November 5, 2025.
10.9 mi. | 3675′ ele. gain | 6:45 hr.
Knowing I had a long walk across the desert to get to the base of Pyramid Peak in Death Valley National Park, I got up before the sun. “Long” is relative, of course, but out in the desert heat, a mile can feel like an eternity. My route began from “the pads,” an unofficial camping area just outside the park boundary, where we’d spent the previous night. I crossed the highway and followed the approach description shared on SummitPost.
As in the Eagle Mountain route I did recently, the walk across the alluvial fan was quite easy and pleasant. Though the ground appears crumbly and unstable, the rocks provide a firm and consistent walking surface. I made it to the turn up the canyon in no time. Along the way I found one balloon and a zillion cool cacti.
From there, the route wound steeply uphill. Occasionally, a cairn marked the path. The navigation, though not direct, was fairly intuitive. I took several shade breaks along the way if the opportunity arose. But to be fair, the ripping wind kept the apparent temperature down. In this section, I also found some lizards, buckwheat and other weird desert plants.
But, my favorite part of this route was the constantly varied rock. There was so much interesting stuff to look at. Rocks of different colors, sizes, textures and shapes. What was the intricate story of this place? Alas, I had no pocket geologist.
When I reached the top, I signed the summit log and ate my apple. The wind was so intense I was chilly in my shorts and windbreaker! Freezing to death in Death Valley was not on my bingo card. I decided to skip painting here and instead carefully made my way back down. It felt a lot steeper and much less intuitive traveling in this direction…how?! The wind was getting to me. I had to pull my phone out a few times to check my GPS track and make sure I wasn’t heading down some random gully. Also, the wind kept knocking me off balance, which was not helpful. I felt very grateful for my hiking poles.
As I reached the top of the canyon, I paused to breathe a sigh of relief. There, I swapped into my sandals and took my time walking in the gravel. Much to my surprise, I noticed two species of blooming flowers, one purple and one yellow. They were growing right near each other in this huge expanse of brown and gray. I feel like wearing the sandals in this section forced me to slow down and look at my feet more carefully, which meant I was more likely to notice the ground beneath my feet. Nature never ceases to amaze me.
When I returned to the van I celebrated another Desert Peaks Section summit. The DPS list I most certainly will not come close to completing, but will serve to inspire many more random adventures in beautiful places.
