Mount Perry

Wednesday morning, we woke up early to have breakfast in the room and then headed to Dante's View in Death Valley National Park before sunrise.  It was still dark when we arrived and very cold, but I climbed up to a nice spot to watch another beautiful Death Valley sunrise.

Across the valley, the view of Telescope Peak was beautiful.

After the sun came up, we took off to follow Mount Perry Trail north.

The trail climbed up over Dante's View Peak and then followed the ridgeline towards Mount Perry.

The trail descended for a while down to about 5,000 feet then started climbing back up.

The entire hike was along an exposed ridgeline that had no shade, but provided excellent views the entire way.

It got very rocky towards the end but was fairly obvious of where to go.

There were a number of false summits before reaching the actual peak.

There was a logbook in an ammo box at the summit that we signed.  I didn't see anyone else from NC in the log.

The hike back was just as scenic as the way out.

But it was a lot of down about half way and then up all the way back.

We returned to Dante's View a little before lunch and took off.

Driving back towards the Oasis, we took a drive through Twenty Mule Team Canyon.

A narrow gravel spur road led through the canyon for a few miles.

Although the road was barely the width of a car, there were several spots will a pull-off wide enough to park and get out to explore.

No official trails, but easy to follow paths up the hills for views of the gorgeous badlands all around.

This drive is much less popular than Artist's Drive; we only saw one other vehicle pass through while we were in here.

But it was just as stunningly beautiful and I found a number of places to climb up for a view of the badlands.

Each short stop offered unique views and sights.

The canyon wasn't even on our plan of things to do but I'm glad we saw it and took a detour driving by.

After finishing the drive, we headed back to the Ranch for lunch at the Ice Cream Parlor.  The cook staff were on lunch so walked around the Borax Museum while waiting.

The museum itself was closed but we could walk around the outdoor area and check out the old mining equipment.

After 10 minutes or so, we headed back and got lunch.  It was ok but probably the most expensive hamburger and hot dog ever.  Then we headed back out and took a drive down Hole in the Rock Road, since we had a 4WD.

We saw some cool wildlife in here, lots of desert plants.

And I finally got a picture of a pinyon jay.

In a couple miles, we passed through the beautiful Hole in the Wall, where a couple were camping.

We drove a little further but the road kind of fizzled out and turned around.  There was a nice cotton top cactus.

We then parked near the Hole in the Wall to get some pictures up close.

The Hole in the Wall was a gap in the mountain, but there were also many holes in the rock face.  The folks camping were from Portland and I told them they had about the best campsite ever.

We stopped one more time a little further to climb around and get some nice views.

Then we drove back to the paved road.  It was getting near sunset so we stopped at Zabriskie Point.

The views here were incredible in the fading light.

As the sunset over Telescope Peak, the sky began to light up in beautiful colors.

The clouds looked like pink cotton candy.

The whole area was just really beautiful and we climbed around on the rocks.

As the sun completely set, the sky turned pink and orange and bathed the badlands in an otherworldly light.

Once it got dark, we headed back to the hotel.  After dark, we headed over to Harmony Borax to stargaze for a while and enjoy the night sky.