Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Went back to Inyo mountains and Saline Valley

Found a mine near Cerro Gordo that went straight back 1 mile, before it was blocked by a cave-in. we think it was a shortcut through the mountains for hauling ore.

 

It is on private land, part of Cerro Gordo, there was a fence on it at one time. Not like the National park that puts up welded steel bars to keep you out.

 

It isn't the smartest thing to do. I was looking at some of the hikes we do up the ravines, the cliff walls would probably go before some of the mine walls. But still we don't go in some of the older mines we find, this one was from the 40's.

 

Nice find. I'm not familiar with that one. I'll be heading to the promised land very soon. Can't wait to get back.

 

Speaking of Cerro Gordo, I acquired this beauty from an associate who was contracted to survey some of the lower closed off levels for the owners. He was partially paid in artifacts. The top edges have dozens of cut marks where the miners cut lengths of fuse.



He said it looked as if the miners laid down their tools and walked away. Among the countless artifacts were some old Levi's, surprisingly in near pristine condition.

And speaking of fuse, we were rock hounding on a mine dump in the "Gold Belt" region, SE of the Lost Burro complex and came across some unburned fuse. I started pulling it out of the rubble until my brain connected "unburned fuse" to just what else might still be "unburned" at the end.
The plot thickens. After several minutes of mental ass kicking myself we thought we would take a short peek into the mine. About 20 feet in there was a boarded off side passage with a sign, "Danger Explosives" painted on cardboard from a DuPont Dynamite box. My butt was still sore from the earlier discipline so we made a hasty retreat.

 

That is a cool artifact. The caretaker said there is 37 miles of tunnels under CG and he still mines down there.

You could have lit the fuses and ran

 

LOL, let's just say the fuse wouldn't burn and leave it at that.

It never fails to boggle the mind, what those folks did. Even more so, the mines done before air/steam drills and electric light.

I once saw a turn of the century pen and ink isometric perspective drawing of tunneling around Silverton Co, might have been Cripple Creek. There were hundreds of miles of tunnels. It looked like that old windows screen saver "Pipes".

 

Well, I've gotten to take the truck out a few times since I bought it (work too much!), but nothing like this past weekend.

I took Phoebe on a trip to the Panamint area, we were supposed to have a truck buddy but he had to back out. So four of us went in one rig (tried to take it easy to make sure we didn't get stuck!).

Started in Ballarat, went up and around Pleasant Valley to explore some of the mines in and around there. The next day we drove to the trailhead for Darwin Falls. After the hike we continued up the 4x4 road over the pass into Darwin, with a stop at China Gardens Spring on the way there. Then out onto Olancha Dunes (didn't dune much, didn't want to get stuck solo) and back home. Stopped for beers at Indian Wells on the way home.

The truck is a 100% bone stock 4-door OR with the 6MT, right down to the Rugged Fails and full-length mudflaps. Even so, I was very impressed with how she handled on those tight mining roads! Steep grades, tons of scree and medium sized rock gardens were no problem, she never batted an eye. I've never gotten a chance to really need 4LO until this trip, and it was effortless to idle up and down some decently technical stuff.

Here was our loop route, starting in Trona and ending in Olancha:
Death Valley Trip

And a few photos:

 

Death Valley is an awesome place to visit! I would strongly recommend not doing a solo vehicle trip as you are pretty much out of touch with the world. Find someone to go with you, or at least if you decide to go solo (not a good idea) pony up the $$$ and rent a Sat Phone. We've done Death Valley several times with Titus Canyon being one of my favorite trails!

 

Thanks for the pics, solo is dangerous in DV but I am glad it was a fun trip for you. I go back in a couple of weeks, we are taking a friend out to marble canyon and jail canyon and will explore above Ballarat. He has a full sized Ford with stock tires, and I have my tow strap.

 

Beautiful pictures, nice trip. Thanks

 

We definitely broke some rules here, and the next time we'll come correct. The biggest mistake, besides being a one truck party, was our lack of route preparation. We used a Triple-A road map (not very detailed) and word of mouth to determine which trails to take. We met big Jeep groups in Pleasant Valley that were very friendly and informative, but our trip into Darwin on Sunday was completely lonely. In fact, we even took a few wrong turns and missed the main road halfway through. However, without getting lost we wouldn't have found China Garden Spring! That's the pond with all the koi in it.

