TG 2008 - Death Valley - Part 2

Day 2 (Friday) started early for me. RDX, who was sleeping on a roll-away in our room had set the alarm, but promptly went back to sleep after waking me up. Vinay responded to a knock on the connecting door and the two of us headed out around 6am to catch sunrise at the dunes. The sand was still damp, but the sunrise colors were quite nice. When we got back, Bhavana and Pallavi were already up while the boys were still sleeping. We got some tea going and broke out the egg cooker for its inaugural run. We missed a simple, yet crucial step (making a small hole in each egg) which resulted in at least one of the eggs cracking during the cooking which caused the water to boil out. However, it turned out fine and everybody enjoyed their eggs.

Arjun was not doing too well and we noticed that his face was red all over. On closer examination, we found that he had broken out in a rash over his entire body. We realized he had had an allergic reaction to the Motrin. It was only then that we recalled that he had had a similar reaction to "Dolo" which is an ibuprofen brand name in India. I went to the General Store, but the only thing they had was a couple of pills of Benadryl. Sangeetha was able to pull up some dosage info on her PDA and based on that I gave him about a 1/4 pill of Benadryl. Luckily she also had some Tylenol which we gave him for his fever.



It was past 11am by the time we all headed out. First up was the Mosaic Canyon which was only a couple of miles away. Unfortunately those 2 miles were on a gravel road of rather sketchy state. We were doing ok with our SUV, but Vinay was getting nervous in his mini-van. Eventually he was talked into continuing and we reached the trail head without incident. All of us headed into the canyon. It was nice, if not particularly spectacular. Several places we had do some scrambling, especially with the kids.
We walked till we reached a somewhat large opening and then after a short rest (& some desi snacks), we headed back. Arjun was distinctly tiring now.

After a quick potty break for the kids back at our room, we headed towards the 'Aguereberry Point,' reputedly a better view point than the more well-known and more accessible, 'Dantes View.' Or at least that was the plan. After driving about 9 miles, we checked the map again and realized that a portion of the remaining 20-odd miles required 4x4 vehicles, or at least a high clearance one. Either way Vinay was out. So we ruled that out and also a visit to the 'Charcoal Kilns' for the same reason. We reversed course and headed back past Stovepipe Wells and towards the 'Salt Creek,' which is part way towards Furnace Creek. Along the way we stopped at the 'Devils Corn Fields' which is basically a whole area covered with a particular kind of shrubbery. Many things in the DV are given names that involve 'Devil', "Hell', etc.

The salt creek is basically a shallow creek that is home to a particular kind of fish - the 'Death Valley Pupfish'. The creek itself is almost filled with a special kind of plant that is able to survive in the highly saline water. The fish were not visible since they are dormant this time of the year. A board walk a little over a mile long meanders through a good portion of the creek. Lunch (idlis) came first and then we headed out on the board walk. It is a very picturesque place and somewhat startling to see flowing water (albeit very shallow) and a large expanse of greenery in the midst of completely bare mountains.

Since we had some more day light, we charted a roundabout route back to Stovepipe Wells which took us through some vast open expanses of the park. We reached back around 5.30pm and the rest of the evening was largely a repeat of day 1: pav bhajji for dinner, poker (with Vinay winning and Sangeetha losing), and tea. RD, Vinay, and I drove to the dunes with our tea to enjoy the night sky. Amazingly, we could see a glow in the sky from beyond the mountains to the east - Vegas lights!