This past week I visited Death Valley National Park with my wife. This is the perfect time of year to visit with temperatures ranging from 40-50°F at night to 70-85°F during the day (versus the 134°F/57°C recorded there in the summer months!). This was my first time at the park and I knew I wanted to see the Sailing Stones. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones
The stones are located in a dry bed known as the "Racetrack". Getting out there requires a high clearance vehicle and possibly 4wd. This use case exceeded the design requirements of our Honda Accord so I rented a Jeep Wrangler. With a Jeep, it became clear I could take the much rougher back route to the "Racetrack" over Lippincott Pass. The terrain is rugged and rocky on the pass. Vegetation is sparse. You climb from basically sea level to 3800-4000 ft.
I thought I'd take some photos of the local cactus and share them with the group. There are fairly limited species in this region of Death Valley. I tried to make my best attempt at identifications based on what is known to live in the region, but please correct me if there are issues. Perhaps this isn't that "exotic" to many, but I was very impressed what manages to live out here, in a desert that gets ~2 inches of rain and >130 days of 100+°F heat a year! This desert made my local areas in Arizona seem tropical by comparison!
Getting to the Pass, you cross through a Joshua Tree forest that is pretty incredible. There were some of the largest Yucca brevifolia I've personally seen.
Climbing the pass:
Some of the cactus I spotted along the way:
Echinocereus engelmannii
Believe it or not, very much still alive.
Sclerocactus johnsonii (Mojave Pineapple)
.
Echinocactus polycephalus (Cottontop Barrel)
Opuntia basilaris (Beaver Tail)
I never found out what this was, but it was odd looking:
At the top of the pass the Sclerocactus and Echinocactus were everywhere. They were most common on the non-north facing slopes.
Can you spot them all?
We made it finally to the "Racetrack".
Death Valley National Park
Re: Death Valley National Park
Nice pictures. Never heard of these moving rocks before. Intriguing.
Re: Death Valley National Park
- nop, another Echinocactus.Sclerocactus johnsonii (Mojave Pineapple)
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Re: Death Valley National Park
Very nice images! Thank you for sharing.
I live in Southern California, and have just recently added Death Valley to my list of National Parks i'd like to visit.
Did you know, that Death Valley is also a dark sky certified park, meaning it is a prime location for star gazing in the United States.
Seeing these images makes me want to take an adventure and photograph some wild cacti of my own!
I live in Southern California, and have just recently added Death Valley to my list of National Parks i'd like to visit.
Did you know, that Death Valley is also a dark sky certified park, meaning it is a prime location for star gazing in the United States.
Seeing these images makes me want to take an adventure and photograph some wild cacti of my own!
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Re: Death Valley National Park
Vlani is right on correcting your ID.
Your mystery plant is Eriogonum inflatum.
Cheers!
Barry
Your mystery plant is Eriogonum inflatum.
Cheers!
Barry
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.