Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Truck repelling....into shafts. Just listen for PULL ME UP!!PULL ME UP!!PULL ME UP!! Haha. gas detector because I don't wanna get down in a bad gas pocket and asphyxiate........hold my beer watch this/what could possibly go wrong?

 

I used to live in Mammoth and wheel mammoth frequently. Laurel lakes is a fun trail and is like 3 hours north west of DV in mammoth. Agree on the fun...should've never left

 

Yea I did the Laurel Lakes trail a couple of years ago. It's fun, good for stock HC 4x4's. There's a tight switch back down to the lake that gets interesting. Great views down to the Mammoth area and a beautiful alpine setting. What other technical trails are good in the Mammoth / June Lake areas? I go up there occasionally but mostly in the winter to ski. Edit _ I dug up some pics from that trip








Our home away from home at Lake Mary CG.

 

Nice pics HB taco! Laurel lakes is a super fun trail. Laurel lakes also has huge Golden Trout so that was the reason (other than the 4x4 adventure) me and my dad did the trail. Definitely don't recommended stock vehicle and 4x4 is definitely a plus! The road has gotten really bad and not really maintained the way it used to be like 20-30 years ago (or so I hear) when big tanker trucks would use the road for mining. I got some solid pics as well on that trail. I hit my slider on the super tight (super sketch) switchback but that was about it. Overall a really cool experience. As for other things around mammoth there Is the inyo craters trail and up on top of minaret summit there is a panorama trail that traverses the ridge line. All this talking about mammoth makes me wish it were summer again. Can't wait to go back. I always wheel there alone so having a buddy or two to wheel with would be sweet.

 

Pre-sliders pic showing the Sherwin range taken from hot creek...big trout

 

I threw my best trout lures in that lake but couldn't get any to bite! Although I caught some very nice rainbows in Lake Mary, then in Gull lake a few days later while staying in my friends condo. Love it up there. I've got to do some exploring in Death Valley next.

 

Anyone know what Lippencott Mine Trail is like these days?

 

Yeah tell me about it...20" Goldens rising and they are biting all but your hook...I didn't catch a big one. Just a small like 5" out of the connecting stream to the lower lake shhhh don't tell anybody it was a tiny Golden

 

Is this the trail where the tacoma guy flipped his rig a couple months back and had to have some buddies come help him out?

 

Anyone tried going up the narrows in Pleasant Valley? My buddy's 1st gen Tundy is only 3" wider then my Taco but he is worried, he watched too many vids.

Not sure why he is worried, this looks like a full size truck going up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXngt5of2Ro

 

No.

 

Just got back from a few days exploring Death Valley. Now I know where I want to go and what I want to avoid. I want to check out Panamint Springs area more as that seems to be where the cool mines and trails are at. I ended up going up to the North end of the park hoping i could see the Ancient Bristlecone forest before entering the park via Wacoba Saline Valley Rd but it was closed. Saline Valley Rd is a very LONG road....oh my, I totally underestimated it. Sure, some cool scenery but after about 15 minutes it gets old...call me an adrenaline junkie with ADD I did enjoy seeing Saline Valley dunes, so cool that you can drive right up the base of them and get out and hike them. I took Lippincott Mine rd up to the Racetrack, that was probably the most fun I had while I was there (the trail and the Racetrack). Then the drive from the Racetrack to the main road was horribly rutted and boring and long, luckily I had my new Icon 2.0 rears to soak up them bumps! I really wish i had more daylight as I wanted to go explore Hunter Mountain area but didn't think I would have time before the sun set to find a campground. I checked out Titus Canyon, albeit from the West side to see if it was worth the extra miles and drive out to the East side to do the short drive, and after hiking about a half mile of it, was thinking- eh, not impressed, especially to drive the extra miles. But cool photoshoot! Then on down to Furnace Creek and out into Nevada towards Pahrump on my way to Vegas. Overall, it definitely was just the tip of the iceberg and I'd love to go back and concentrate my time in the Panamint area. Here are some pics...

Wacoba Saline Valley Rd


Saline Valley dunes


Lippincott Mine Rd


The Racetrack


Teakettle Junction


Ubehebe crater


Titus Canyon


20 mule man canyon

 

Sad that DV didn't impress you more.
Titus is well worth it.
Saline Valley road from north to south is a great drive. Especially during the springtime bloom. There are different types of flowers at the north end vs the south. You missed out on the hot springs and Steel Pass/Dedeckera Canyon. Eureka Valley has lots of mines...just need to know how to find them...pretty much with all the mines and history within the Owens/Death Valleys.

 

Nice pictures Riley SB

 

I did solo trip 2 weeks ago. I drove to Dante's View then to Beatty Nv where I stayed the night. The next day I visited Rhyolite Ghost Town and drove through Titus Canyon. I headed to Eureka Dunes where I stayed 2 nights and after that I drove through Dedeckra Canyon out to Saline Valley Rd then south to 190 and then home. I wanted to stop and take a dip in the springs, but there were too many nudists for my taste. Maybe next time...

 

Glad you had a good trip. Thanks for sharing pics!

 

It's hard to coordinate with my friends to go. They're all married and have kids so they have a hard time getting permission (wives) to go so I end up solo. I avoid any majorily rough terrain and I plan for the worst while I'm out there. If I wait for someome to go with I would neve see the things I want to.

 

I forgot to mention that I was able to get cell service while at Eureka Dunes. My site was nearest the road closest to the out house. I had my phone on airplane mode and outta curiosity I switched it on and got service pretty quick.

 

So it seems like the big suggestions for paper maps of Death valley are the AAA and the nat geo maps. Any arguments one way or another? I haven't stopped by AAA to check out their map but the nat geo one looks quite good and detailed (as detailed as you can be for roads that obviously change year to year).
I'm looking to check out both off-road and hiking trails, so if the AAA map doesn't have hiking trails I'll just go with the nat geo and skip going to AAA.

 

heading there again next friday through sunday. We're gonna hit the Eureka Sand dunes via death valley road to Eureka Rd, then thru steel pass to the saline hot springs, then thru lippincott to the race course and up to the rest of the park. Looking to find some petroglyphs this time in Saline Valley and hopefully catch a couple jets flying. Hopefully we can add in a ghost town while we're at it.