SEKI and Death Valley

After leaving palm springs, we've started heading north.  Hopefully this will mean better (colder) weather and more climbing.  Along the way we decided to stop by Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks to do some backpacking.  

The mayflies were swarming the first night.  Huge clouds of flying bugs.  Annoying, but also neat as the mayflies' adult winged form only lasts a day or two when they all hatch together and swarm in large groups.  Then they die.

We spent a night in the car, near a stream.  I like camping near water.  The bugs were a bit annoying, but the sounds were nice and small mountain streams are always fun to explore.  This one was filled with small trout (brown or brook I think) and ran between wild flowers and reeds over small waterfalls until draining into a meadow.  Dark-Eyed Juncos ( Junco Hyemalis of the darker Oregon variety )   kept us company while we cooked and packed for the backpacking trip we had planned the next day.

Early in the morning we headed towards Roads End Permit Station to get our papers.  Our planned hike took us into the wilderness outside the park, but as we were starting the day inside the park lines we needed to go through the national park permit process.  The drive to the station was beautiful, the process was simple, and the girl working the station was nice.  No trouble at all.

Our hike was nine miles or so, with a bit under a mile of elevation gain.  We took the Lewis Creek trail to Frypan meadow.  Athena took a nap and I stripped to dry my clothes in the sun; an improperly packed beer can had soaked through everything.  My tent and sleeping bag were reasonably dry, but it felt as though I had marinated myself for the bears.

Athena dislikes water crossings.  Perhaps it is due to her poor footwork.

On the hike we spotted a Blue Grouse ( Dendragapus Obscurus ) which took awkward flight and stared at me from a tree as I peered at it.  Female grouse are not the most distinctly colored birds.

The first of many panoramas.

 The trail we took is seldom used and a soft sand for long stretches.  Deer, Coyote, and Mountain Lion apparently use the trail when hikers are absent, as their prints were everywhere.  I've never seen such clear lion prints.  I followed them down the trail for 7 or 8 distinct steps at one point.

A 'Snow Flower' (  Sarcodes Sanguinea ).  This plant is a parasite, and cannot photosynthesize for food.  It feeds on the Mycorrhiza fungi that lives in a symbiotic relationship with tree roots.  As a fungi parasite, it's called a  myco-heterotroph.

The Snow Flower feeds off of the sugars that the Mycorrhiza fungus receives from the tree roots.  In a healthy relationship, the  Mycorrhiza fungus provides the tree roots with nutrients and protection from disease.  There are few parasitic plants, and only a few of these feed on fungi.  A really cool plant.

Panorama #2... much like panorama #1.

 From Frypan meadow, we headed west a bit on a nearly invisible trail towards Grizzly Lakes.  Nearly invisible is a bit of an understatement, and for the most part I was watching my compass and looking for a rise of land shown on the topo.  Every once in a while we would follow what I could convince myself was a trail for a while, until it disappeared again.  Eventually we ran into the Grizzly Lakes trail, which we followed for a bit before setting up camp outside the park somewhere near a stream.  Athena setup the tent, I started a fire and won a game of Rummy.

Another stream!  This one by our campsite.  Either our old water filter works or it's nice clean water.  Either seems equally likely to me.

Athena checks a pool's depth on the hike out.  The water runs over granite here, and has carved pools over time.  Chilly but the rocks are nice for a rest.

A bumble bee with its pollen baskets loaded.  Bumble bees' stingers lack the barb of the honey bee's stinger, allowing them to sting more than once.

Panorama #3, remarkably similar to the first two.

A pussy paws flower ( some sort of Costanthe ). I think this is a One-Seeded Pussy Paw.  I can't find any interesting facts on this flower... but it is sort of pretty. The valley girl of flowers I suppose.

We got back uneventfully and went to visit the largest tree on earth, 'General Sherman'.  This must be a hugely popular tree, as everything about the area and the short hike was seemingly aimed at the unfit, unintelligent fool intent on injuring themselves.  Signs warn you to sit if you are tired, drink water if thirsty.  Feeling a bit abused by the half mile paved walk down to the tree? Why not take a shuttle back to your car!  The hike is fenced in and paved.  Along the way there are signs letting you know you are "Almost to the Top!" or half way to the bottom.  I've never seen such an idiot-proofed  half mile before.

The middle tree is General Sherman.  By volume, it is the largest tree.  By height, age, and circumference, it is not.

General Sherman's footprint, with a single Dan for scale.

 That night we camped in the forests outside the park, where it's a bit less crowded and most importantly free.  Our campsite was shared by a pair of White-Headed Woodpeckers ( Picoides Albolarvatus ) tending their nest in a dead tree.  It was fun watching them poke in and out of their home.  Athena was wondering why we didn't hear them pecking as you would expect from woodpeckers.  Apparently this species is one of the few that rarely if ever actually pecks at dead and rotting wood.

We headed for Death Valley the next day, sleeping on the side of the road just outside the park.  It was in the mid 80s for the whole night.

IT'S EXTREME!

Only a bit of the Valley is dunes.  Most is rock-strewn flats, salt plains, and sparsely vegetated scrub/grass land.

A family of desert iguana.  These ones were much more amiable than the last few.  There was a small baby off to the left that i didn't notice till later.  Google-ing for the family structure of the desert iguana does not turn up many results.

The lowest point in the US is near this spring, called 'Badwater'.  There are at least three hats in this picture kindly left by previous visitors.  It's about 280 feet below sea level.

Badwater is hot, and really a fairly unpleasant place.

The park has a really nice visitors center, and you can buy gas at about $6 a gallon.  The lowest point in the US, and some neat sand dunes occupied our day until we headed north again towards the Bishop area.  We plan on spending a week or so in Bishop, where there is a huge amount of bouldering, sport climbing, and some trad as well.

My father before he practiced his photo smile, and his father looking like a true cowboy.  Happy fathers day!