Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

I would rather have seen drone footage.

 

Yeah, I’m not a fan of huge backcountry groups.

 

I am glad I was able to visit before NP status and groups.

 

Cabin fever has taken it's toll... Down below 110 so I had to take a quick ride before it got dark on me. Glad Echo Canyon Road is only a 5 minute drive from the house.

 

Yeah I have no idea why people like to get into huge 10-20 vehicle groups like this. To each their own but I go out to get away from people. Sucks when you’re out and get stuck behind them too.

 

I had the same thought while watching their videos. Could you imagine climbing up a trail and having a huge group coming down and forcing you to give way because you are only one vehicle? Guess that is one safety factor they blatantly disregard, just like rules/regs of DVNP. Their response in that thread is quite telling about respect.

 

While visitation is definitely up in general DVNP still has lots of places to go where you won't run into anybody as long as you avoid peak weekends and holiday weeks. Most of the impact is centered around the central valley between Stovepipe and Badwater. A few back country spots are over visited as well like Racetrack and Saline Valley Warm Springs.

In general though there are still huge swaths of the park with very low visitation. There are still plenty of amazing hikes, even ones accessible from pavement, where you can be almost certain to be the only person there that day or even that week.

I've not had any in my way fortunately. I'm of two minds on them. Firstly I don't like large footprints in the back country so I'm sort of against them from the start. The flip side though is that if that many people are going to be in an area I'd rather them all pile on top of each other any leave more of the back country open to my solitude than have them spread out over 10 miles of road in separate dispersed camp sites.

Do we actually know they didn't get a permit?

And yes - their response comes off as clueless. This is the typical 'grammer response too. Any criticism of posted bone-headedness is brushed off with "haters gonna hate" and "I'm sharing this as a public service to the world" all while busily trying to "monetize" everything.

 

I don't know if they had permission for their group size because they won't answer my question. From the response they did provide I'm doubtful they had permission.

 

Not to jump on the bandwagon but....I brought up to them that an area they were driving on in Las Vegas was closed and it didn't seem to sink in.

 

It doesn’t seem like they really care as long as they’re getting sick drone shots and YouTube views.

 

And sponsors and suckers to join on their exploits.

 

All commercial activities are banned in parks without special permit.

What happens when one makes their life a commercial activity? Should those people be required to get a special use permit just to be there?

Only kind of kidding.

 

Others must. So yah, get a permit.

 

The thing about large groups is where ever they go, there they are. Sand dunes? 20 vehicles. Race track? Off road rally wannabes. They can really spoil anywhere they go just by their shear size.

Not just off road but any large group.

 

Fine by me.

 

Going down that shitty racetrack road only to be greeted by 20 dudes and their instagram photoshoot would be such a bummer lol

 

Yeah.

I’ve been on a few photo trips like that but we usually hike in small and separate groups and do not go to the same places.

 

I’m planning on doing Death Valley a couple of times this winter. I just down loaded Gaia. Do you guys have a list of location, or tracks that can be inputted into it? Just from looking at the topo and nat geo trails map it seems to be missing some named roots, like steel pass, etc...

Thanks, PB

 

The offroad trails map on the parks website is actually pretty good to give you an idea of what is out there.

 

Ok can that map be loaded into Gaia ?