Trip Report
2015-04 first trip to Saline Valley (updated with photos round 2)

by NutAgain!
Friday April 17, 2015 11:36am
Ok kids, I learned about Saline Valley from seeing pics right here on this forum: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1937401/The-Saline-Valley

I really enjoyed my first trip to death valley with the kids about a year ago, and I was looking forward to seeing this place. It is such an odd juxtaposition of elements that almost conjures a circus-like atmosphere. But there is so much more- you can make it be anything you want. Here's how it was for my first trip, which was possible when an old friend from Berkeley (who has a truck with better clearance than my Prius and has been there many times) agreed to go.

A little rain in the forecast for Southern Sierra, but it just made for some nice clouds on the drive from LA up 395:

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Whitney is up there somewhere:

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I HIGHLY recommend the amazing hospitality of Strider out at Mt Williamson Motel in Independence, CA (I borrowed her picture):
http://mtwilliamsonmotel.com/
[Click to View Linked Image]

I generally sleep in the dirt when I'm out and about, but this will be my go-to place whenever I'm looking for a bed on the east side south of Big Pine. Just the weekend before I met up here with Em Kn0t and a gang of Sierra Clubbers for a last hurrah at attempting to backcountry ski. I've been getting out enough lately I didn't have time to write up that report, and almost forgot about it! I'll circle back.

OK, a little less conversation a little more action:

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Driving in from north via Hwy 168:

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Creosotes showing beautiful hyperdispersion to protect their limited water supply:

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Ghost:

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Keep it clean:

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First two full days we were busy exploring, but third day hung out here a lot. It was empty when we pulled in because the wind was fairly strong:

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Getting camp set up and dinner going before dark:

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Beveridge Canyon


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My daughter stoked to find some water to play in:

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And it just keeps getting better:

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Snack break:

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Oops, had to go rein in my son from a little youthful exuberance taking the more (and maybe too) interesting path:

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Bushwacking:

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Rising above it:

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But not for long:

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Did I mention this place is awesome?

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Naw, no climbing here:

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This was probably the technical crux of the day without harnesses:

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No more pics of it because I was focused on making sure everyone survived:

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Who'd a thunk this was in a desert?

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Ladder falls:

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I managed to strike a decent balance of exposure for the bright light above and the dark canyon below:

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Nice horseshoe bending of the canyon all over the place:

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We let this be our high point. It would take some 5.6-5.9 loose soloing for 100 feet to pass this on the right side. There is a fixed climbing rope, but we didn't bring harnesses or gear on this hike:


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We just brought our stoke!

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And kept it all the way back on the hike out:

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This gives a better sense of the exposure of the crux... and the holds are slippery with wet muddy feet. And the fixed rope helps but would still lead to a big pendulum without tension traversing skills. So I was on my kids like a hawk coming down this part:

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I loved the reflected light in this little bend of rock:

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Woo hoo!

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Back down the cliff and talus that bypasses the first real waterfall:

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Washing off some dust:

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Delicate little beauties lurking all over if you look for them:

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Back to camp:
top left corner top right corner
Credit: NutAgain!
bottom left corner bottom right corner

Well, I'll have to do a part 2 later on. That's all I got time for now! This is really the best of it, but still more cool stuff coming.

Did you know that Scorpions show up brightly in an ultraviolet ("black") light?











  Trip Report Views: 4,234
NutAgain! 		About the Author
NutAgain! is a trad climber from South Pasadena, CA.

Comments
franky

Trad climber
Madison, WI
  Apr 17, 2015 - 12:31pm PT
Inyo SAR went to there this winter to train and explore. We replaced one of those fixed lines (with a strand of half rope that probably won't last long, but it was all we had), the anchor is quite the scene with bad nuts and a few OK pins slung together with heaps of tat.

Is probably safer to climb than jug.

It seems very likely that eventually we will have to perform a rescue in one of those canyons. Top-down canyoneering without a bolt kit and finding a missing anchor after pulling your rope, or an injury.

As of yet, canyoneering there is still a bit of a fringe activity, and tough climbs keep most saline valley explorers in the fat lower reaches of those canyons.

Nice TR
PSP also PP

Trad climber
Berkeley
  Apr 17, 2015 - 12:36pm PT
Very cool!
NutAgain!

Trad climber
https://nutagain.org
Author's Reply  Apr 17, 2015 - 01:51pm PT
It would be a blast to head up there with climbing gear and just turn it into an odyssey going up far as one's endurance and will power allows. I definitely would not trust fixed ropes in any of those canyons! The one we did use a bit (as a sort of safety line when the kids climbed mostly free at what I called the crux), we used only after climbing without it and checking out from the top first.

It's cool as the kids get older and stronger and able to do stuff that's closer to what I would do even if they weren't there. Maybe someday I'll be scared and feeble and they'll be yanking me up stuff?
Jones in LA

Mountain climber
Tarzana, California
  Apr 17, 2015 - 03:10pm PT
Fabulous photos, adorable kids! Thanks for taking the time to share this.

Rich Jones
tom woods

Gym climber
Bishop, CA
  Apr 17, 2015 - 04:40pm PT
I was waiting for the TR. I saw you at the Big Pine gas station. As I drove off, I thought "that's the nutjob from Supertopo." Small world.
lars johansen

Trad climber
West Marin, CA
  Apr 17, 2015 - 04:53pm PT
Thanks for the Saline fix Nut.
lars
NutAgain!

