Seeking advice on visiting Death Valley

It’s been years since i’ve been to Death Valley. Would be fun to re-visit, but my two dogs would probably be a bit miffed if i didn’t take them, and dogs and national parks don’t always mix too well.

If you have the time continue west thru DV to the Owens Valley. It is an amazing place as well.

Gas is crazy expensive in the Valley, be sure to go in with a full tank.

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14 important tips for hiking through deserts:
1.research your route, down to altitudes. Don’t walk over a mountain, go around one, maintaining the same altitude, to save energy
2.wear correct boots and socks
3. use a walking stick
4.don’t drink too much water. Drink electrolytes and water in moderate amounts.
5. wear a long visor sun hat
6. decide between either 100% cotton undershirt, or 50/50 undershirt. thermal or Capilene, if during the January when Temps reach 32 deg F
7. don’t eat salty foods
8. gloves: cycling fingerless, and leather work kind (unavoidable handling rough rock, or spiny vegetation)
9.binoculars
10.polarized sunglasses
11. pepper spray
12. bug spray (for sand gnats, sand flies)
13. a trowel (misc digging, archaeological or plant root research?)
14. a power bank and cords for your comm and navigation devices.
enjoy your visit

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Salty foods are great to replenish electrolytes, if you don’t like gatorade or powders

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Lots of great advice here. Particularly the sand gnats. This is one snag I had not considered.
Pepper spray: I don’t get it. Who are we using this against? Mountain lions? Obnoxious men?

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Thanks! It’s an open-ended trip, so we’ll see. But I doubt I’ll get that far west.

salty foods mean sodium, which is too much for the physical task when potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron are sorely needed for correct muscle biochemistry.

yes. the area is famous enough for rare, but erratic behavior of any type of mammals that are capable of being there.
Heat stress, the stifling heat, inhospitable weather, the extremes in perceptions, including the perception of the forbidding and lifeless landscape blatantly devoid of food source, acts the same on animals and humans (some of whom have already discovered nooks there for stealth camping!!! and escape in these covid stressed times).

Interesting. I guess the crazies are everywhere. But undoubtedly there are many more of them in my city. It’s only the drug dealers who worry me.

You dont have to worry. Honestly. The illegal plantations are in VERY remote canyons. If you have never been to DV you wont be going anywhere close. Hell you wont be going anywhere close even if its your 10th visit.

Absolutely no need for pepper spray. Thats just dead weight. Carry a satelite phone or more water instead. (Except for maybe annoying men, thats always a possibility everywhere).

The rare animal attacks are mostly because of idiots feeding them near roads and the resorts. Its not a common ocurrence.

Take a map, lots of water, dont be out and about at the hotest hours of the day, and have fun!

The pup fish and lizards are out and about right now. Not looking good for flowers though.

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A lot of the endemic plants require 4wd to access, if I recall rightly. It’s a tad early in the year or I’d be more enthusiastic about joining a trip like this. I really need to make it out there…I think most people have good sentiments here about just picking places and checking them out, there’s no universally perfect hike or best hike in DV.

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Trowel could be used for burying waste?

for exploratory digging as in interesting geology, archeology, root studies. For biological waste, to bury it deeper, so as not to help curious mammals track you.

salty foods usually have just sodium chloride, a crude electrolyte which can’t replace the unction of potassium or magnesium.
Some salty foods also have sodium salts like MSG, which is still sodium.
Same goes for sodium citrate, bicarbonate etc. - a one way ion channel in tissues guaranteeing muscle pain, and many false conclusions.

I don’t expect Nature to present me with its finest! I just want to see and appreciate the ecosystem as it exists in the moment. I want to take in the landscape, think about the geology, the soil, the erosive processes, and then contemplate the adaptations wherever they can be discovered.
If I return home with only photos of rocks, it will be mission accomplished!

If you find them on yoru way, please, observations of any thorny or rugged plants.
You may stumble on abandoned gold mines.

In case of interest in reading William Manly’s account of traveling thru Death Valley in 1849. His was the party that provided the name - https://archive.org/details/deathvalleyin49i00manl

Free downloads in a variety of formats. The Kindle formatting is often a bit rough in these downloads, but for a free book is usually tolerable.

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Hope so! Camera will always be at hand

I’ll be interested to look at this book – thanks much for the link. I love journeys, and I love historical accounts.