Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Thanks.

 

I have been there many times, but not recently. Rarely are roads closed unless the Valley has experienced a lot of rain, then the lower elevation roads are prone to washing out. I have never seen the main passes closed, other than for accidents. As for tourist attractions, Scotty's Castle is still not open due to the extensive damage from the floods in 2015.

There were closed lower roads from rain somewhat recently, West side Road I think. The link posted previously should give up to date info.

 

Leadville mine access appears closed as well. You can hike from CA-190 to Darwin Falls, but the road to it is closed and this is deep summer. Most of the roads are open it appears.

To satisfy park rangers I have two 7-gallon water bottles I will keep in the truck. May not help the truck if it blows out, but at least I can drink water for a while.

Was at Badwater Basin to see Lake Manly fall of 2023 but likely will not be allowed out onto the basin right now.

 

Conditions are hot. It really isn't the right time of year to go.

 

Understood. Plans are fluid right now. First thing I need to do, and I want weekdays for this, is learn to use my bed-tent properly, how to camp comfortably using privacy tent and cooking/boiling devices, etc. When I hit DV seriously I would like to be able to stay in the park near the sites, get some of those dark-night pictures people keep posting. I even tried Las Vegas during February to get a sense of winter temperatures compared to Phoenix, considering moving there to be 2 hours away from DV year-round instead of 7 hours.

I just need to get away from PHX for more than Saturday Sunday and work is becoming too annoying to waste longest daylight of the year on their mindless and dangerous approach to work that deserves better.

 

This time of year I would hit higher elevation spots that are a bit cooler. If you really want to be in Death Valley National Park Saline Valley and the dunes to the north are at least a bit cooler. The higher elevation spots in Mojave are probably even better.

Lots of people go to death valley in the summer for the novelty of the heat but the truth is it is an amazing place in the fall winter and spring when you can actually exist comfortably and aren't as reliant on a working vehicle to not die.

 

If your going from Phoenix then there are lots of great spots in Utah with more reasonable weather the same distance away. Also not far from Vegas.

 

As far as DV road conditions go if you want info on the Saline Valley area this is the best source: https://forum.salinepreservation.org/categories

 

Not trying to bag on DV. I love the place and have actually spent lots of time in the desert in the Summer.

 

Moab is possible, but the extent of the area needs research. REI has maps for Moab (multiple maps ... east-west as I recall). I moved here to use wide-open spaces ... sucks I have not had free time to do it but I can change that.

 

Plenty of other options as well. I am about to head up to Capitol Reef National Park which has some cool looking vehicle trails and back country camping. If you want an offroading playground Sand Hollow/Sand Mountain is just across the Utah border but it's easy to get yourself in trouble there.....
Basically all of southern Utah is a patchwork of BLM/national parks/national Forest/state parks that are full of offroading trails and places you can camp for free.

 

Thanks for that information ... especially the warning. Out west of full of "easy to get yourself in trouble". I need to think about work-weeks now, to have time ... fun spots are mass-populated on Saturday/Sunday.

 

I got myself in trouble with my wife in Sand Hollow. According to her the trail looked more like we were just driving up the side of a mountain than following a trail or road and she wasn't a big fan. All the driving up and down rock steps didn't help. It being listed as an "easy" trail and me having GPS tracks of the route didn't seem to reassure her. Of course their definition of "easy" is that a stock high clearance 4x4 can make it if you follow a perfect line, occasionally stop to stack rocks and don't mind a little scraping It is an open OHV area so lots of choose your own adventure and having to stop and pick a good line as the wrong choice can put you on something that even a very built rig can't make.

 

Yeah, I couldn't find any evidence of it on any historical topos, nor any visible scars in aerial photos going back to the terraserver set, nor mention of it in the books I have on the Tecopa mines. But you got me curious again, so I'm going to try using a search engine to query the world wide web...

Okay, here's what I got: A report prepared for the BLM in 2000, regarding a 1903 stone building located a short distance down the wash from the ranch. Coincidentally, this is 300 feet north of the San Bernardino county line, although that fact was apparently a matter of confusion throughout the years, particularly when Inyo county preemptively voted itself dry nearly a full decade prior to national prohibition. Another tidbit I learned is what they were initially mining here -- not metal, borax, or talc... see if you can guess before clicking the link! Anyway, as a gov't commissioned report I believe it to be in the public domain, and in any case it's published freely online, so I'll go ahead and quote the text relevant to the present matter:

Unfortunately the online pdf omits the appendices--some 70 pages of photos and maps. Next time I see a friendly BLM customer service agent, I'll ask for a copy of the full report. For now, I'm fascinated by the suggestion that Inyo county of all places could have gone 'dry' by 1910 -- that must have been quite the shit show. Haven't found much on it yet, but stumbled on some interesting reading, such as this and this. No wonder I never get any work done.


...


Anyway, I came here to rant about the proposed sale of public lands, but I see you guys are already ahead of me.

I don't see the same risk factors for lands surrounding DV, but investors have been snatching up private parcels bordering (and within) Joshua Tree in recent years to churn out lavish AirBNBs, and for whatever reason that makes me angry.

 

The Tonopah and Tidewater railroad map shows a spur to China Ranch:

 

I've been in summer. Did not stay. All I can say is you know it's hot when the A/C cannot keep you cool, not cold, cool.

 

Ok this one is off-topic, but I gotta plug it:



Be there or be square!

 

If only I wasn't getting married next week.

 

Delay it

And congratulations!

 

Change the location of the wedding.