Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

They are. Though, in fairness to NPS

• When you pick up a permit, if the weather is at all indicative of moisture, they ask you (or at least asked me) if you "really want to camp in a canyon?" It was raining (but forecasted to clear up by evening) the day we got a spot, and of course, a flash flood won't really hurt the camp site...only someone in it.
• The spots in Hole in the Wall (and Echo, below the narrows) are (essentially) where folks had camped along the side of the road previously. They've installed those carsonite/fiberglass posts to keep folks from going much more than two car lengths from the road, which is the difference from before.

 

This plays into why some of these changes were made. It's not uncommon to see people with camp setup well past 50ft from the road.

 

You were actually never suppose to camp other than immediately to the side of the road before, though naturally a lot of folks would park further away in washes and such where you weren’t disturbing vegetation. The designated sites follow the original rules closely and are in most cases just some extra graded space to the side of the road.

What is nice is that they have spaced the camps adequately far apart that they are truly “dispersed” and so you won’t suffer some asshat driving up at 9pm and setting up camp 100 yards away from you.

 

Just from personal experience I added a bit.

 

Heading out Saturday am.
I have a cg at Panamint Springs for 2 nights. Not sure if I will sleep there or not.

Anybody know if Cerro Gordo road is open or if it is buried?

 

It can be both. Go find out. Have fun.

 

You always know the right thing to say. Lol
That's my plan for the whole weekend. I just prefer to drive through CG to DV and not do an in then back out.
This is my second trip into the park. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

It's all about going out and having fun man. Your rigs plenty capable. The snow gets deep don't be afraid to bounce the rev limiter. Worst case you just turn around.

Back in February 2017 me and a buddy tried running Swanson to Cerro. We almost made it. We had some snow drifts that were four foot over the road. After multiple attempts by both of us. We finally admitted defeat. Even though we didn't make our goal, its still one of the best days I've ever had wheeling

 

Here's the snow depth according to the Forest Service

 

Shocked by the amount of snow in Yosemite Valley. It's almost 15ft!! They posted a picture of the tent cabins with just the peaks of the tents poking thru. The park remains closed and to be honest, I'm sort of expecting they will have a LOT of water to deal with as it melts.

 

Cool. That's exactly what I need to know.
Thank you.

 

There's 40" in the valley. That 15' figure that all news outlets are reporting would be up in Toulumne Meadows.

 

That makes more sense but they're using it as a part of the reason the park is still closed.

 

Even 40" is enough to cause major headaches in the valley. Most roads are narrow with cliffs on one side and water on the other. When this stuff starts to melt it's gonna create major flooding as well. I just don't think the valley had the resources to quickly deal with that much snow.

 

How's Caltopo's mobile app? I've been using backcountry NavPro for a long time. I actually use Cal topo maps in backcountry nav. I'm thinking about maybe cutting out the middleman.

Can you record tracks , set waypoints, an import and export GPX files in it?

 

I'm familiar with the roads and have been in the park during heavy storms. I've been during periods of flooding. Neither one is all that pleasant.

 

Yeah 30” at Hetch Hetchy. Trees down everywhere though.

 

Do you guys have vehicle access to Hetch Hetchey? I've always wanted to fish it but don't feel like hiking my float tube and waders in.

 

Wouldn’t that be nice!