Back to Death Valley — Day 3 — A True Oasis

April 13, 2018.

Having hit the sack relatively early (a drawback of being solo and not chatting into the evening around a fire), I was well-rested as I awoke to catch the sun chasing the moon on the eastern horizon.

One of my favorite times of day, I climbed out of the tent and sent a mental message to the burros to shut the hell up. There were approximately 20 of them in the valley, and they’d been going at it all night. I found myself yearning for the last trip — where we’d not seen a single burro — clearly a blessing (though we viewed it as a bummer at the time).

Of course, the burros didn’t stop, but either did the sun — and I took full advantage of the morning light coming into the valley, and eventually onto my camp.

As the sun rose, I packed up the tent and ate a quick breakfast — eager to get on my way, a full day ahead. The plan was to end up at the north end of Saline Valley, at the warm springs by the end of the day — but there was a lot to do before that, starting with a drive through Goler Wash — one of the highlights of the south end of the park in my opinion!

And then — as I pulled out, I saw a fast moving object in my side mirror. And then a crunch from the back driver tire as I rolled over our headlamp and nighttime shoe storage container. Man, I really can’t catch a break this trip.

After picking up the pieces, I made my way out of the valley, and it wasn’t long before I came to the “gatekeeper” obstacle between Goler Wash and Butte Valley.

While this section of trail is more technical than anything on Warm Springs Road, it’s still not really that bad for a Tacoma and I made my way up with little fanfare, stopping for a photo-op at the top of Mengle’s Pass.

See what happened from there, as I explored into unchartered territories! It’s all available in Back to Death Valley — Day 3 — A True Oasis at adventuretaco.com.

Originally published at adventuretaco.com.