Pic: Dr. Hugo Heyrman’s “Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada”. Rhyolite, NV
At Tonopah, US-95 veered south. As I drove into the heart of the next thunderstorm, easterly wind blew left to right across the highway. When vehicles passed in the opposite direction, they blasted an extra stream of water across my windshield. Since 90% of that traffic was semis, work trucks, RVs, and school buses, the result was that even with my wipers on epilepsy mode I was completely blind for two seconds out of every ten.
Eventually I drove through the end of the storm, down to Beatty, took a quick detour to Rhyolite, and headed into Death Valley.
I stopped at the ranger station in Furnace Creek to buy my Annual Interagency Pass and double-check my plan to camp at Wildrose.
“Are there likely to be a lot of people up there since it’s Friday night?”
“Well that’s an hour away from any ranger,” the woman behind the counter answered, “but no, probably not. It might be snowing, though.”
“…that’s… not necessarily a dealbreaker.”
“Yeah, there’s a 50% chance of rain, which will be snow up there. Do you have four-wheel drive?”
I scouted a few of the lowlands campsites and found them relatively full (at least by my standards). I wanted to check out Wildrose anyway, since it was near the hike I planned to do tomorrow: Wildrose Peak, one of the few hikes in the valley that’s not a short interpretive trail or a monstrous adventure requiring a mule team.
At Emigrant Pass, thunder showers arrived. The rain persisted to Wildrose, where there were also a half-dozen cars. I persevered up a worsening gravel road until I found the Thorndike campground. It was deserted! It was also blanketed in a half-inch of wet snow. So much for the hottest, driest place on earth!
I decided to brave the weather in exchange for less driving and fewer people. Sleeping bag + liner bag + most of my warm clothes made for a passable if chilly night at 7600 feet.
Pic: Sand dunes in the afternoon…
Pic: …snow and hot chocolate by nightfall.
Danger Beyond This Point 