Telescope Peak – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Rogers Peak (Death Valley National Park) 11-Nov-2021

2021-11-112021-11-18Posted in California, Hiking, U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged Day Hiking, Death Valley National Park, Hiking, Mahogany Flat California, Rogers Peak California, Telescope Peak5 Comments

We’d spent yesterday bouncing around in a 4×4, so today we needed to hike. A long, long time ago (i.e., 1974), Wayne, Diane, and I climbed Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park. That proved to be a truly memorable trip but one we weren’t interested in repeating. But, inspired by nostalgia enhanced by memory loss, we decided it would be fun (loosely defined) to hike to a closer, lower peak within sight of Telescope. Rogers Peak (9,993 ft / 3,045 m) is only 5 miles round-trip (8 km) from and 1,800 feet (549 m) above Mahogany Flat. And you can see Telescope from its summit. Plus it’s slightly taller than nearby Bennett Peak. So summiting Rogers became Adventure #4 of our adventures in Death Valley.

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Telescope Peak ~ Death Valley (Thanksgiving 1974)

2020-01-292022-01-28Posted in Backpacking, California, U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged Backpacking, Day Hiking, Death Valley National Park, Hiking, Mahogany Flat California, Telescope Peak5 Comments

Up until 2008, our adventures were retained only as memories and on 35mm slides. While our memories may have faded (just a bit), the slides haven’t – and we have a lot of them. So we’re digitizing a select few to bring some of our past adventures into the 21^st Century. The photos below are some of those old slides.

Telescope Peak, at 11,049 feet (3,368 m), is the highest point in Death Valley National Park. My recent trip with The LovedOne to the park rekindled long dormant memories of my first (and only) climb of this peak. It was Thanksgiving 1974 and Wayne and I (miraculously in my case) were recent college graduates; Diane had a year to go. I think Wayne had even found a job! Why is lost in the mists of time but we decided to use the holiday weekend to climb Telescope. Today it’s typically done as a long (14 miles round-trip, 3,000 feet of gain) day hike from the trailhead at Mahogany Flats Campground. We, on the other hand, opted for an overnighter, with a camp on the ridge just short of the summit.

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Willow Canyon (Death Valley NP) 12-Feb-2017

2017-02-122022-01-29Posted in California, Hiking, U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged California, Day Hiking, Death Valley National Park, Hiking, Telescope Peak, Willow Canyon California

As wave after wave of wet storms swept across Southern Oregon, we began to yearn for sunnier climes. Eventually it occurred to us that we hadn’t been back to Death Valley National Park since 2013. As few places say “sunnier” than Death Valley, we made some arrangements, and were soon heading south. As luck would have it, our five days in the Park coincided with a spell of utterly clear, cool, dry weather wedged in between storms (to even out this good karma, we got to drive home in one of the worst rainstorms to hit California in a decade). For this visit, we decided to do hikes we hadn’t done before, rather than reprise old favorites like Darwin Falls. After pouring through Michel Digonnet’s excellent guide (Hiking Death Valley, Second Edition, 2016), we settled on four hikes, the first of which was to the seasonal waterfall in Willow Canyon.

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Death Valley Remembered (February 2017)

2017-02-102022-01-29Posted in California, Photo Essay, U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged Aguereberry Point California, California, Charcoal Kilns, Darwin Falls California, Death Valley National Park, Ghost Rider sculpture, Road Trip, Telescope Peak, Wildrose Canyon

“…the first impression remains a just one. Despite variety, most of the surface of Death Valley is dead … a land of jagged salt pillars, crackling and tortured crusts of mud, sunburnt gravel bars the color of rust, rocks and boulders of metallic blue naked even of lichen.” ~ Edward Abbey

“No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be.” ~ Chuck Thompson

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Death Valley Days 11/15-Mar-2013

2013-03-172022-01-28Posted in California, Hiking, U.S. National Parks & MonumentsTagged California, Corkscrew Peak California, Day Hiking, Death Valley National Park, Eagle Mountain California, Furnace Creek Inn, Hiking, Scotty's Castle, Telescope Peak, The Racetrack, Titus Canyon, Wildrose Canyon, Wildrose Peak

Last week was our (almost) annual pilgrimage to Death Valley National Park in California in search of heat and dryness. March in the Valley can be fickle – cold and rainy has happened in past years – but this year didn’t disappoint. Amongst the usual tourist activities (a tour of Scotty’s Castle, a drive through Titus Canyon, and a long, bone jarring drive to the Racetrack), we got in some actual hiking. All of these hikes are at or above 3,000 feet so temperatures ranged comfortably between 50º and 75º F, usually with a mild wind. But full sun and very low humidity (8%) called for lots of sunscreen and water.

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