This trip came together very last minute and we had a blast, but that's no excuse. In the future I'll be sure to cache the area on Google Maps, pick up real topos, and have better route preparation.

 

Beautiful pics Tory. Thanks for sharing! +1 for stock 4x4 OR Tacoma. Nothing wrong with going solo, as long as you're prepared, and have taken action to mitigate risk. Come to think of it, all three of my DV trips were solo.

I recently read stoic's trip report from his Thanksgiving week trip to DV. Nice read with pictures. I've been thinking a lot about how to get back to DV... I've cashed in all my saved favor chips with the Mrs. for backpacking trips this year. If I am to plan a return trip to DV within the next 90 days it will have to be a family camping trip. And the way we're setup we have a large ground tent, that I am unwilling to pack and deploy each night... So we base camp.

I need to formulate a good plan for base camping in DV.

 

It is tough, especially when you get whipped around by dusty winds in the big valleys. Everything I brought on the trip is covered in a fine layer of dirt right now. And you tend to get a little jealous of the RV's that the big boys tow their rigs with. But still lots of fun to be had!

 

Hahaha that's awesome! I really want to check out Titus Canyon, I've heard it's easy but gorgeous. I'll have to supplement with some more technical wheeling nearby. Do you have recommendations for a good weekend loop trip coming from Southern CA?

 

From Titus you can head to the racetrack and then go back to tea kettle juction over the pass to saline, I dont know haow the shortcut to Saline is from racetrack, it is a jeep trail but it can be really bad after it rains. (edit-just realized that is Lippincott Pass)

Racetrack has the moving rocks, neat to see once, if you have never been.

 

Good info! And LOL @ Accord driver. I always get a chuckle out of seeing the dubious places where people take cars.

Death Valley is vast, remote, harsh, very beautiful and after xmas I'll be returning to the promised land! I passed the decision through pants, and surprisingly she said yes we can go. I am thinking of using Mesquite Springs as a base camp.

Plan will be something like this:

• Day 1: Travel to Mesquite Springs Campground.
• Day 2: Ubehebe crater, Scotty's castle
• Day 3: Chloride Cliff, Beatty, Rhyolite, Titus Canyon
• Day 4: Racetrack, Lippincott, Saline Valley to Hunter Mtn, I-190 home.

It will be four us. My wife and two daughters, age 4 and 2. We're pretty seasoned road trippers / campers, however, I always need to be conscious time and distance, and too much ass time in the truck. So our schedule will be highly flexible so people have fun.

I've got two truck projects to wrap up before this trip, and a whole host of other milestones to meet to pull this trip off. I know it's now or not for a long ass time, so I'll be busy as a mofo!

 

Springbars are great. I like the Kodiak. Both are considered excellent, and I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Yes. It's a Kodiak 10x10 VX tent. It cost me (2012) $436 shipped to my door as I recall. It's bomber tough, and flawless construction. It's a go anywhere, anytime, any weather condition tent. My youngest was 3 mo old when we first went camping in winter in the Anza-Borrego Desert.

Here are a few pics of our tent in action J-Tree Oct. 2014:

pic 1
pic 2

Can't wait to see it!

That's a great off-road run. I love Saline Valley, +1 on driving the whole thing. Love that! My OE suspension after 5 years, 50K miles has taken a severe beating. I've definitely got my money out of it. That said, replacement is positively on my mind. Probably happen next year, I'll be forced to replace it. I'll be certain to check out what you did for yours...

What a dick. Racetrack road, when it's graded, is fun to

I once camped just after the Hunter Mountain pass in August, nice random site in the pines, it's lovely up there!

Thanks. Always appreciated. I spent about 1 hour reacquainting myself with those maps. I also spent some time rereading Eric's (ETAV8R) post #41, from his 2010 trip where he wrote about the dunes. It would be a fun place to visit. I've not been up there yet.

 

Sounds like a good trip. Anything farther and the kids would probably be restless.

Have you thought about base camp in the Mesquite flat dunes? It would put you next to affordable gas in stovepipe. Or is that the same as Mesquite springs?

Not an issue there, the roads are all well used.

 

Good idea, I would like to see it happen, with the scouts I wont have time for 2 more years to organize it, but I would love to go.