Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Sick thread! Planning to head out there in April, cannot wait!

 

All this talk about entrance passes … first, thanks guys for supporting the park and being conscientious about paying. Second, it gets much easier when you turn 62 and get the lifetime pass for free admission to all Federal fee areas PLUS half price on all Federal campgrounds. I’ve camped at some pretty nice BLM campgrounds for $4 a night. But I almost never leave my pass on the dashboard. By the way, the last time I popped into the Furnace Creek visitor center to ask a question, I was directed to the fee payment line. I showed my senior pass but was still given a big orange tag to stick on my dash. More recently I’ve been in Yosemite and JTree and was told that if you have an annual pass, bright orange paper dash pass is a DV thing only.

 

Yes. Exactly. The park service just needs to take it one step further and officially support virtual passes with an app like airlines and boarding passes

 

We don’t need more apps. You should be able to show a copy of your receipt.

 

That's very good to know. Yosemite was weird in October when I drove through. They wanted to see proof of park entry when I exited.

 

What a cool experience. I had no idea Tacomas were in rental fleets.

 

This is what I went with. Great deal. Planning on hitting Yosemite on the way in and/or out the next time I go to Death Valley.

FWIW, they do mail the passes out very quick. My yearly card and hanger showed up two days after I ordered it.

 

Thanks! IIRC, I noticed Fish Canyon (and Isham Canyon) on Gaia and did some Googling from there to find out more info. It's definitely lesser traveled, but it's overall an easy trail IMO. Probably worth noting that the eastern end down the alluvial fan was pretty indistinct, and had me getting out of the truck a few times to verify I was still following tire tracks.

 

Buy the yearly. Our 12 day trip through the southwest and the Nat Parks completely paid for itself.

 

I’ve been asked before as well. I just dig out my pass and all good.

 

Trip report

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/feb-2022-death-valley-shenanigans.756760/

 

Keep in mind that the annual passes are valid for twelve calendar months. So, if you buy one at the beginning of the month you get, essentially, an extra ~30 days of use out of it vs. buying it at the end of the month.

 

You can also purchase at one of their offices if you have one close by.

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/pickup-pass-locations.htm?s=CA&t=Annual Pass&p=1&v=0

 

Not wierd at all. Usually they do that because you can enter the park after hours for free when nobody is manning the entrance. Or in the case of DV or many others you can enter on back roads. Can exit that way too but I like to be a contributor to these beautiful parks

 

Absolutely wanna pay.

 

Excellent.
Thank you.

 

Obligatory Pic

 

Sounds like a fun trip.

Good call on the fuel… you probably (maybe) could have rolled into Trona on fumes, but the detour to Beatty (if necessary) was the right call.

Your last para. hits the nail on the head. The remoteness of DV is astonishing. There are places to take risks, but Death Valley is not one of them. Water, food, and extra fuel are your friends out here.

 

DV doesn’t have any toll stations, no need to take a backroad. (Edit: toll booths; it’s all self pay at kiosks/ranger stations)

But agreed, the small fee is worth it to keep these parks open. I rolled through DV during one of the shutdowns (not collecting any fees, very minimal services) and it was disgusting. We need the services.

 

Do you think your pass might get stolen if it is displayed?

I travel with a $1k powered cooler hooked up to a $600 lithium battery in the cab. Kinda hard to hide them. I've also got a lot of crap that's worth more than the $80 pass so I display it. I do worry someone might decide to "relieve" me of them when I am out hiking.

Or is there some other reason not to display your pass?