Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Yo let me know how it goes on the pass, i am going to be in death valley in november and gona be going from camping via pass down to saline valley and definaly would love to know conditions of the trail .

 

Ill be doing an extended Veterans day weekend trip at DV too.

 

LOL thats exactly the week i am going to be there so we might even see or pass each other,

well if you see my orange tacoma wave

 

Interesting, I'm trying to finalize a trip to Death Valley for Thanksgiving as well.

 

is it to busy toursty? or as soon as you hit offroad its pretty quite? planning to camp at homestake dry camp, didnt check if you need permits, anyone know?

 

Lippincott is rough at the bottom, but fine for any built rig. Ran it from bottom to top in 30 minutes with @CVYota a few days ago.

 

I'm probably not going to make it to DV until January this year. Kinda bummed.

 

My favorite backpack. Where did you stay in Panamint city?

Edit

From the video I see you stayed at the Hilton

 

looks like a few of us will be enjoying dv over the tday weekend...
I’ll be there thursday & friday nights....had planned pretty much same route as @dtaco06
so yeah...wave!
dave

 

Below is my current plan for Thanksgiving weekend. Never been there before so I have no clue exactly what to expect. Going to attempt Lippincott road, but I'm sure I'll end up going all the way around instead. Anything worth looking at that I'm missing as far as you guys can tell?

- Beatty, NV
- Leadfield Ghost Town
- Ubehebe Crater
- Eureka Dunes
- Warm Springs
- Racetrack
- Ubehebe Lead Mine
- Teakettle Junction
- Father Crowley Overlook
- Darwin Falls
- Charcoal Kilns
- Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
- Dante's View
- Badwater Basin
- Artist's Palette

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q3H02ZjlEXLpTL4DOCor3kCj9C1-L0ZO&usp=sharing

 

might want to check the DVNP website for road closures, looks like few closed, so might have to redo route.

man i have a long drive from CO to death then from death to salem or gona be long thanksgiving ride.

 

I always liked DV in November. Lots of people tho so get there early and stake your claim

 

Probably already on your list, but Rhyolite ghost town is just outside of Beatty a little before the you get to the Titus Canyon turn off.

Beatty to Panamint Springs via the shown route is a long haul for the pathetic range of a Tacoma. Make sure you bring extra gas.

Big Pine Death Valley Road (that's your present route from Ubehebe to Eureka) is presently listed as closed by the NPS. I have no idea how bad the washouts are. On the west end the closure is likely county barricades you can drive around. On the east end there is a good chance there is a locked metal gate. I'd call the NPS to learn more about that closure and whether it will get resolved by Thanksgiving.

If up in the Panamints near the Charcoal Kilns then definitely also do Aguereberry Point, Harrisburg and Skidoo.

If you've done Eurkea Dunes the Mesquite Flat Dunes are going to seem a bit boring and crowded. Normally I'd recommend Mosaic Canyon in that area but that road is closed this entire winter.

See link a few posts back with more up to date Lippincott Road information. It is in worse condition than usual but really not that bad. Additional info from two TW members is that they did it going up in only about 30 minutes this past weekend. They both have slightly lifted rigs and are experienced off road drivers though.

Keep in mind the place is big and that is a lot of driving in your itinerary!

 

Awesome, the videos I watched made it seem fairly simple but the National Park describes it as much more difficult.

I'll double check to be sure I'm good. I thought I had verified that the roads I planned to take are open.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Rhyolite is definitely somewhere we'll be stopping at on the way by Beatty.

I'll have to call and see exactly where it's closed off for Big Pine. Hopefully it's only closed in the basin after the turnoff to Eureka Dunes.

Yeah, I feel like I'll be doing a lot of turnoffs in the Charcoal Kilns area, and maybe I'll skip Mesquite Flat Dunes if I can make it to Eureka.

I wonder if doing it South to North would be better for the possible road closures...

 

Wow, that's quite the itinerary - lots of miles as @DVexile metioned! How long are you planning to be there? (what's your "weekend" length - sorry if you mentioned it already).

We've done a couple trips down there and essentially split what you've got into two separate loops given some of the distances. Trip reports with photos here:

1. January 2018 - Death Valley [Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3] [Day 4] [Day 5&6]
2. April 2018 - Back to Death Valley [day 1,2] [day 3] [day 4,5]

Personally, if I were looking for places to "shorten" the itinerary, I'd start with stuff near pavement - they were neat, but not near as awesome as stuff more off the beaten path.
- Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
- Dante's View
- Badwater Basin
- Artist's Palette

 

I haven't mentioned it yet but the current plan is 4 days, 22-25th. I've read your trip reports before, but I definitely need to read through them again.

It is about 680 miles roundtrip to my house, so maybe it is a bit much haha just figured we'd cut it short when needed and just finish up what we miss later.

The four you mentioned were ones I was considering skipping just due to how crowded they'll probably be. Although Artist's Paletter does look pretty cool.

 

That is a lot for 4 days. I like to split DV into 2 sections, the dividing line being north and south of Panamint Springs. You can easily fill 3 days in either half exploring depending on how much you want to get off the pavement. If you want we can get together and I can suggest a few routes.

 

One of the pupfish morons is going to spend a year in jail (the other two were given probation earlier):

https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news...jk9QoXxHoU2M_MpAVS92IIvMNw921r5rN3S1tBCRyYOmw

 

Thanks for update / link.

Extremely lenient sentencing, IMO.

 

Like others have said, that's a lot of windshield time. After ubehebe, the road cuts down to teakettle and racetrack then you can go lippincott to saline or go back to teakettle and head through hidden valley to hunter mountain then to saline. That would still let you go up to warm springs, Steele pass and eureka dunes. We just went that route from teakettle so we know it's open...unless el nino hits. Then all bets are off.