December 25, 2019, Sidewinder Canyon, Death Valley, California

We hiked in the southern part of Death Valley. We drove past Badwater. The place was packed. Cars parking up and down the road. People walking out in front of cars not paying attention.  There was a crowd (line of dots in the middle of the white salt pan) hiking out to the water in the normally dry Lake Manley. The big storm at Thanksgiving dropped lots of water there.  Another shot of water in the normally dry Lake Manley.

We hiked up Sidewinder Canyon. A new one for us. We started in the parking lot at -250 feet below sea level. John in the mouth of the canyon. The canyon walls are layers of fanglomerate which is layers of rocks that came out the canyon mouth with water and mud. Then they cemented together over millions of years. It looks like dirt with rocks in it, but it is cement with rocks in it. Then the mountains uplifted taking the fanglomerate with it. It snapped into vertical fractures that eroded to into slot canyons. There are 6 slot canyons off the sides of Sidewinder Canyon.  

This is the mouth of one of the slot canyons. Very high walls with a narrow canyon. Countless cobbles are entombed in the walls. sharp boulders poke out like ancient booby traps. The canyon was pretty long and steep. We climbed up and up over lots of rocks.

John at the mouth of the canyon on the way out. The slot canyons are narrow, dank, claustrophobic places. They split over and over again into a labyrinths of stone. It was cloudy when we started the hike, but the sun came out mostly in the valley. The canyons were too narrow for us to have sun.  

John in another slot canyon. This one was also pretty long. All of them go up very steeply and it is a lot of work to climb them. Looking at the sky and clouds above.  

There are huge rocks hanging off the canyon walls, looks like they are just ready to drop on us. But the fanglomerate is like concrete and they are in there pretty tight. John in a long winding passage of a slot canyon. 

The mouth of the second slot canyon. We would be like a dot at the bottom this the walls are so high. The walls of the main canyon converge into a sinuous passage. John walking the narrows of the main Sidewinder canyon.  

John walking the narrows of the main Sidewinder canyon. The narrows lower walls are nicely polished, bulging and undercut.   

The narrows of this canyon went on and beautifully on. John took this of me in the narrows of the main canyon. The turn of the canyon was so overhung it was like a cave.

  I took this of John in the narrows of the main canyon. Where I was standing in the turn of the canyon it was so overhung it was like a cave. I am looking out at John from the spot where John took the previous photo of me entering the overhanging cave turn of the canyon. This is another side slot canyon. It was getting dark so we only went part way in. We will have to come back and explore it. 

John took this of me near the mouth of the canyon. The canyon was so narrow I could reach out and touch both walls at the same time.  The walls of the canyon were so high and the canyon so narrow there was very little light in there. It was more like spelunking  in a cave than hiking. A spot where some light came into the slot canyon.

 John took this of me in the narrow slot canyon. Back in Death Valley it was near sunset. 

The clouds lifted partway off the Panamint mountains and there was snow on the top. Rocks hanging on the side of the canyon. It felt like they would drop on us at anytime. Conglomerate rocks and rocks exposed at the top of the canyon. Small plants are starting to come up. Hopefully this is a sign of a big bloom this spring.