Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

What were the Rangers checking out?

 

The black taco

 

Actually, I think the LOng Travel piqued their interest.

 

Look like she was checking out the body lift on the tent.

 

You are actually right. Well, at least that's what they said they were interested in. Who knows.

 

Hey y'all!
Anti-Dark is sponsoring a TW trip up to the Briggs and Stone cabins for April Fools Day weekend.
Check it out:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-sponsored-by-anti-dark.417044/#post-11843319

 

Love the pics, especially the lake one. Impressive!

I've never heard of this mysterious dirt speed limit until now.

But it looks like it's posted on their website over here

ROFL.

Ditto. And I have never conducted shock research on that road.

I have yet to visit the springs. And in all my time out there in the park, I've never run into a ranger in the back roads.

 

What is the Inyo County speed limit? SVR is technically outside the park and managed by Inyo County.

 

I agree the SVR is Inyo's domain... And because it's clearly signed (NOT), the speed limit is Bilstein, Icon, Fox, King, OME, etc.

I'll dig thru some photos I have from the North end and see if I have any pics of signs, but to my knowledge it's not posted...

 

25mph? Jeeeeezus. Must be to protect those Farabee Jeep rentals from breaking apart.

 

The low speed limit in place within the park is due to a significant number of accidents from rollover crashes. Take an off pavement road with washboards and twists and turns then throw in people in rental cars and no off-road experience and you get a lot of problems. I saw a full size SUV at the racetrack with two flats. There was no way they were limping out on their own to pavement. That was pricey.

 

I may or may not have exceeded the 25 mph speed limit barely after leaving the vicinity of the last camp site and threw up a lot of dust and hucked a little kicker in view of the rangers.

 

Yep. Two years ago I was out in DV with a friend of mine who was driving a Tahoe. He was taking a road in Greenwater Valley way too fast and ended up blowing out both tires on his right side on a rock that was hidden in some tall grass. I wound up driving him back to the Walmart in Pahrump with one of his tires while the other guys stayed behind to swap out the spare. Good times.

 

I know from another forum a few years ago someone with a fair bit of experience managed to roll their Jeep between Racetrack and Homestake. They hit a puddle much deeper than expected with just one side of the vehicle which caused it to pull and roll. It was a fairly involved recovery effort for them in the end.

The other issue I've personally experienced in my old truck with lame shocks is that shock fade can sneak up on you if you run enough washboard a high speed. That could easily cause someone to roll over as well.

This past weekend aired down and on my new ICON suspension running Harry Wade Road it was surprising how fast I'd get going without realizing it because the ride was so much smoother than what I've been used to in the past.

 

Overnighter exploring Ibex Valley. My first time in this part of the park. A few puddles along the way near Saratoga Springs and in the Amargosa Wash. The river crossing on Harry Wade was probably 10" deep. Wildflowers at Ashford Junction were unreal, very dense.

Arrived well after dark, the moon lit everything up nicely though.


Lots of flowers around the river crossing on Harry Wade Rd too.


Shoreline Butte was particularly striking; the black rock covered in yellow flowers.

 

Awesome!

 

any good 2WD accessible camp spots you guys can recommend?

Going to be in the panamint springs area the first night and would like to go SW for exploring and spend the night in the south before heading to JT

 

2wd sites? Wild Rose should be reachable.

 

A 2WD camp spot:
Cottonwood Canyon has disperse (free-open area) camping once you enter the canyon - about 8 miles out of the Stovepipe Wells Campground on a fairly flat, slightly sandy in a few spots dirt road (access near the small Stovepipe Wells Airport). The sandy spots are not deep at all. I've never seen anyone get stuck in the sand on this road.

Nice spots for camps and very little crowd action as most tourists are afraid of the dirt road because of the "4x4 recommended" sign at the beginning of the road near the airport- we've never needed 4x4 on this road.. We've had sedans and 2WD vans reach the camp spots with no problems. There are a few spots that are very easy to drive to if you don't want to go too far into the canyon. Great views of the Mesquite Sand Dune area from the first campsites. I have posted a few spots of a camp area inside the Cottonwood Canyon earlier in this thread (that spot is less than a mile in from entrance to canyon). If you want quiet this is a spot for you. You can drive to the end of the canyon with 2WD and check out the scenery and also take a short drive up Marble Canyon -which is also inside of Cottonwood Canyon and has a cool short hike at the end. Not too far from Panamint Springs Resort/Campground on the 190. A big plus, lots of cool shade in the canyon!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...2!3m1!1s0x80c0a93e3f7816ad:0xdaeb54b37f443893

in the canyon: not a quiet day on this visit ..but we won't be there when you arrive! :O)

 

A few more from Panamint