Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Just finished posting up a DV trip for anyone interested. I suppose this wasn't really DV, but given that it was the eastern Inyos, and access to them is via SVR, it sure felt like DVNP.

Part 1: Into the Inyo
Part 2: Tramways and Waterfalls, Cascading Down Canyons
Part 3: Big Mine, Small Dunes

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And one more for @mk5:

How old is this guy, anyway? Dork.​

 

Great night shot!

Looks like I'll miss you by a day in Vegas this week too. This place is great, I just got to drive an excavator.

 

If they'd just let you knock something down...

 

They let you smash a car for $750, but you have to have $750 and be sober.

 

delirium

 

Drove through the park on the way home from Vegas. Picked up some new stickers and a mug.

 

The "dark sky park" in your photo reminded me... I wanted to mention here that the 2023 Death Valley Dark Sky Festival is coming up -- Feb 10-12!

One of my friends is giving a talk. I probably can't make it this year, but it should be a great time!

This comment also reminded me, I wanted to put in a plug for the museum bookstore in Shoshone. A treasure trove of books on DV and the surrounding areas. I'm sure some of you can think of books they don't have, but I'll be shocked if any of you could scour the shelves without finding something new you'd want to thumb-through if not buy. Not to mention there's plenty of interesting stuff in and around the museum to make the stop worthwhile. Including some wreckage from an SR-71 that crashed nearby... weren't we just talking about those the other month anyway?

Make sure to check out the binder of trip ideas by the door. Even though I already know everything about everywhere, I found a few unknown destinations in that binder!


My haul -- constrained by budget, not interest!

• Loved the railroads book, but it was mostly photos with comparatively little written info. That should come as no surprise to anyone smart enough to read the series title, "IMAGES OF RAIL." I overlooked this, focusing my attention more on the details appearing in the lower corner of the rear cover. But nonetheless, it was great picking out places I've been and seeing what they were once like from the photos. The store had thicker and spendier railroading books on the shelves too, and I plan to nab at least one of them next time through!

• Bill Mann's guide to Saline Valley doesn't need my review. Which is good, because I haven't opened it yet! Next time I'm planning a trip to SV, though, that book is getting read cover-to-cover, then brought along so its corners become well-rounded from all the washboard roads.

• The Tecopa Mines book offers extensive details and history on the precious metal mines east of Tecopa. If you can overlook the Comic Sans, it's a thoroughly detailed book, and my only complaint is that these mines are now privately held and posted against trespassing, so I haven't gotten a chance to really explore them! I did wish the book covered the Talc operations to their south, which I've explored more extensively. But, while the talc mines remain shrouded in mystery, this book is highly recommended to anyone considering exploring the hard-rock mines east of Tacopa, which are easily some of the most expansive and impressive in the region. (And if you have permission to do that--please invite me along!)

Now... for a taste of that sweet Tecopa mining history: The district was served by rails connecting to the Tidewater & Tonopah at Tecopa. I had assumed it was a T&T branch line, but it was actually its own entire railroad! The books offer more details, but a captioned photo hanging in the Shoshone museum sums it up pretty well:



The Noonday was and is a profoundly fascinating mine, but recently (yet prior to my first visit there), its owners posted no-trespassing signs around the whole property. (Same story with the adjacent mines, too.) So I couldn't check it out, because I'm an upstanding law-abiding dude.

But my flying camera, on the other hand, is kind of a rascal. I do my best to keep it in compliance with the law, but as any parent of teenager knows, there's only so much you can do. I made the mistake of approaching the property line at Noonday with the windows down, and as I was marveling at it from a distance, my stupid camera flew right out the window, laughing gleefully the whole time, and took the following photos of the above workings as they appeared in 2021:



Apparently the lower portion of the ore delivery system burned several decades ago, but there's enough left to indicate its original extent.



