Feeler for a Norcal Death Valley Trip

I haven't been to DV in a while. Seeing a Death Valley Trip Report got me to thinking about going. It's an eight to ten hour drive from the Bay Area.

Death Valley can be a pretty unforgiving place in the summer. November through May offer great days and cold nights. It's not a place for the ill prepared. Gotta take it all for a back country adventure-that's water, fuel, food, tools, toilet. Everything.

It can be hard on vehicles:



The place is full of beauty...





There are some cool trails and things to see. The Race Track, Charcoal Kilns, Rhyolite, and the list goes on. There are plenty of off-road trails in the park. I would like to stay at Telescope Peak at least one night.

Enough of the good stuff. Anyone interested in going?

 

Sounds awesome! Subd for more info. Thinking about a 3-4 day? Week long?

 

Interested but can't commit yet. What timeframe are you thinking?

 

Might be interested as well depending on date

 

We talked about this at the meet, so you know I'm interested

 

Thinking three or four days.

I'll pick a date once I get a better idea when people are able to go.

 

Vote for the time frame that works for you

 

I definitely agree with going for a longer stretch, but for that I'm only available during spring break (March 23-30), and I'm not sure what my schedule will be like with climbing friends and family. I'll figure out what I'm up to before fully committing, but I definitely want to do this!

 

It's about 10 hours in the saddle to get there so it's really a day up and a day back Ian, are you thinking 2-3 days down there? That would be awesome, DV is so freaking huge with so much to see.

Definitely wouldn't want to push it much past March i would think, by then it's still only effin hot, not volcanic face-in-the-oven hot.

The other thing to consider is if there is another round of washouts with the winter rains, they are still repairing roads right now so it's something we'd want to keep an eye on.

 

I'm definitely interested. Just need to know the dates. I didn't vote because I'm not sure what days I can get off with my new job. Thanks for putting it out there Ian, hopefully I'm able to go

 

I mentioned the time and duration in my original post. 3-4 days is often what people are able to get off to do a trip like this and depending, it could be 10h of driving. My preference would be to post a place and time to meet there (of course, caravan/carpool is an option)-that way if you're able to drive all night and be there in time for the trip, that's cool. If you need a day or so to get there, that's cool too but three days is probably about the right amount of time for a group.

The weekend of March 28-30th is gonna be a giant motorcycle rally there. At least one-there are usually two or three large group that go around that time.

 

That sounds cool, doing a night drive down would be my preference, that way I can be hanging out asleep at the meeting place

 

DV would be a fun time for sure. If the winter is as dismal as it seems to be, we may want to hit the area earlier. February maybe?

 

Never been but I'm definitely interested. I need something to look forward to and I think this could be it. If the dates are right you can count me and my dog Lukas in.

 

Sorry. A lot of the places we would go are off limits to dogs.

 

I might be able to do early in the year but April/May is MOAB time so I'm a no go on those dates.

 

which places are you thinking of going to?

 

Can this trip be done in a stock truck?

 

Depends on where Ian is thinking of going, for the most part yes

 

See the links in the Original Post. There's some good info there.

What I'll try and do in the next few days is put together a route and publish the GPS track.

High clearance 4x4, most places. However, when I do the routing, I'll have a better idea.