18 July 2020

Badlands or Bust: BLUF: I camped in Death Valley (a change of plans from my change of plans) and it was the best decision of the trip so far.

    So let me take you back to the night of the 17th, or what was honestly the very early morning of the 18th. As I finally hit publish on the last blog post, I (foolishly) decided not to set an alarm for the morning. 'I've been working hard,' I told myself, 'I need the extra rest.' Well, little did I know how much rest my body thought I needed. 

1:00pm, 18 July 2020: 6 Hours Away from Death Valley. Yes, you read that right; I woke up at 1pm. As I started throwing all my clothes, chargers, and toiletries into their assorted bags, I realized that the plan I had made to visit Death Valley then go stay with some friends near Las Vegas had fallen apart as quickly as it was made last night. I had decided not to camp at Death Valley for two reasons: First, the massive heat wave sweeping the US right now was pushing temperatures well past what I considered safe for the Cougar's now shroudless cooling system. Secondly, I knew that I was going to be spending the night of the 19th in Albuquerque, NM, and shaving 2.5hrs off of what was going be my longest single drive yet sounded very nice. 

    Realizing that my late awakening had made visiting Death Valley AND meeting up with my friends basically impossible unless the Cougar decided to sprout wings (she didn't, and her Continentals stayed firmly planted on the ground), I was faced with a call. Did I risk camping in Death Valley, an almost certain overheat, and then try to make the 700 mile cannonball to Albuquerque the next day, or did I give up on one of my 3 'must-hit' places on this trip to make my life a little easier and see some of my friends? 

    You know where this is going... DEATH VALLEY, HERE WE COME!

    The drive down from the Carson City/Reno area was majestic, a foreshadowing of things to come. While the roads themselves were relatively straight and unremarkable, the topography that they carried myself was full of color and interesting shapes that my shaky, one-hand, through a bug-splattered window photography fails to do justice. 

    I also drove past this reservoir, which really was a surprise because it came out of nowhere in the middle of the desert. It made for some great pictures!

    Anyway, by the time I got down there, sunset was upon the Valley. But just because the Sun was going down doesn't mean it wasn't absolutely scorching. From what I remember, the temperature when I arrived at Death Valley was around 110F! And that's when I had my first scare. Niavely, I hoped that my ECP 2 core 22" with no shroud was going to be adequate to cool my car with the AC on blast. Well, that ended up with me on the side of the road with a temp gauge that read 240F. Crisis averted, but it was not looking good, and it hadn't even been 15 minutes since I had paid my entrance fee!

    This obviously called for an adjustment, and there was really only one option... Windows down, floor vents open, heat on high, and don't stop for anything! And it worked! For the rest of the drive on paved roads, my temp never went above 210! I was keeping it right around 35-45mph and having no issues, and since there was no traffic I never had to stop or alter my speed. 

    About now is a good time to mention that Death Valley is basically the best canyon road I've ever driven. For starters, it appears that no attempt was made to cut or fill any of the terrain; instead, it seems to me that a bunch of lazy road workers simply laid down asphalt over whatever was there. The elevation changes are dramatic, upwards of 15 degrees in some places. Roads snake around hills and cliffs at incredibly sharp angles, all while the roads in the mini-canyon portions of the Park place you only a few feet from the edge of the rock walls while you carve your way through. And don't forget, I'm going through all of this trying to stay in fourth gear to keep the speed high and the revs low to avoid another visit to the side of the road. Those Continental ExtremeContact Sports saved my bacon several times, and Mike Maier saved me all the other times!

    It was a race against overheating, and I won't forget that drive as long as I live.

    So at this point you are probably wondering how I planned to overcome the heatwave situation while camping. Here's my secret: Altitude. As many of you know, air temperature decreases as altitude increases at a rate of about -3.5 degrees Fahrenheit per 1000 feet above sea level. Luckily for me, the Thorndike campsites were on the side of a nice big crest. Here's the exact altitude of my campsite:

    Taking -3.5F change per 1000ft as constant, and assuming that the air temperatures reported for Death Valley are taken around sea level, that means that my campsite was about 26F cooler than the rest of Death Valley. Since DV gets down to around 85F on summer nights, it is safe to say that my campsite was about 60F! Not too bad at all! But there was only one problem... Getting there.

    Around 3 miles out from my campsite, the paved road went away and was replaced by a very bumpy and tire-puncturing-rock filled road, complete with signs that read "High Ground Clearance 4x4 Vehicles Recommended." 

    Well, it does say 'Recommended' and not 'Required,' right?

    So onward and upwards we went! 3 miles of uphill crawling in 1st gear as the temperature slowly climbed and the life and well-being of my oil pan and tires flashed before my eyes! It was rough going, with most of the road looking a lot worse than the picture above. And since I had slowed down, the temperature started to slowly rise, inching its way past 210F for the first time since my original pullover. But just before I reached my pullover temp of 240F, we made it to Thorndike! As we pulled into the campsite, I was ecstatic! I could never have guessed she would make it this far without losing a drop of coolant or a PSI of tire air pressure, but she did! And in doing so, she helped me fulfill a mission I had been trying to complete for 6 years: to take a good picture of the Milky Way. Astrophotograhy was why I first got into photography, but meaningful success had always alluded me until last night.

    Death Valley has to be one of the best places on Earth (and certainly in the US) to do astrophotography.  The Death Valley sky is so dark, and therefore perfect for star photography, because the surrounding desert is so completely devoid of major sources of light pollution. Las Vegas, the closest city, is over 100 miles away and the light it releases is generally focused upwards by the surrounding terrain. Additionally, the same double rain shadow effect that keeps the rainfall below 2 inches per year also means that there are rarely and clouds in the sky, ensuring that your night of photography won't be ruined by a stray cloud. 

    These images are almost right out of the camera. The extremely dark sky meant that excessive post processing wasn't necessary. I spent about 2 minutes on each brightening them a little and then setting the appropriate color. That's it. (In case anyone is wondering, those three pictures above are the only ones I have posted so far that were edited in any way. I'll let you know if I mess with any more in the future.) 

    Check that one off the bucket list.

    I will post the happenings of 19 July tonight, which will include several more actually recognizable pictures of Death Valley!

    As Always, Thanks for Following Along!

    Ken