06 | January | 2025 | blog.benmook.com

I made a trip out to Death Valley to activate some peaks in November. One the way there wanted to swing through the town of Darwin and look around as I’ve been curious about this place since watching a short documentary years ago. Near the town is Darwin Benchmark. Turn off Olancha Dawrin Road on a two track trail and follow it as far as you feel comfortable. The hike to the summit was pretty short, kinda steep, maybe half a mile. At the top was a rock carin and summit register. I setup the antenna for 10M and got to work, having about 10 minutes before UTC. This only got me two contacts before 00:00. I then setup on 15M which got me another 5 QSOs after UTC. With the summit activated twice I started heading down. It was getting dark and I wanted to get off the mountain and two track trail before it got completely dark. Once on the paved road, it was completely dark, and I wasn’t sure where I was spending the night. Instead of heading to Darwin to look around, I went to the national park to find a place to camp. I’ll need to visit Darwin another day.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-126