride was easy until we turned up Artists Drive, a nine-mile loop that climbs 1100 ft. into the badlands. The first few miles are quite the climb. I don’t know what the grade was but I’m amazed we could go that slowly without falling over. Actually that very thought kept us going. A slow but steady turning of pedals gets us to the top (or so we thought) for a grand view. After several short descents and several more climbs we're rewarded with an amazingly fast winding decent back to the valley floor through narrow gaps in the hills. The ride ended up being 50 miles and a great day in the saddle.



Finally at the top of Artists Drive. (so we thought)

Tomorrow we’ll hike the Gower Canyon/Golden Canyon loop to Zabriskie Point. Stay tuned for some colorful badlands photos.

Till then.
Jackie



The end of day at Texas Springs Campground.