So these are the Eureka Valley sand dunes here in Eureka Valley which is inside Death
Valley National Park. Now I've been to the sand dunes in the southern part of the park,
but they are not as big as these ones. These are three times as big, I think, or something
like that. These are huge, and you see some hikers up there that have already climbed up
to the summit there. I think there are four hikers altogether up there. Yes, and
these dunes are just out here at the far end of Eureka Valley. Looking around here, you've got the
mountains over there, the valley straight ahead, and then the other mountains here on the left.
See how the brush makes a circular pattern in the sand?
When the wind blows it around, it whips it around left and right and makes those concentric circles.
Here are some animal tracks here cutting across the sand.
And here are the dunes in front of me. This is not the easiest hiking.
Every so often -- every couple steps -- you sink in a little bit.
So it's not the easiest thing to hike on, and it's about 95 degrees right now and the temperature is
climbing. Probably will get about 108 here in a couple hours -- 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
I don't know if I'm going to make it to the top up there.
You can see my footprints there and how I'm sinking in.
That makes for some very difficult hiking especially in these kind of temperatures.
Boy, from this vantage point if you didn't know it you might think you're in the Sahara Desert
or someplace else besides Death Valley!
My goal is to reach that little clump of brush there.
Well, I made it to the clump of brush I was trying to get to. Wow! Check that out! Most
of this is dead but there's some green so it's still alive even though it looks like it's dead.
It's amazing how things survive here in the desert where there's hardly any water. Look at that!
Eventually this will let loose and become a tumbleweed. So, yes, there's the high point up
there. I don't know if I'm going to get up there. I'm going to sit down here and take a break.
Coming up this part wasn't so bad. I didn't sink in very much. It's really
compacted here and a pretty firm surface. I'm going to park it here and take a break.
So where does all this sand come from and why is it here? Well,
I will have to research that and put a caption here in the video that explains it briefly.
But I will say this much: if somebody didn't know what they were doing and came out here
ill-prepared especially now in the summertime like I am, you could die out here if you didn't have
enough water or weren't prepared, you know. This is no joke. This is out in the middle
of nowhere. There's no cell phone reception whatsoever. There are no sources of water.
So, yes, it would be easy to come out here and not have enough water
in 110 degree heat out here, start hiking, and have a serious problem.
There's my truck!
No, I'm just kidding. There's the guest of honor -- the old 2006 Corolla out here in Eureka Valley
in the middle of nowhere.
Well, I made it to the first little rise here.
I'm pretty much standing on top of it, and the main hill
is right here in front of me where those hikers were. They were right up there at the top.
I saw them hiking up. They were over there somewhere just beyond that ridge. So this
is pretty steep here, so I'm not even going to attempt this. That would be
a really bad idea. It's amazing how smooth the sand is for the most part!
Here's a downhill section that's kind of steep.
Yes, I'm not going to go up to the top. It's just right up there, but
I'll come back here in the winter when it's cooler and do the whole thing. Actually, on
the other side of these dunes are even more dunes, so it's a pretty extensive place. Here you can see
the edge of the dune there and how it comes down there. It drops off
right here in front of me and is kind of steep. We are headed back
over that way.