Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

That road certainly looks lonely most of its stretch, but that does not even look like a road!

 

Harry Wade Rd should be signed closed, and Saratoga Springs. The Amargosa River was really moving, it was about 50' wide at the crossing. I waded out barefoot, but turned back when it was mid thigh, nearly balls deep. Did not risk the crossing solo. Truck now has about 40 lbs of the finest silt-mud mess to clean up everywhere. Light rain in Death Valley tonight. Earlier in the day I swam in the lake at Badwater, only about 2' deep, but was good enough for me. Pretty awesome. The lake is definitely larger than when I saw it in December. My daughters and wife are enjoying the remarkable landscapes as we take it all in.

 

Wow! Which Amargosa crossing were you referring to? The one across Harry Wade or the one on the Saratoga access road?

EDIT: Obviously if one is that bad the other is going to be bad too, but just curious.

 

Those are words I never thought I would hear.

I can't wait to get out there to see it. I bet the view from Dante's Peak would be awesome, hopefully that re-opens soon.

 

Right on.

I was hoping the open the road to Dantes view will open while were touring. It's such an amazing place to gaze down and the reflection from the lake makes it extra special.

lol, Something interesting about the lake was that the bottom of the lake, like the soil / salt layer was warm in comparison to the water above it. Also, the lake is way different from when I saw it in December, whereas it was mostly salt crystal bottom, hard as glass and very shallow, but now with a sediment silt on top and the salt layer is smoother and not a problem to traverse.

I hope the lake stays around for longer.

From 127, I tried to go to Saratoga springs, I crossed two tributaries after probing on foot, but the third was too much and turned around back Harry Wade and continued into Death Valley, but the Amargosa river where Harry Wade crosses was the point where we turned back. There was a slit pool / trap leading up to the river too. The photo compresses the distance, I estimate it was 50' across

 

Camped and explored Panamint Range over the weekend. Followed the storm into the valley.

South Park Canyon is wrecked just before the springs but there is fun bypass that traverses a ridge and shelf. We got stopped by snow near the park border. Other canyons ranged from really fun rock crawling, impassable, to freshly graded. First time in area can’t wait to go back.

 

Looks nice! We go up with a few trucks the same weekend every year. Headed up Friday morning. We shall see what DV has to offer for us

 

Badwater Lake (a.k.a. Mini-Manly)​

 

Crazy deep snow on north pass about a week ago. Kind if annoying commentary but neat to see the Inyos in snow.

https://youtu.be/sqawduqiwfI?si=xIQLBzrlmgyFBVk9

 

Crazy. How far north does that lake stretch, do you know? Does it go as far as Golden Canyon area?

 

In a week we're going kayaking in Manly. Is there a good source for rules and regs specific to the lake? Eg where do you launch? Are life vests required? Is there a good/legal place to kayak away from tourists? Anything else I need to know? Thanks in advance for the intel!

 

The larger lake extends a few miles north of Badwater and a few miles south, so nowhere near Golden Canyon. There is a smaller shallower lake in the middle of the valley well away from the road a bit further north, but still not as far north as Golden Canyon. See satellite photo below, Golden Canyon marked with a blue star (way up in the top of the image on the banner).

I know of no source for rules or regs. Just don't be an idiot I think. No one was attempting kayaking when I was there. I did bring an inflatable raft but the lake is so shallow with so many sharpish things in it that I did not attempt. A rigid kayak would be a much better choice and I probably would have given that a try.

I would launch where you do the minimum impact, in other words as close as possible to the road. Badwater itself is not appropriate in my opinion as the water is quite far from the parking lot and you'd be putting down deep foot prints in the mud all the way out. Plus you'd have to hike quite a distance to get enough depth to launch. I'd suggest launching right off of Badwater Rd. just south of the alluvial fan that is south of Badwater. The road runs directly along the lake there with a depth of a handful of inches - probably good enough for a kayak with occasional scraping. I've marked said spot with a red star on the satellite image below. Also immediately below is a photo of the water at this location:

Recommended launching spot


February 12th False Color Satellite Image
​

The above satellite image is false color using one near IR channel which makes it much easier to see the extent of the lake on the salt and mud. This false color makes it look as if it is very deep. It is not. It is extremely shallow. You can see near the red star how it looks a deep greenish blue but in the photo above it is in fact less than a foot in depth.

