Hello, everyone!  My name is Steve and thanks for visiting my Death Valley Adventures site of trip reports and hiking blogs.  I first visited Death Valley in 1997 and have been going back ever since with my family and friends.  Death Valley is my favorite place to hike, but I also enjoy hiking in other places such as Yosemite, Alaska, and Redwood National and State Parks.  In the green box below you will find links to some of my favorite hikes and trips which I have taken which are outside of Death Valley.

My current Top 10 Favorite Canyons in Death Valley as of December 2011 are-- 1. Moonlight Cyn, 2. Big Fall Cyn, 3. Hidden Bridge Cyn, 4. Grave Cyn, 5. Palmer Cyn, 6. Undertaker Cyn, 7. O'Brien Cyn, 8. Sand Cyn, 9. Funeral Slot Cyn, and 10. Tunnel Bridge Cyn.  Since most all of these canyons are unknown to the general public, here is a list of my current Top 10 Favorite Well-known Canyons in Death Valley-- 1. Fall Cyn, 2. Marble Cyn, 3. Mosaic Cyn, 4. Bighorn Gorge, 5. Dry Bone Cyn, 6. Corridor Cyn, 7. Sidewinder Cyn, 8. Contact Cyn, 9. Grotto Cyn, 10. Red Wall Cyn.  My favorites were chosen based mostly on which ones have the most beautiful scenery and narrows.

If you have only 1 day in Death Valley, the generally suggested itinerary is to see Zabriskie Point, Devils Golf Course, Badwater, Artists Palette, Golden Cyn, Mesquite Sand Dunes, and Mosaic Cyn.  For a 2nd day, you would probably be encouraged to drive Titus Cyn (high clearance vehicle permitting), hike into lower Fall Cyn, tour Scotty's Castle, and visit Ubehebe Crater.

Family & friends who have visited Death Valley with Steve: (56 people to date)-- Daria, Dave P & Alisha, J Silva, Justin N, John Leidel, Josh & Kimmi, Rob Ayala, Joe "Apocalypse", Ronnie, Tiffany, Annie & Jered, Lowell, Steve Sr. & Sally, Flemming, Jesse K, Anthony, Chad, George, Crissy, Beaver L, Ryan D, Brandon, Loren, Tara, Fritz & Denise, Keegan, Cari, Kayla, Dallas, Candace, Sarah, Charlie, Caitlin, EB, JG, Conrad, Shawn & Kathy, Gary "The Cat" K, Andrew, Steve M, Layla, Kirk, Curtis D, Jeremy J & Jordan J, Vicky, Senta, Jim H, Ryan M, and Tobin.

The original purpose of my Death Valley Adventures site (previously called DV Trip Reports) was simply to share pictures of my Death Valley trips with my family members and close friends.  I wanted to share the beauty of what I was seeing and experiencing with them, and having this site proved to be very effective in doing that.  Especially since many of them couldn't personally visit the park or handle long distance cross-country hikes.  When it came to selecting a name, I wanted to use one of my favorite places in the park.  Some of my initial choices were taken, so I went with panamintcity.com (taken from Panamint City, a ghost town high in the Panamint Mountains).  As a side effect of my building this site, members of the public began making use of my site to help plan their trips by seeing pictures of destinations they were considering.  I knew that lots of people were using it when I began receiving multiple e-mails each week from people sharing kind words and thanks, and also from some who had questions.

I am happy to hear that some members of the public are enjoying my site, however I ask everybody-- please do not attempt to follow in my footsteps to these destinations using my reports as your only resource.  And please DO NOT attempt to climb dry falls or cross exposed bypasses as shown in our pictures and reports.  Especially dangerous hikes are identified as Extreme Danger on the main page.  But hikes identified as Desert Hiking can also be dangerous.  Anybody who hikes in Death Valley into places covered in my reports does so at their own risk of injury and death.  If you are interested in visiting a location I have covered here on my site, you need to talk with park rangers at the Furnace Creek Visitor's Center.  They are the proper resource and can help you determine if you are properly prepared, in good enough physical condition, and can safely hike in Death Valley.  The bottom line is that people die hiking in Death Valley every single year.  Many of them were not prepared for the heat or other difficulties involved in desert hiking.  Death Valley is not like other national parks.  There are only 2 maintained trails in the entire park and the rest of the time you are usually hiking cross-country routes through the rugged terrain of the Mojave Desert.  Without the proper maps, guidebooks, assistance of park rangers, knowledge, safety precautions, navigational abilities, heat considerations, supply of water, hiking and/or climbing ability, and other necessary preparations, you could find yourself in serious danger.  When you read any one of my reports, what you don't see is the 5-10 hours that I first invested in preparing for the hike by researching maps, reading guidebooks, scouring the internet for details, and talking with park rangers.

On the Main Page of my DVA site, you can find my Master To-Do List of 185 Death Valley destinations.  If a link is highlighted, that means I have written a report on the destination to share my pictures and trip details with my family and friends.  If a destination listed does not have an active link, that means it is a future destination.  Much of my trip planning has been aided by the use of guidebooks, such as the two shown on the left written by Michel Digonnet.  I am greatly indebted to Michel for providing such excellent resources.  I am also greatly indebted and appreciate the help provided over the past decade by friend and park naturalist Charlie Callagan.  Without the help of these two very knowledgeable individuals, as well as others inside the park and on Death Valley forums, I would have missed out on many great destinations in Death Valley National Park.  So I wish to publicly thank everybody who has provided assistance.

There are also countless places within Death Valley which I have either purposely chosen, or been asked to leave off of my site.  At the beginning when putting together this site, I decided to never share any photographs of rock art in the park or speak about places where it could be found.  The purpose behind everything stated above is to protect the place that I love in the best way possible and not allow my site to be misused in any way.  Please respect my decisions in this regard and do not e-mail me asking for locations, because I will not provide them.  Also, please note that the canyons I have listed on the Main Page are all either officially named or informally named.  An officially named canyon is recognized publicly by the park service and listed on topographical maps.  Informally named canyons are named by park rangers, long-time Death Valley hikers, or labeled on geology maps, and include places like Grave Canyon, Sand Canyon, Palmer Canyon, Moonlight Canyon, Grey Wall Canyon, and Smoke Tree Canyon.  The only canyon listed on here which I have named was Tunnel Bridge Canyon (co-named and co-discovered with Charlie).  There is also a mysterious canyon which I found and nicknamed Regal Canyon.  But that report is lost now.  My personal policy is to recognize informally named canyons as legitimate and list them because it makes identifying them easier.  Plus, I'm only doing this for fun, and I enjoy learning about and promoting the informal names.  If you are unsure if a canyon name is official, simply look at either the 7.5 minute topographical maps, AAA Guide Map, Tom Harrison Map, or National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map.  If you don't see the canyon listed on at least one of those, it is probably an informal name.