AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Wow, what a beautiful place. Very well captured. Impressive.

 

Death Valley: Day 3 - Does It Get Any Better?
January 19, 2018.

We slept soundly through the night - it was the perfect night really - quiet, a bit of a breeze, and chilly but not too cold. I'd set my alarm for 6:30am, since I wanted to catch the sunrise. The atmosphere over Death Valley makes for stunning shots and though I knew I wouldn't get anything like @DVexile, or even Ben (@m3bassman) had a few weeks earlier, I really wanted to try to get something!

I wasn't disappointed.

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Sunrise seemed to pick up just where sunset left off - amazing pinks and purples, mixed with a cool blue sky and steely landscape. As @mrs.turbodb slept, I hiked a short distance up Tin Mountain, hoping to catch some shots of the valley as the sun came over the ridge and shown on the Last Chance Range.

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As with all sunrises, this one didn't last long (enough), and I made my way back down to camp where we enjoyed a bowl of cereal with fresh strawberries and got the tent put away (dry!) We knew we had a long day ahead of us - we were planning to cover over 100 mostly-dirt miles - and pulled out of camp around 8:00am.

And then, almost immediately, we stopped.

We'd seen a few Joshua Trees on the hillside by our camp, but just over the ridge the density picked up significantly. Sure that we'd never see so many in such a small area again, we stopped and tried to capture the moment. Of course, had we known what awaited us just hours later in Lee Flats...

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We continued on toward the Racetrack Playa - something we were both looking forward to - when we stumbled upon Teakettle Junction. Of course, we both knew of Teakettle, but it's sight in the middle of the desert still caught us by surprise, since from a distance we wondered, "what the heck is that pile of crap?"

This was also the only point in the trip when we had any cell coverage - both of our phones literally lit up with notifications as we stopped at the junction - so we took a 15 minute break to triage our lives.

Oh, and of course I posted this picture on TacomaWorld as an update on our progress… what a goob.

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Our emails, texts, and device addictions satisfied for the moment, we continued on towards The Racetrack, which we could now see in the distance. Its sheer size (and the tininess of The Grandstands) was mesmerizing - enough so to make us forget the washboard road over which we were travelling, faster and faster.

When we arrived, there was no question about whether we were stopping and walking out. We were.

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While there, we met another couple exploring as well - they'd stayed a bit closer to Teakettle in what they described as an amazing camp site overlooking the valley. Another thing for us to check out on our next visit!

Soon, we were back in the truck for a 2-mile jaunt the length of The Racetrack, to the south end where the sailing stones dot the Playa. Pushed by wind when The Racetrack is slick from rain and ice, the trails left by these rocks are eerie. They move in different directions, sometimes 180° to each other, and often with curves in their path.

We must have looked both funny and normal out on the playa - running from rock to rock, laying down to take pictures - we were like kids at Christmas.

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Too quickly, we decided to be on our way, and we headed south again towards Lippincott Pass - again, a feature we'd heard a lot about from various other folks who make the pilgrimage to Death Valley. As we neared the turn west, I noticed that the GPS track I'd plotted went straight.

"That's strange," I thought, "I wonder where that goes?"

In our excitement for the Sailing Stones and Lippincott Pass, I'd completely forgotten about Lippincott Mine! Naturally, we headed up and spent a good 30-45 minutes exploring the mining gear, abandoned shafts, and ruins.

Not nearly enough.

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Something we found interesting as we investigated was that nearly all of the shafts were "gated" but holes were present in all of the gates (and had been for a long time). We didn't venture into any of the shafts - they were a bit too sketchy for us - but clearly if that's what gets you going, there are plenty of them to explore in Death Valley.

Cognizant of our limited daylight (even though it was still around 11:00am), we pulled out of the mine and paused only briefly at the infamous sign at the top of Lippincott Pass - HIGH CLEARANCE | NO TOW SERVICE | CAUTION.

Just what we wanted.

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So we headed down towards Saline Valley, eventually passing a sign notifying us that we were entering Death Valley National Monument. A sign that not only had the wrong name, but that also signified our exit from the park.

Details. Details I'm sure an astute reader can figure out.

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Really, Lippincott had been much easier than I'd expected. Much of it seemed graded, and except for one couple-hundred-foot section, easily passable by nearly any vehicle (in good weather). Still good fun though, and more exciting I think for @mrs.turbodb, who's had less exposure to these types of drives.