 

The Park Service had a Facebook post recently actually encouraging kayaking; though I think it was mostly a joke they certainly won’t cite you. But the depth doesn’t seem enough for it to be much fun.

Press Release from Death Valley National Park:

RARE OPPORTUNITY TO KAYAK IN DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK;
Recent atmospheric river rejuvenated temporary lake in Badwater Basin

A temporary lake provides a rare opportunity to kayak in the driest place in the United States: Death Valley National Park.

“You might think with no drain to the sea, that Death Valley would always have a lake,” says park ranger Abby Wines. “But this is an extremely rare event. Normally the amount of water flowing in is much less than the evaporation rate.”

Badwater Basin lies at the bottom of Death Valley. At 282 feet below sea level, it is the lowest elevation in North America. Badwater Basin is normally a dry salt flat.

The magic ingredient this year was rain—and lots of it. Death Valley National Park averages about two inches of rain per year. The valley floor received 4.9 inches in the past six months, and surrounding mountains received greater amounts of rain. Most of that precipitation happened in two events: 2.2 inches during the remnants of Hurricane Hilary on August 20 and 1.5 inches during an atmospheric river February 4-7.

“The lake was deep enough to kayak for a few weeks after Hurricane Hilary, but unfortunately people couldn’t come enjoy it then,” said Wines. “Every road in the park was damaged by flash floods, and it took two months to open the first road into the park. Now most of the main roads are open, so it’s a great time to come visit!”

As of mid-February, the temporary lake, informally known as Lake Manly, is about six miles long, 3 miles wide and one foot deep. It may only be deep enough to kayak for a couple weeks. However, park rangers believe the shallow lake will still create beautiful reflections through April.

Park rangers urge visitors to stay safe and to minimize their impact by following a few rules. Parking lots may be full. If parking on a road shoulder, drivers should be cautious of soft shoulders and ensure they are fully out of the driving lane. Footprints in the lakeshore can last for years. People should walk on established pathways.

All hotels and most campgrounds in the park are open. Paved roads are open to most of the park’s primary features, including the temporary lake in Badwater Basin. The National Park Service is continuing to work on secondary roads, many of which are still closed due to flood damage. Full information is at nps.gov/deva .​

 

I was ay Manly late last year. in Badwater. The walking approach was soft-ish but dry enough that my footprints did not seem as permanent or at least would dry out to not be ugly. Others walked directly in the very shallow water and left bulging sinkholes that will be seem possibly for decades.

It is only my opinion, but the salt/sand is very soft especially underwater and leaving decades-long marks is too easy. You may not like my view, but "there it is".

 

HUGE help, thanks. Have marked the location on the truck's nav.

 

Any word if the Race Track dry lake has water in it?

 

Might not be as solid a surface as usual, esp on the south end, but doesn't appear to have significant water. Note: this is the same false color as Ken used for Manly.

 

Thanks

 

Please remember not to go onto the racetrack if it's wet.

 

Chiaroscuro Cima​

Well, this is from Mojave National Preserve rather than Death Valley, but this is closest place to put it!

I've been getting fatigued with photography of late and not even taking the time to process the limited photos I take. But I finally got around to going back to this trip from November. It was one of those days you know magic is happening, some of the wildest clouds (blowing in the wrong direction to boot) all around the preserve with incredible chiaroscuro lighting, but the question is whether you will make anything of it. When I took this one I knew it would live or die in post processing and just wasn't sure if it would work out. I knew I liked the composition, but this kind of light can be hard to work with plus it was an infrared exposure which complicates things further (there are still some capture artifacts in there I'll probably have to write some custom code to deal with at some point, but good enough for now).

Anyway, might not be everyone's cup of tea but it was a result that actually sparked my old love of photographing the Mojave desert so I figured I'd share it independent of the eventual trip write up.