Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4I_4hLGc40

 

Wow! The same, yet different.

I like seeing Rhyolite without all the fencing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f62ABfgOdmo

 

Makes today's crowds look rather small by comparison.

 

I was thinking about this. Many of the parks had incredible visitation during their early years. It was insane to see old Model A's going down into Yosemite Valley on dirt roads. People were forced to, gasp, camp! There was definitely a lot of style to camping back then. Plus, and I'm not sure about this part, but it seems like they tended to stay put for longer and explore the area. At least in the various historical photos I've seen.

 

https://youtu.be/TtluDPZvQ3o

 

300 miles in one day, in those cars?!?!?! Not nearly as nice as in my Taco...

 

Let me know next time y'all organize a trip out here. I'm in Ridgecrest. Been itching to head back out

 

Definitely not DV related but certainly of an era something like of it could have been used.

Nevada Northern Railway posted a picture and asked what people thought it might be. I had no idea so googled the word fragments and came up with this.

Whether or not I am right, it's a fascinating find. I've seen a couple of tourist railways that offer tours with manual cars that look similar. Be a fun thing to do.

 

Wow, the weather forecast is *insane* at the moment. Lee Flat looking for more than two feet of snow! Only a bit less expected for Towne Pass and Steel Pass. Going to be impressive if that actually pans out...

 

Just got back from our annual trip down to DV over President's weekend. Ran from 1st night camp in Panamint up around Wildrose to skidoo, back down to 190 to stovepipe and Furnace, up Echo canyon and back down the next day, then all the way south through Furnace wash and various mines then fuel at Shoshone. From there over Jubilee and out to camp at Striped Butte then down Goler to end at Ballarat. All in all a great trip with decent weather. Can't wait for the next one! Now I'm back home and its snowing again, at least a few days seeing the 60's and 73 on the last day leaving was a nice break

 

There's a winter storm watch for Bishop. In almost 20 years it's only the 3rd one I remember seeing. This storms going to be impressive.

 

Yeah, the Tehachapi Pass has a full on *blizzard* warning! Kind of crazy for a high desert pass…

 

I drove westbound into Tehachapi around sunset in winter years ago. Mojave was clear and windy but the sky ahead was black, blocking the sunset. The radio (remember those?) had a weather warning and the last few miles into town were full-on blizzard. We had young kids then and rather than push on another 250 miles home, my wife used my Palm Treo smartphone (remember those?) to find a hotel room. The next morning was very icy and I appreciated the full time 4WD of the 80 Series we had then.

 

The last storms that came through brought a fair amount of snow to Tehachapi. So much so that the entire upper portion of the campgrounds @ Tehachapi Mountain Park were still closed this last weekend.
One of my employees wanted to take her boyfriend camping for the first time and asked me for some recommendations. Tehachapi was one of about a dozen options I gave her that were first timer friendly.....weather permitting. When she told me they were going there I warned her of below freezing nights. They went anyways and they froze their asses off. Ran out of Firewood by night 2 and didn't think to drive down to Tehachapi to replenish.

 

When’s the next trip?

 

I was thinking the same thing... crazy to model A's on those dirt roads. Also definitely not seeing anyone dressed like that now up in DV.

 

Were the gas pumps at Shoshone working ? They were down Saturday, had to drive to Pharump to top off before wheelin.

 

The weather this weekend made us postpone my families trip to April. I want to go to DV to be warm, not freeze my butt off getting there. This weekend was a last minute motel trip, now I can plan a little more and take the motorhome.

 

I'm planning on heading up in March, but realized that, now that I have a dog, I should probably look into that further. The pets section of the DVNP website is helpful, but I'm unclear if by "trail" they mean "unpaved road" or "hiking trail." If I'm driving down the former and stopping somewhere along the road (eg: Barker Ranch or a mine site along a road), am I good to let her out for a walk when I stop and check it out? If not, I need to start making some calls to find a sitter.