At this point we were thinking about lunch and decided that Lee Flats and the Joshua Tree forest there could be a good stopping point, if we found some shelter. And, while there was no shortage of Joshua Trees (making us think twice about our experience just a few hours earlier), unfortunately we didn't find much in the way of shelter.

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In fact, it'd gotten windy on this high-desert meadow and we didn't find anything but open road, which we took advantage of at speeds up to 50mph on our way to South Pass and our first view of Panamint Valley.

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As we crested the pass, the Ham radio lit up - we could hear folks all around - from Telescope Peak to the southern end of Panamint Valley, to the north end of Saline Valley - we were clearly in a good spot for reception.

So we checked our phones. "Emergency calls only" - gotta love AT&T in a place like this.

Not too much later, we ended up in Panamint Springs - a small town on the edge of Panamint Valley with an amazing view. It was here that we stopped for some expensive gas, and some delicious sandwiches.

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While there, several dual-sport bikes also stopped, as did a couple in a full-size pickup + camper who were "lost in Death Valley for a couple months." Now that's the life!

Just as we finished eating and were ready to pull out, a caravan of 30 Porsche's flew by on their way into the park. I looked and mentioned that as cool as that looked, "our six Tacoma's looked cooler on the De-Tour." She just laughed at me.

So we headed out, south again towards Ballarat Ghost Town and Goler Canyon, with much to see and less than half of our daylight remaining.

All trip we'd been driving into headwinds, but it was in Panamint Valley that it was most obvious. The winds were so strong that they were blowing dune-fulls of sand across the road for literally miles - making us glad we were in the truck, and not these guys on their dual sport bikes.

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We eventually crossed the valley and pulled into Ballarat - one of the few places we visited that I wouldn't recommend to others. The ghost town is sparse, and an RV park exists in the same site that was packed full of RVs, generators, and ATVs. Even in the few minutes that we were there, five more RVs showed up. It was a mad house.

Of course, if you do end up here, the old jail is available as a place to sleep, on a first-come basis.

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From Ballarat to the entrance to Goler Valley was a well groomed gravel road, on which we made great time - mostly because I only stopped once for a picture of the looks-like-snow-but-is-actually-salt Panamint Valley floor.

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And then we were at Goler, looking back at Panamint Valley, now to our north. The plan was to make it through the Goler Wash and to Butte Valley where we'd find a spot to camp for the evening, so we were feeling reasonably good on time at this point - even knowing that this was one of the slower-going sections of road that we'd travel on the trip.

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We made our way through, stopping at a few interesting sites along the way. The first were some amazing sulfur deposits right at the entrance to the wash, more sheer canyon walls (reminiscent of Titus Canyon, though not as tall), and tons of barrel cactus clinging to the walls for dear life.

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And then, for the only time all trip, we had "off-road company" - a couple guys in buggies passed us coming west just as we got to Newman's Cabin, the headquarters of - naturally - the Newman Mine. Not much there now, but the cabin itself is still in remarkably good shape due to it's metal roof and position out of the flow of water in the wash.

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And then, we hit perhaps the creepiest point of interest on the trip - the Barker Ranch. A short off-shoot from Goler Wash, this is where the Manson family was ultimately caught - for suspected arson nearby. Definitely some cool building materials used when building the rock cabin here; some of the colorful rocks still present in the now-crumbling walls.

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At any rate, we didn't linger but instead pushed on towards Butte Valley, where we knew that there were a limited number of cabins, available on a first-come basis. That meant driving the rest of Goler Wash, and the most technical (but not bad at all) trail of the entire trip.

Of course, I had to take a few poser shots as we hit some of the "looks worse than it really was" sections.

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And then, as if like magic, the valley opened up in front of us.

We both drew in our breath - we'd seen pictures of Striped Butte, but we weren't at all prepared for it's actual presence in the valley. It was as though someone chipped off a chuck of jawbreaker and positioned it strategically so that anyone passing by wouldn't believe what they were seeing.

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It was also at this point that we were really staring to wonder if we'd get to stay at the Geologist's Cabin or if it would be already occupied - we assumed the latter, it being a Friday evening around 4:30pm. That wasn't a problem - I new from reading Ben's trip report that there was an amazing camp site nearby with spectacular views of Striped Butte - but as we neared the cabin we were still giddy to see that the flag wasn't raised - it was ours for the night!

We pulled in, I immediately found the flag, and raised it.

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And then, we setup the tent. This took longer than usual since I had to keep glancing over at the butte to make sure it was still there.

