Inferno 2021

Details: Created: June 12, 2021; Hits: 1706

Each year I go on an Inferno Hike into the dunes on a hot day. I try to pick the hottest day of the year.

This year strong winds ended the hike early so I returned on another hot day.

PART ONE - June 12, 2021

This year I went in the visitor's center. I haven't been in there in a long time. There is a park service gift shop and a commercial gift shop with books and souvenirs. The park service part has informative displays. One of those said that the sand is thirty feet deep below the flats or the base of the dunes. Some of the building was not in use.

These houses are for employees.

This door is in a courtyard. It is about four feet tall.

Yucca seed pods.

I'll go this way. I tried the beach and sand camera setting for these photos. It worked well but made things look a little brownish. The gypsum sand is alabaster white. Really. Alabaster is a form of gypsum.

This tree provided shade. A white lizard rested here too.

When grass moves in wind it makes arcs and circles in sand.

I saw the tracks of many creatures. This feature was unknown at first. Then I found it is human tracks.

This could be oryx (gemsbok) or deer.

These tracks are from a large animal running.

This slope of a dune is covered with lizard and insect tracks.

This pedestal provided shade.

Two or three foot tall pedestals.

The slipface on the leeward side of this dune, left in this photo, has become very steep.

A whirlwind. Storm clouds have advanced from the mountains and a strong wind has started. I will go back now since there could be wind, rain, and lightning.

This photo was to show jets of sand blown by wind on the dune. That isn't clear. When wind alternates directions a dune does not make a slipface. Instead it grows taller. These dunes have this ridge on top.

A wind driven jet of sand flies from the top of this dune.

Here is a video of the drive from the visitor's center and of sand blowing various ways. My videos were washed out white so this has been heavily post processed.

[ Can't See The Video? Click Here to watch at Vimeo or see the Help-Videos page. ]

PART TWO - June 20, 2021

I returned to the dunes today. It was 105F there but with cloudy skies the temperature quickly dropped below 100F. This time I parked at the Nature Trail area and went east from there past the playa lake trail to a part of the sands I had not visited before. That is on the edge of the dunes so there is more plant life and more animals. I saw different shapes of dunes, formations, tracks, and the desert plain beyond the dunes.

The entry fee was $25. The fee was much less in the past. On part one the park employee waived the fee. Not for part two.

This trail goes around a playa lake. A playa lake is an intermittent shallow pond that forms when there is rain. There are informative signs about it, wildlife, and prehistoric times. I am going to the dunes beyond.

Panorama. Click here and enlarge for full size. Pan with scroll bar.

The farther dunes on the right are near the Nature Trail parking. The foreground shows a playa lake just beyond the one with the trail. The plain of the bottom of the basin is visible into the distance. Not visible farther out in the plain is an Air Force base and my town is at the base of the mountains.

There is much vegetation near the edge of the dunes. There are many animal, bird and insect tracks. Animal dens were present. One large one was probably for coyotes.

These formations were plentiful. These are about 7 inches (17.7cm) tall. Others range from 1/2 inch to over a foot (1.2cm to 30.4cm+). I'll call them sand castles.

More sand castle pictures. Click to enlarge.

Panorama. Click here and enlarge for full size. Pan with scroll bar.

I encountered the edge of the dunes again and made this 360 degree panorama from the top of a tall dune.

I didn't find any wreckage this time but I did find this large plastic spike. About 1.5 inches in diameter.

I wonder what made this trail?

Panorama. Click here and enlarge for full size. Pan with scroll bar.

A storm will end the hike again. This one comes from the west with rain. Now it is windy, I can smell rain, and there are some raindrops. I started back and got my plastic poncho out of my backpack in case the rain catches me. Those mountains look like a great place to explore but that entire mountain range is off limits. It is part of a large military installation.