Death Valley: Wildrose Peak

The deserts of southeastern California and Nevada are expansive, and their large size is driven home by the maze of valleys, canyons, and mountain ranges that add complexity to the landscape. The Panamint Range runs from north to south at the western end of Death Valley. It is a relatively high range, with several peaks over 9000 ft, but it becomes even more prominent in consideration of its position between two low desert valleys to the east (Death Valley) and west (Panamint Valley). In fact, the highest peak of the range is Telescope Peak at over 11,000 ft, which is just miles from the lowest point in North America: Badwater Basin in Death Valley at nearly 300 ft below sea-level.

I set out to Death Valley National Park in late February for a photography project, with just a general concept in mind, and few set destinations. After a first night in the backcountry in northern Panamint Valley and an easy hike to Darwin Falls the following morning, I decided to travel down Emigrant Valley Road, find a campsite at Wildrose campground if available, and continue the drive up Wildrose Canyon. By mid-afternoon I was far up the canyon past the start of the juniper and pinyon pine tree line, and at the start of the trail to Wildrose Peak. I grabbed several cameras and started the hike.

Unfortunately I started too late in the day to make it very far along the trail, but I returned the next morning arriving at the trail head by 7:30. It was cold: 22°F according to my car! Starting up the trail again I passed junipers, pines, and patches of snow. The sun was rising in the east and broke through for a moment, providing some welcome warmth. I climbed towards the east and at an elevation of just under 8000 feet I arrived at a ridge that provided an expansive view of Death Valley to the east. Sunshine was now a regular companion on the trail, and though the air was still cold, it make the hike more enjoyable.

The trail continued to the north and then back to the west, ascending a bit more than another 1000 ft before it would end at Wildrose Peak. Snow patches were common, but in most places they were a thin crust on the cold ground, unlikely to provide much water at all once they melted. The snow may have fallen earlier in the week when California finally – after a remarkably dry January and February – had a winter storm pass through the state. On my drive from Davis through the Central Valley I caught a bit of the storm in Tehachapi Pass where rain, hail, and snow were falling.

The top of Wildrose Peak afforded incredible views of the southwest desert landscape. To the east Death Valley and the Amargosa Range were visible, and Nevada could also be seen including a distant peak with some snow to the east. The lower elevation Panamints were to the north. To the south, Telescope Peak, the highest point of the Panamint range, dominated. Though that mountain was also dotted with dark green evergreens (presumably also junipers and pines), it seemed to have a thicker blanket of snow. To the west was the Panamint Valley and then other mountain ranges, including I’m almost sure, a distant ridge of jagged snow-covered mountains that must have been the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada.

 

Death Valley to the east

The mountain top at Wildrose Peak had a rock cairn, USGS benchmark, and a metal box with a logbook. A raven was perched at the top of the cairn for sometime before flying off. The mountain top was rather rounded, like the other nearby peaks in the Panamint range. The smoother summit topography perhaps indicates a more ancient origin, with millions of years of erosive forces mellowing the mountains in their old age. While evergreens reached to about the summit of Wildrose, the vegetation was rather low lying and sparse, the species most catching my eye was a prickly pear cactus with long spines, the clusters of stems lying close to the ground and mixed in with snow patches and rocks.

Crest of the Sierra Nevada range to the west

Wheeler Peak to the south

Cairn at the summit of Wildrose Peak