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And of course, we explored the cabin. It was extremely windy, so the cabin provided a great place to eat dinner (tortellini, with cauliflower and meat sauce), and read a few of the guest book entries while we killed a couple hours before hitting the sack.

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It had been quite the day. There were so many amazing things we'd seen that even as we sat in the cabin we couldn't believe that we were talking about things we'd seen mere hours before.

Eventually we got tired and climbed into the tent. The wind had picked up even more, so I removed a few of the poles and battened down the hatches to reduce flapping as much as possible. We put in our earplugs and got cozy under the covers.

Little did we know what was in store by the time we'd wake up the next morning…

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catch up: [Day 1] [Day 2]
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Great report and photos. Is this your first venture into DV? If so that's a great way to do it. Tons more to explore. So cool that you got the Geo cabin.
Couple things to note. The Death Valley National Monument sign is from pre-94. That was the border of the monument before it became a "park". I'm glad they left it.

Please post the links to your reports in the DV thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/death-valley-off-road-adventures.60777/

 

I would love to do that trip!
Thank you for sharing.

 

I'm happy to see the timing worked great that day. I was worried that maybe we set a really fast pace that wouldn't have been your flavor for traveling through ( I know you always stop to smell the roses)

So what's the verdict about camping in that valley? You had mention bold claims Zane made about it.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, my guess is that rocks move around quite a bit on that section as folks in those rental jeeps come through. For us, it was a bit flexy, but nothing that we even really worried about.

Timing was good, even though we hit a few extra places. Really, we could have used a couple more hours days - everything was too rushed. I really would have loved to hit Charcoal Kilns, but that was going to add ~3 hours before we even got to Goler and Butte Valley, so we left it for "next time." And really, I wanted to smell the roses at every stop more than we did!

Camping in the valley - man, that's a beautiful spot. "Next time" I want to camp there for three days and explore the area - so beautiful. Definitely up there on the list of beautiful sites in my list - top 5 for sure, and Striped Butte is perhaps the most striking geological feature I've ever seen. Top camp site (for me) though is still definitely Dome Plateau. It's too bad you and Zane weren't with us for that!

It was our first time to DV, but definitely not our last! We were definitely lucky to get the cabin, though a bit cautious about hanta. Was nice to get out of the wind for sure, and very cool to see all that folks have brought to make it more comfortable over the years.

For the monument sign - yep, that's what we figured when we passed it. Thought it was cool that they'd left it - a bit more history for a place with plenty.

Thanks for the DV thread pointer - I hadn't found that before; will have to give it a good read!

Do it! You're so close by already

 

Some back country cabins have diluted bleach spray for spraying around to keep hanta risk at bay. Cabins are all different in the amount of rodent infestation.

If you didn't hike Striped Butte that's another "next time" thing. The more you visit DV the more precise the trips become. That's how it's been for me at least. I've got a huge DV library and always have things I want to see and do. Most times one specific area draws my attention like a magnet. Hard to resist. My last trip though on the way out I did a short hike by myself. It was amazing in its own right even though I didn't reach my intended goal. Next time.

 

Claims I made... yeah that sounds about right actually. That's still one of the most beautiful places I've ever camped and I'm trying for round two in march it was that good. Also I want to pet a Donkey dammit!

 

Yeah, I hear you on the gatekeeper. I was surprised how easy most of the trails were - would be nice to keep them tougher and more people out! (though really, to get to Butte Valley, if you come up Warm Springs Road, it's not hard at all...so... )

And yeah, I'm up for a return trip(s!)

We didn't even get to see a burro in the park - heard plenty though. Another "next time!"

 

How are you liking those new tires now that you’ve had them for a little while?

 

Screw those burros. More burros = less bighorn sheep. Bighorn and ringtails, that's who you want to see.

 

Thanks for sharing.
I lived in CA for 1/2 of my life, and have never seen Death Valley like this. After seeing your pictures and reading your updates, I will need to take a trip back home with Death Valley being part of it.

 

But what part to explore?
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/death-valley-off-road-adventures.60777/

 

Thanks for the link to that post.

Now to make some plans with the wife.

 

These are pretty new - had them installed only for a few days before hitting DV. My first impressions are still similar to my original post -

• the tire/wheel combo looks great - the "lack-of-grr" from the ST Maxx's is definitely offset by the additional width provided by the Stealth6's,
• I love that these things are way quieter on the freeway than the KM2's,
• the 3.5" backspacing is going to mean a lot more dirt on the sides of the truck in muddy conditions.

