Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Found this guy trying to go up Steele Pass, completly stock..

 

Sheesh...

 

..few weeks back I caught up to the Grader and just 'tailgated' him for what seemed like a couple miles until I guess his Forman caught up to me and they must have chatted and the operator looked behind him and kept grading until could pull off. the track at the time was not much wider than blade width no way i could pass him...surface was fluffy flour..this after dropping out of the canyon

 

It's part of the adventure, that you'll never know what you're gonna find on the trail.

 

Late Thursday evening I decided at the last minute to hit the trail somewhere up North. Got on the road at nearly 4am Friday without any real plans as to where to go. A few things in mind like maybe Death Valley or the Sierras but nothing set in stone. Always wanted to find the Kill Bill Church off of the 395, found it and had to get a poser picture for the Gram..


@GoldCountryTaco saw the IG post and asked where I was going, I said maybe DV or maybe your neck of the woods in the Sierras I havnt figured it out. I asked him did you have something in mind? Long story short, him and his wife met me in Big Pine for a weeknd in Saline Valley and the Eureka Sand Dunes. So stoked of them to be ready and on the road in a few hours..


Found this cabin in the middle of nowhere along the way to Saline Valley

Got us lost in a wash heading back to the main road and had to turn around becouse I could not get around this rock no matter which way I tried. Moving rocks and loose gravel, the odds were against me..

Found a few more cabins along the way





Pretty well stocked if you ask me..


Made it to the Hot Springs after dark.


Next morning we failed trying to make it up to Steele Pass from the springs. My buddies taco had a brand new inner tie rod on it's first run go bad as soon as we were headed up, it was obvious that it was a defective unit. Decided to play it safe and to turn around head to Bishop for a replacement on the main road. Had it swapped out in less than 45 minutes and back on the road to Eureka Sand Dunes this time.



Made it to the dunes just in time to witness an awesome sunset.


And experienced an awesome sunrise the next morning.


Part 2 coming up soon..

 

I don't recognize any of those cabins. Never seen them on the way into Saline.

 

Made our way to Steele Pass



Both of us tried to make a harder line but both failed, had to give him a little tug with the winch line


I had to try the same line and failed to. The boulder on the driver side that I was using to slide against shifted and I almost flopped my junk. I about shit my pants for reals this time. My buddy told me after the fact that he waa worried about rhe one one the passenger side moving to.



Trail Karma bit us in the ass right after that, thinking we would be smart asses and unstack everything. But of course a stock open diff Sequoia showed up so we helped the dude and his friend up the 3 obstacles. He was able to make the last one on his own with a little coaching.



Part 3 in the morning.

 

I will send you a .gpx file in a day or so after I have a chance to process everything.

 

I worked really hard stacking all those and you undid my work!
Sons of bitches.
It wasn't fun going down in my lightly modded taco with the camper on the back.

 

Checked out the Marbled Bath Tub and almost stepped on a baby tarantula on the way back to the truck

Passed this caravan of 10 heading up to the springs, half the group waved back, the other half all looked like grumpy assholes as they passed by lmao


Came across an old friend along our way and sat down for a few hours catching up and shooting the shit, good times as always with him. Dudes a great guy and has stories after stories, someone you definitely want around a camp fire. Everyone should check him out at IG @glow_wonders


Naan, salami and cheese makes a great combo while on the trail.


Couldnt find my usual cup so improvised with a measuring cup.


This guy still cracks me up in his slammed Chevy.

 

So what exactly went wrong with the inner? What brand was it?

 

It was an Autozone brand, the joint all of sudden had a ton of play and making lots of noise. Had no resistance in it when it when it was taking off, floppy like a flacid penis

 

@MonkeyProof

Great pics and dialog. Appreciate it from my armchair, and not being able to get out for some time.

Too bad on the Tierod. Glad you got him fixed up. I'm running the GansterZone ones on my truck since December, mine have a good boot design and are greaseable. No issues so far and recently had the drivers front end apart to swap a hub and I checked tie rod was solid. I know the zone must have different suppliers for their stuff, because others have went there, gotten their branded stuff and it was different.

 

..not the best place to park

 

Really refreshing to see a thread where we can appreciate the outdoors than looking at IG where every other post is a vendor/product plug..

Cheers guys.

 

Definitely know where you're coming from. Sometimes it seems like if the FTC actually cracked down, 50% of all the accounts would disappear overnight.

I would suggest looking for and following people that aren't whoring themselves out and just do it for the fun and sharing.

 

Truth. I definitely cut my follow list in half based on this. Also wished people would stop geotagging all the hidden gem trails or primitive camp locations.
No need for our favorite past time to become Disneyland. I'm for meeting like minded people, but a trail convoy of 20+ trucks is straight up irresponsible. End rant. haha

 

Truth

 

Here's a nice report. This is a great blog.
http://ski3pin.blogspot.com/2017/11/death-valley-national-park-november.html

 

nice!