Valley behind Graybill Springs: Death Valley CA

A few days ago we did one of our more memorable hikes—a type of hike one can do in a place like Death Valley.  We stopped by the side of the road because we saw something interesting looking in the hills, and went there.  We found a natural spring of some type, with a large stand of Mesquite and other bushes. 

The water was unusual in that, first of all it was water.  Here, in Death Valley. Second, it just seemed to appear in a wash and then disappear a few hundred feet later in the same wash.  Here is a photo of where it just disappears.  

I am looking at a spot up the wash a bit where it probably appears.  We could hear it running standing there, but the foliage was too dense to find where the spring appeared.  It was not only too dense, but had wicked stickers.  In fact, we found only one place where we could get through the wash to the upper side—it was a joint effort to hold branches back so one person at a time could ease through.

 

On the other side of the stream/spring we headed up the mountain. 

When we got to the top of the hill/mountain, we could see a big valley on the other side.  We thought it would be fun to take a different wash/canyon to this valley.

So today that’s where we went.

Our first attempt was up the same way we went the last time.  We thought that we could take a different canyon to the other side.  However, we were wrong.  What we found ourselves doing was climbing a very steep hill.  We knew that just over the hill was our valley, although it would be a steep descent to it.

We were about 30 feet from the top when we decided to invoke the safety rule and come back down.  At that point the route was steep, and the rocks were not imbedded into the soil—instead they were loose and gave way.  We would not have hurt ourselves seriously with a fall, but could have twisted an ankle or something that would have made the 1 ½ mile descent difficult and painful.  

So here I am, sitting at the place where we decided to stop.  It was tantalizing to try to make it a few more feet, but not wise. 

That’s OK.We carefully went back down.  For a few feet where the footing was particularly slippery, I just slide down on my good old REI pants. 

We got into the truck, drove a mile up the road, and tried a different wash into a canyon that we thought would lead to the valley we saw a few days prior.

 

This time we were successful.  It was a beautiful and large valley, not observable from the road, and we were on the other side of the big hill we climbed a few days ago and the hill we almost climbed today.  

For all three hikes—the one a few days ago and the two today, we saw no other footprints.  It is unlikely that nobody has ever been where we went, but footprints last a long time in the desert. 

We will come back next year and now that we know how to get to this valley, we will explore it from one end to the other.