Overall, I'm happy with them. The tires themselves also have plenty of grrr; not just the wheels. They worked great (quiet, tracked well) on the freeway, and I had zero complaints off-road as well. Nothing too taxing in DV though (at least, that we hit).

Makes sense. I want to see some burros too though; then I'm OK with them going away so we can see the "more native" wildlife.

Nice! You'll love it!

 

Death Valley: Day 4 - You Don’t See This Every Day
January 20, 2018.

We were glad to have battened down the hatches on the tent, because the heavy winds continued all night, literally shaking the entire truck as though we were in a series of mini-accidents. Needless to say, our sleep wasn’t as great as it'd been the previous night when we were sheltered in Racetrack Valley.

And then, around 1:00am, the wind got significantly colder, and we started to feel moisture in the air. We didn't realize it at the time as we zipped up the remaining windows, but the moisture we were feeling was snow. By the time I rolled out of bed around 6:30am, even with heavy winds there was still a nice dusting of snow in the valley, and the surrounding mountains were white.

So yeah - we went to Death Valley to escape the cold, and we got snowed on. You don't see that every day.

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Just as I headed out for my morning stroll and photos I heard a pack of coyotes, and a burro in the distance. Hoping I'd see them both, and that the clouds would clear in time for an amazing sunrise, I got going.

While the clouds eventually cleared (after sunrise), I never saw either the burro or coyotes. I did however get to enjoy amazing views of Striped Butte again, as the sun hit the valley floor and started to warm things up a bit.

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I also stumbled upon a USGS marker (perhaps placed by the same geologist who built the cabin? - unlikely given a 2010 date ) and then heard two planes flying overhead. As I looked up, I thought - boy, you don't see that every day - it was the military practicing in-air refueling!

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Too soon (as was becoming a theme), I decided to head back to camp - for breakfast, and to get going on our second full day in the park - because once again we had a lot of ground to cover.

As @mrs.turbodb got our breakfast ready, I set about brushing the snow off the tent (luckily it was a relatively dry snow so the tent didn't go away wet). The wind was still fierce (which made it cold, but also started blowing away the clouds), so we ate quickly and got on our way, east towards Death Valley; driving by Striped Butte on our way.

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Warm Spring Canyon Road connects Butte Valley and Death Valley, and is sprinkled with no less than six abandoned mining sites from the Warm Spring (Talc) Mine, as well as several other smaller mines. Still early in the day, we decided that we could stop at a few of these sites - and we were glad that we did. The Warm Springs Mine was a much newer mine than many of the others in the area, and so everything was much bigger - truck rather than burro sized.

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The buildings too were newer, and apparently some of the best conditions of any mine in the area. Founded in the 1930s by a woman named Louise Grantham and ran for several decades before being closed down. And, in another "don't see this every day," the dormitory at the mining camp even had a swimming pool.

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Of course, Warm Spring is aptly named for a hot spring at the mine site, which was temping in the cool crisp morning, but we held out given our packed itinerary - yet another place to explore more on a return trip!

We continued down the canyon towards Death Valley, and as one canyon gave way to the other, it was a sight to behold. Compared to the slot canyons we'd been in; Death Valley was immense!

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We first headed south to check out the Ashford Mill Ruins (underwhelming and completely skippable) before heading north to catch a few of the more touristy attractions in the park - Badwater Basin, Natural Bridge, Devil's Golf Course, and Artist's Pallet.

If you're headed to Death Valley, we'd totally recommend doing these things once; but then skip them in the future - the less developed parts of the park are much more interesting!

Badwater Basin - the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level - was packed with tourists, even early in the morning and in the off-season. Several of them came in this "Pink Jeep Tour" - a must, given the newly paved road to the parking lot.

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After a quick lunch, we headed out to take a look and snap our own touristy photo at the infamous sign.

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As we came back to the truck, we noticed two things - first, that there was a pretty cool sign up on the canyon wall behind the parking lot marking sea level; and second, that the truck had become the envy of a visiting Boy Scout troop. "If only we were a caravan." I mentioned to @mrs.turbodb as we beeped the key fob and unlocked the doors!

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From there we headed north - on pavement for nearly 40 miles - with a few stops along the way at Natural Bridge, Devil's Golf Course, and of course, an "Elevation Sea Level" sign, before nearing the Mesquite Flat sand dunes in the middle of the park, and the beginning of our next off-pavement adventure.

Natural Bridge.

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Devil's Golf Course - only the devil could play golf here.