Trad climber
https://nutagain.org
Author's Reply  Apr 17, 2015 - 07:57pm PT
Haha Mr Woods, come say hi next time! I like it when virtual acquaintances cross over into real-life friendships. Definitely makes my life richer!

Now where were we? Ah yes, Warm Spring is kinda desolate looking after you wander away from the immediate vicinity. You can see the big white patch surrounding the palm grove from across the valley. I wonder if this is a natural difference in sedimentation or the result of decades if not centuries of humanity tramping around there:


Next day...

McElvoy Canyon

Where we parked at the mouth of the canyon, facing back toward Warm Spring and Steel Pass:

This road was a bit rougher so we parked early and had to hoof it a bit in the mid-day sun and earn our access to the cool splendor of the canyon:

I forgot the hats in the car when we loaded up from my Prius to Dave's truck in Independence. I had a trusty Da Brim for my daughter (which also served as a great frisby later on), Dave had an extra cap for my son, which left me to improvise with the supplies at hand (quite effectively I might add):


Aaaaagggh!!! Selfie when I got real dehydrated:

Actually this was a cool find by my daughter:



New stuff to see in the exposed terrain before the canyon. Spring is upon us!



Imagine being here when the torrents are raging! A raw display of mother nature being badass:

Dropping down into the wash that slices through the rising landscape:

THe kids always get a kick out of moving around and making silly pics with the iPhone pano mode:

Check out the levitating Da Brim! Now that is taking light-weight to a whole new level:


There will be a lot of pics of flowers in this segment of our journey. I wonder at the beauty that manages to retain a foothold in this hard-scrabble wash, periodically slammed with a mythically proportioned firehouse and sandpaper enema to leave behind stark raw bareness. But here the genius of seeds and attracting pollinators is best on display:











Can you believe this amazing diversity tucked away in the margins of one of the most inhospitable looking landscapes around?

All in this rough and rocky wash as we get into McElvoy Canyon proper:

Some time between 2009 when a book of the area was published, and 2013 when my buddy was last in the canyon, there was a major deluge that completely obliterated the vegetation, which has since grown back. The book describes a lush wall of hanging ferns and orchids behind a curtain of the waterfall. When my buddy was there in 2013, he says it was just pure rock and sand, no traces of greenery. Also, the trail that enables one to pass the first major falls on the right appears to have been a victim of the event. It would be possible to still scamper up the raw mid-5th class rubble on the right side, but I thought it looked pretty darn sketchy, no chance of taking the kids up there and probably would have passed on it even if I was there without kids, but I wouldn't touch that area without a rope.

Here's signs of recent raw erosion:

In a few places, there are long skinny islands up sediment upstream from a major tree root system, but the tree itself was snapped off and gone at the base of the trunk thicker than my torso. Imagine being in here with an inner tube just after a major dumping storm... not!

But I can't stick with the drab tones here, need another color explosion:


In general this canyon was less dramatic with the water features we were able to access, but the flowers and the overall evidence of the power of mother nature still made it a very worthy adventure for a few hours:


Straight up ahead here is where there's a hanging waterfall when the flow is higher:


Here's what we got:

Hard to capture the area with reasonable vertical and horizontal angle of view:



This reminds me of the mucus plug when the water broke during the birth of my first child:

Frisbee session with Da Brim:


Abstract daughter and Da Brim with mossy falls:

I solo'd up a bit to the right of this falls, could pull it at probably 5.8R in my five tennies. I backed off before full commitment because we had no gear and there was no point going where the gang couldn't go.

More cool erosion evidence:

Not a place you want to set up a tent or take a nap:

Example of obliterated tree:

Seemingly endless diversity! Such lucky pollinators:


Not a great picture, but right before this I had a video of this guy and perhaps a Sceloperus Magister in a show-down:

This guy was all aggressive weaving around with head high and body plastered to the ground or whatever rocks he crawled over as he pushed into the space of the Sceloperus, making him back off. At some point I'll take the Google Plus videos (which I haven't figured out how to embed nicely) and move over to youtube so I can link them here.

Can we stop already with the diversity? No keep going:

Climbing out of the wash into the higher ancient alluvial fan:

Cruisin' back to the truck, with the low dunes of Saline Valley in the background:



This is something that caught my eye (as if a billion things didn't already catch my eye), something I had only seen before in coastal sage scrub and chaparral: Dodder.

It is an epiphyte, a plant that latches onto the host plant and taps its vascular system for nutrition. I wonder if it is native to the region, or if it was a passenger on a 4WD coming up the road, after traveling in other regions. I found a goodly swath of these plants here but only close to the road in this one spot. And it was more aggressive toward the host plant here than I have seen it in the coastal sage scrub. Maybe the local plants aren't accustomed to defending themselves from this parasite?






Well, that's all for now. Next stop will be the Salt Tramway area and some miscellaneous wrap-up including a glowing scorpion.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
  Apr 17, 2015 - 09:37pm PT
Outstanding!!
We need to get together and climb out there at that new area near the South Pass. I'm spending a week climbing out there next week. I'll post some pics and maybe a TR when i get back.

Looking forward to more of your pictures.
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
  Apr 19, 2015 - 08:14am PT
stellar photography,
You sir are a great Father!!!!
Thank you!!!!
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