Eureka Dunes
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
After lunch in Bishop, California we drove into Death Valley National Park via a little-used northern entrance that leads toward Eureka Dunes. These dunes are always a sight to behold as they rise nearly 800 feet above the valley floor.
The Google Maps embedded iframe I tried posting yesterday doesn't seem to work from either of the browsers I use, so this time around I took a screenshot of a map to show our route:
As you might guess, the red markings are not from Google Maps. I added them to show things that were wrong or missing.
From Bishop it's about 15 miles south on US 395 to state route 168 then about 2 miles east to a turnoff on a county road that's sometimes marked as "Death Valley". The county road is only lightly used so the impression of remoteness sets in very quickly as it climbs from Owens Valley at 4,000' elevation to over 7,500' in the mountain pass. In this 30 mile stretch we only passed 1 or 2 cars.
As the route drops out of the mountains to the Eureka Valley at 3,500' you cross the national park boundary and the road becomes packed gravel. About 9 miles further there's a signed turnoff on the right for Eureka Dunes. At this point the dunes look like they're just around the corner, but they're actually still 10 miles away.
Yes, the white dusting in the mountains behind the dunes is snow.
Ten miles further down the road we curved around the base of the dunes, going around to the left side of what you see in the picture above. We were all set to park the car, lace up our boots, and go hiking on the dunes for a few hours. But holy crap it felt cold! The air temperature was maybe 50, which isn't so cold by itself, but a stiff wind was pounding through the area. We walked for about 30 minutes, getting quite a workout simply struggling to remain upright.
Looking east across the dunes:
Looking west across the dunes:
We had planned to camp in a spot near where I took the picture above, but the chilly air and the powerful wind made us consider alternatives. We decided instead to press onward, driving up through a rocky canyon (with a few rocky ledges that require a real 4x4) and over the Steel Pass to a natural hot springs area.
After lunch in Bishop, California we drove into Death Valley National Park via a little-used northern entrance that leads toward Eureka Dunes. These dunes are always a sight to behold as they rise nearly 800 feet above the valley floor.
The Google Maps embedded iframe I tried posting yesterday doesn't seem to work from either of the browsers I use, so this time around I took a screenshot of a map to show our route:
As you might guess, the red markings are not from Google Maps. I added them to show things that were wrong or missing.
From Bishop it's about 15 miles south on US 395 to state route 168 then about 2 miles east to a turnoff on a county road that's sometimes marked as "Death Valley". The county road is only lightly used so the impression of remoteness sets in very quickly as it climbs from Owens Valley at 4,000' elevation to over 7,500' in the mountain pass. In this 30 mile stretch we only passed 1 or 2 cars.
As the route drops out of the mountains to the Eureka Valley at 3,500' you cross the national park boundary and the road becomes packed gravel. About 9 miles further there's a signed turnoff on the right for Eureka Dunes. At this point the dunes look like they're just around the corner, but they're actually still 10 miles away.
Yes, the white dusting in the mountains behind the dunes is snow.
Ten miles further down the road we curved around the base of the dunes, going around to the left side of what you see in the picture above. We were all set to park the car, lace up our boots, and go hiking on the dunes for a few hours. But holy crap it felt cold! The air temperature was maybe 50, which isn't so cold by itself, but a stiff wind was pounding through the area. We walked for about 30 minutes, getting quite a workout simply struggling to remain upright.
Looking east across the dunes:
Looking west across the dunes:
We had planned to camp in a spot near where I took the picture above, but the chilly air and the powerful wind made us consider alternatives. We decided instead to press onward, driving up through a rocky canyon (with a few rocky ledges that require a real 4x4) and over the Steel Pass to a natural hot springs area.