You've probably seen pictures at some point in time of the lake where these rocks seem to mysteriously move across it's barren surface. It's called the Racetrack, and it's in a high remote valley in the northern portion of Death Valley. I'd always wanted to see it but i didn't know anything about the layout of the place, so due to the time it takes to get there i figured i should camp. By "camp" i mean sleep in the back of the car.
There is an unlimited supply of new rocks waiting on the other side of the lake.
I had read that tourists from certain Asian countries have taken a liking to the racing rocks and had caused a problem by taking them home as souvenirs. That sounded exaggerated, but coincidentally the only car i passed that afternoon on the way to the lake was an SUV full of Asians, and when i got to the lake i was shocked to see that there were virtually no rocks present on the entire two mile long lake. I walked around all over the place and i couldn't find any rocks. Eventually i climbed on top of the strange intrusion in the middle of the lake and spotted three candidates.
The darker rocks in the middle of the lake are covered in long black crystals.
By the time i had arrived (after driving through Titus Canyon) it was already too late for pictures. I did have time to explore some of the nearby roads before sunset, until i was confident i was the sole visitor to the valley. Time to start blowing stuff up.
Although many places in Death Valley would be considered remote by common standards, nearly every single area of the park is accessible by road. There are roads absolutely everywhere, so many that i feel confident saying Death Valley is the most accessible of any park i've been too. On the other hand, you need to have a pretty good 4 wheel drive vehicle to use many of those side roads.
I had hoped to continue beyond the dead end road (on the map) after visiting the lake in order to get down to Saline Valley on the other side of the mountains. There is an old mining road that goes down the mountain but it proved to rough and narrow to get the rental car down without damaging the paint. I had also hoped to hang out in the evening and look at the stars, which should have been spectacular (see spectacular) but just after sunset a huge dust storm kicked up. It was so thick i couldn't see more than about 12 feet from the car. I've been in sand storms in the past, but they always ended after an hour or two. This one was driven by relentless winds that lasted all night long.
Those high winds play an important role at the lake. The sailing stones have never been witnessed moving by anybody, but the current theory names the wind as the main mechanism of movement. In spring the playa floods for a few days at a time during rare showers. The rain usually occurs in late winter or early spring (like April, when i was there) when temperatures drop below freezing at night. Although it is rare for the entire lake to freeze, sizable areas can form plates of ice that grip the stones on the lake bed. During such cold nights, high winds may also be present, and may be forceful enough to blow the ice some distance across the lake bed, lubricated underneath by a few inches of water. The water in the lake evaporates in just a few days.
It takes around 6 minutes to walk from here to the nearest edge of the lake.
The constant rocking of the vehicle by the strong winds actually helped put me to sleep until the dust finally died down around 4am (almost 10 hours later) and i woke up to freezing cold temperatures. It was a little above freezing to be accurate, but the wind chill was definitely below freezing, stinging my fingers in the predawn light as i made the long walk out to those rocks.
These fighter jets snuck up on me and scared me to death. If they'd determined me to be a threat to world order, as they should have, the missile would have killed me before i could even turn around.