Sorry for the mediocre quality here, these are video frame grabs from footage shot after sunset, and I was experimenting with a new and ultimately regretted color mode on the camera. Nonetheless it was an epic trip, and I hope to someday explore more of this and other nearby mines. They were massive operations that, based on my exploration to date, seem to dwarf the hard-rock precious-metal efforts within DV proper. No doubt the railroad played a role there. The whole mountain here is swiss-cheesed, and this isn't the only mine in the district!


A spectacular example of rail-served hard-rock mining in the western US--prior to the advent of strip-mining. Wonder what its future holds.

There's not much left of the Tecopa Railway, but those fixated on such relics can still find remnants of the railbed complete with ties. Although if you, like me, are always running behind schedule... then you'll have to enjoy it by moonlight:

 

The Railroads book is a part of a series. It's amazing, they even have a couple for Moffett Field and Sunnyvale.

 

Hikers stranded in icy conditions hoisted from trail in Death Valley National Park

 

That trail is no joke in icy conditions. Sounds like they were reasonably prepared but still stuck!

A guy I worked with built an igloo with his buddy along the Arcane Meadows section of the trail one winter.

 

I was thinking of doing that hike eventually. What's the best time of year for it? Late in the year?

 

Good rescue! Glad there were no injuries

I'd shoot for early summer / late spring. I had plans about 10 years ago but still have not executed. Maybe this year?

 

Okay guys... not that it matters, but I think I figured out why there's all this groundwater monitoring stuff in Broadwell Lake. In the early '90s, there was a plan to build a hazardous waste disposal site there. Apparently, the clay is some ~150 feet thick over the lakebed, and it was proposed that this would provide a good barrier to prevent hazardous waste from seeping into the groundwater, should the manmade barriers and pond liners fail. They applied for state permits, which was the clue I stumbled upon in my searching, leading me to find an online copy of their environmental impact study, highlights of which are posted below.

I don't know why the project wasn't ultimately developed, but the report certainly doesn't paint a positive picture from an environmental standpoint. Of course, an environmentally friendly hazmat dump is kind of an oxymoron to start with -- and why would anyone pay to build a hazmat disposal facility, when you can just dump it all in the ocean for free?





Here's the site plan:




This page shows most of the wells I saw, plus many more...



The markings on the wells I inspected match up with those on this map... so much for my skittles theory!

I'm quite certain I noted one north of the power lines too, which isn't shown here, but I'm willing to call this case closed... and return my full attention to all the mysterious circles out in the desert.

 

Oh for the love of crumb cake I am glad that did not happen! I like the Broadwell area.

Whenever I’m grumpy that some part of the desert is closed to vehicles and can only be explored traveling en pointe in slippers I try to remember all the bonkers stupid ideas regulations save us from as well.

Anyway, nice detective work!

 

We've hiked it twice in the summer starting at our camp site at Mahogany Flats (8100'). The higher elevations equate to cool/comfy temps. The best thing is the lack of humans -- people shy away from Death Valley in the summer.*


* Germans excepted.

 

Mojave National Preserve

It isn't Death Valley, but it is close and there isn't a dedicated thread, so a Mojave trip report in my build thread.

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What if those circles are actually nonexistent, and you are trying to spawn a conspiracy theory here? How about that?

 

I'm guessing the climb up Little Cowhole was sandy and two-steps-up, slide-one-step-back?

 

There was a small section like that along the route I took from my camp to the east. It was just a pretty short section of sand at the start, the rest of the way was a gradual climb up the ridge line with changing views the whole way. Nice little afternoon hike.

 

Just came back from a quick trip into Saline Valley. Only 1 other car at Warm Springs, it was awesome. South Pass was completely good to go, little to no snow. We left Saline Valley via Steel Pass, also very little snow, just a couple of patches. But driving back on Big Pine Road there was probably a little less than a foot of snow at the junction with Waucoba Saline Rd. I imagine North Pass has considerably more. It did look like there were tracks in the snow, but I have no idea if anyone has punched in tracks all the way from the Big Pine side. We decided Steel Pass would be less sporty than finding out if North Pass doesn't go and having to turn around.