Death Valley National Park

The Death Valley is one of the few places on the planet where the earth boldly puts on a naked show, with no reservations about modesty. The place results from a convergence of active geology of the Great Basin and a dry desert environment in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, culminating in a colorful, incredibly vivid display of tectonic proportions. This place dispels the myth that something must be green and lush to be beautiful. The endless expense of multi-hued sand dunes, radiant playas, mirror-like salt lakes, exotic badlands, chromatic rock bands, snow capped mountains, and deeply-featured bajadas are set against a cloudless blue sky as deep as the air is devoid of moisture.

Telescope Peak and the Panamint Range

The maze-like badlands of Golden Canyon

Hole in the Wall

Zabriskie Point

The southern Amargosa Range basking in evening light

Dramatic viewpoint along the Artist Road

The Manly Beacon rise vertically out of Golden Canyon

The Flight

A flight from the L.A. basin to Furnace Creek involves one of two routes: one that skirts around the west side of the Edwards restricted airspace complex, and one that skirts to its east. Our route is of the former kind and involves a climbing detour around the west side of Vany Nuys and Burbank airspaces, followed by a direct crossing the low western San Gabriel Mountains to Mojave, through the Trona Corridor, and finally a detour around the southern end of the 11,000+ ft high Panamint Range to Death Valley proper.

Our flight route from Santa Monica to Furnace Creek airport

The last part of our flight was the most exhilarating. Flying at a mere 6,000' MSL, crossing from Trona to the Death Valley required us to tiptoe around the 5,000+ ft high Slate Range just to the west of the Panamint, as well as the higher peaks at the southern end of the Panamint Range. Vertical walls of sparsely vegetated mountains stared at us at every turn, and we were on constant lookout for turbulence and downdrafts shall they suddenly appear. It was a true mountain flying experience. Soon afterwards, we made a sharp left turn, putting us parallel to the Panamint Range. It was an eerie feeling to have a massive mountain ridge covering most of our sight lines on our left side, yet have the salt lakes of Death Valley disappear below our right wing.

The flight took about 2 hours and 15 minutes.