Death Valley sand dunes have no mysterious origin. On any day with a scouring south-southeasterly wind signaling the approach of a front from the west, accumulated fine materials in dry lakes and on slopes that have seen some erosion in the previous months will happily contribute clay, silt and even sand to that wind. As two wind streams exit the narrow parts of the two canyons that come together in central Death Valley, the airflow spreads, slows, and drops much of its heavier particulate load.
Today, after the mysteries of Titus, it was a nice calm day to just enjoy the sand and the evidence of its creatures (lizards, in this case):
But there are larger views too, like this one with my granddaughter looking back to her own tracks and also to where we entered that far wall where Titus Canyon is located:
The sand can be miserably hot, but not this day, it was very pleasant to walk here:
It is really hard to tell, but above the rightmost small dune in the next photos seems, to me, to be the entry into Titus Canyon, which goes off to the southeast a little before it turns straight east:
Just to tie this part of the day;s trip into the Titus part, this is the entry into Titus from the Death Valley side (no cars allowed to come up this way, it is one way --down-- from Beatty to here, but we were not threatened by any cars, a minor landslide faurther east, after a recent rain, had closed the canyon to auto traffic). Here you can see (my wife Audrey is providing scale) the turn the canyon makes toward the north west as it enters Death Valley, as hinted in the above photo:
And what was my granddaughter's favorite part of Death Valley? This sparkling rock (we left it there for others to enjoy):
Finding a cave her size:
And at the end of the day she also quite enjoyed a giant milkshake at Furnace Creek Ranch, with which grandpa reluctantly (?) helped.
Go back to start of the Death Valley Mystery discussion
Go back to Death Valley Mystery photo page
Go Home
Go to previous Titus Canyon Pages