Death Valley 2000

These pictures were taken on the Department of Planetary Sciences Fall 2000 fieldtrip to Death Valley. October 7 through 10, 2000.

Celinda talked at Burro Creek about Caliche.
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We went to Red Lake Playa, there Jani talked about playas, and Joe talked about giant dessication polygons.
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The next morning Andreas talked about Playas on Mars, from our campsite among the Joshua Trees.
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Next stop was Hoover Dam, where Erik gave us the history of the project.
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We stopped within view of the Amargosa Chaos and JoeP told us all about it.
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Just a little way down the road, Felipe talked about the ancient shorelines on Shoreline Butte.
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Then we visited Badwater, the lowest point on dry land in the western hemisphere. Adina talked about the fault scarps, Fred and Devon talked about gravel fans, and Windy described the turtlebacks.
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That night at the Mesquite Springs campground, Jason brought out his ten incher, and we went star hopping.
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The next morning brought some great views of Tin Mountain from the campsite.
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Our first stop that morning was Ubehebe Crater, where I talked about how it formed. We also got a look at the laminated cross-beds formed from the base-surge.
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After a long drive, we ended up at Racetrack Playa, where Abby told us what is known about the moving rocks.
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At Salt Creek, Matt talked about Pupfish.
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Paul talked about the Harmony Borax Works.
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Then we visited Venifact Ridge, where Jennifer described the processes acting on these rocks.
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We stopped at the Devil's Golf Course. There Matt talked about evaporites and Terry talked about Halophiles.
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Our last, long stop was back at Badwater where Rachel talked about Salt Weathering and I locked my keys in my truck. We ended up hanging out at Badwater for three hours waiting for the AAA, and I was given a slim jim as a gag present at the Holiday party that year.
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We ended up camping at the Dumont Dunes that night. It was very windy there.
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After that, we headed for the Kelso Dunes, famous for booming. There Gwen talked about dune formation, and Ingrid talked about the booming.
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After lunch, Pete talked about remote sensing of Death Valley.
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Our last stop was the Amboy Crater. We took a long, winding road through the old lava flows to get to the base of the crater. There Dave talked about the crater, and Andy talked about desert pavement.
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Just outside of 29 Palms, we had a flat.
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I also snapped this picture very quickly in Joshua Tree. I tried to get the intruded granite and the moon in the same shot. Well, maybe next time.
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-Ross Beyer

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