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Artist's Palette Drive. Not the dirt road we had expected. ☹

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You don’t see this every day (though, in fairness, having grown up on the coast, I guess it's not all that rare). Usually, you don’t drive up in elevation to get to it though!

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Eventually we made it to the dunes - hikeable if you have the time - which were quite the sight in the late afternoon sun. Oh, if only we had another month - it would have been amazing to walk out along some of those ridges.

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But alas, we had two more canyons to explore before we planned to call it a day, and so we headed to through Stovepipe Wells where we'd planned to pay our park fee, only to find out that there was a government shutdown.

It's not every day that you get a legally free trip to one of our National Parks!

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Having saved a few bucks, we headed out on the worst washboard road ever, on our way to Marble and Cottonwood Canyons. Speed and aired down tires were our friends on this road, but we were still glad when we finally got to the end of the washboard and into the canyons where rocks and canyon wash meant slower going and less "gagabumpgagabumpgagabump" at 40mph.

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As we drove up Marble Canyon, we passed several sets of hikers - on foot, who looked semi-longingly at the truck. Unfortunately we were full, so there wasn't really any way to give them a lift. Of the two canyons, I think Marble Canyon is more beautiful than Cottonwood, and it has the added benefit of many petroglyphs if you know where to look. Unfortunately, we didn't, and we wanted to explore Cottonwood as well, so we only spent 20 minutes hiking up Marble Canyon once we hit the end of the road. In a bit of a rush, and not finding the petroglyphs we were after, I completely forgot to take any pictures!

Add it to the list of places to visit again next time!

Now 4:30pm, and with an hour of light left, we headed up Cottonwood Canyon to find a place to camp. We had no idea what we were looking for, but we figured we'd know it when we saw it.

We did. And then we drove right by. "To the end of the road!" we smiled, eager to finish out the adventure - after all, we'd come all this way, what was another 20 miles of dirt to say we'd been to the end?!

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The end was a bit less dramatic than we'd hoped - the previously lush spring there had dried up years ago, leaving a stand of dead Cottonwood trees as the only witness to its existence. So, we turned around and headed back to the place we'd identified as camp.

We knew we'd arrive in the dark, but that was fine with us, the day had been another rousing success.

Beef tacos with fresh guacamole for dinner were nothing to complain about either.

And the moon. And the stars.

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Sheltered in the canyon, there was little breeze - just enough to whisk away any moisture from our breathing, and we settled in for another good night sleep.

Knowing that in the morning - with some luck - we'd get to see the sun light up the canyon walls. And then, we'd continue our adventure (towards home).

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catch up: [Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3]
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What a great first trip to DV. That's the way to do it!
Thanks for taking the time to share your report and photos.
The pic of Butte Valley with the snow is my favorite.

 

Definitely a great adventure. Can't wait to head back. Butte Valley in the dusting of snow was gorgeous; that's a special place.

Yeah, I realized when I got over to that geologist mark that I was in your camp site from your pics (which was surprising to me - I thought you were going to be up the road to the left/west ). The road to Cottonwood might have gotten worse since you were there - I think all the roads around are a bit "at the whim" of the grader. Regardless, you're more of a trophy driver than I am; I'll chalk that up to my old age, hahahahaha!

 

There is a survey marker in the wash near the peace sign hill in Saline. I found it once. Thought I put in in my gps...hope I can find it again some day.

 

Great write-up and nice pics as always.

Burros? A good place to see them is in and around Beatty, NV. They often wander right through town. I suppose it's because there is water readily available there and the town seems to use them as a tourist attraction, so there might be some feeding going on. Get gas there too, It's cheap. About $2 a gallon less than Stovepipe Wells last time I went through.

A great place to see a lot of them is further north at the "Marietta Wild Burro Range".

https://www.blm.gov/visit/marietta-wild-burro-range.

BLM claims there are about 100 burros there and maybe I was lucky but I think I saw that many from the road. Seriously, I stopped counting at 50 and saw plenty more. One herd in the distance was about 30. Several were right along side of the road.



Marietta is pretty much a ghost town. There are still a few people out there. If you go take the road all the way to the "lake". It's pretty much a smelly marsh but if you are interested in life in the desert it's worth seeing.

Saw antelope in the area too. You can see burro, antelope, maybe my tracks in the above pic.

 

Great report! I need to see all of this. I went about 4 weeks ago and being our first trip we did an awesome 4 hour hike and explored some touristy stuff. Next time will be a lot of driving on a similar route as you, oppisiop direction.