Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Not sure if this is his Tacoma.

 

I don't think so. Probably photographed on a drive by

 

It is his rig. He's got another video where he mounts his RTT on it.

 

Another accident on Towne Pass...sad outcome...loss of life and damage to a historical site.

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2025/may/21/highway-closed-for-22-hours-for-fatal-semi-truck-c/


Highway closed for 22 hours in fatal semi-truck crash at Death Valley
Fatal crash death valley

A semi-truck driver was killed May 20, 2025, when their vehicle crashed into the historic Emigrant Ranger Station in Death Valley National Park, officials said. Photo by: Courtesy photo

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 | 5:41 p.m.

A semi-truck driver was killed Tuesday afternoon when their vehicle crashed into the historic Emigrant Ranger Station in Death Valley National Park following an apparent brake failure, officials said this afternoon in a news release.

The 2:12 pm incident occurred at Emigrant Junction, where the truck collided with the 1930s stone building constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The crash destroyed two stone columns and damaged the roof of the culturally significant structure, where ranger Stan Jones famously wrote "Ghost Riders in the Sky" in 1947, officials said. Sodium sulfate cargo and diesel fuel spilled across the roadway, prompting a hazmat response team to arrive overnight for cleanup operations.

Highway 190 remained closed for 22 hours between Stovepipe Wells and Towne Pass, reopening Wednesday morning. The accident highlights ongoing safety concerns on the steep Towne Pass grades, where multiple commercial vehicle fires occurred in 2024 due to overheated brakes, officials said.

National Park Service, Caltrans, Highway Patrol, and county officials coordinated the emergency response and investigation.

 

If it’s not already illegal, they need to ban semis on that hwy.

 

Imagine semis trying to go up and down Tioga....if they can ban dogs, they can ban commercial trucking. Seems to keep the semi accidents out of Yose.

 

That sucks.

 

Realistically, they do need to get supplies into places like DV and Yosemite. But steep routes? Nah. And definitely not with hazmat.

 

I think the big difference here is that CA-120 through Yosemite is actually maintained by the NPS while CA-190 through Death Valley is actually maintained by CalTrans. As a result Yosemite can tell the trucks to pound sand, but Death Valley can't do that unless they find funding to take over maintenance of CA-190.

Anyway, yeah, this is getting absolutely stupid with the number of truck drivers causing issues on Towne Pass. Sadly one of them died this time, give it more time and they'll kill some innocent bystander.

 

The CHP can easily set up shop and start with the mandatory inspections and CalTrans could easily ban big rigs just based on the accident rate. The National Parks typically require a permit for traffic through the parks as well.

 

Yep. My only point was that NPS isn’t in the position to unilaterally make the choice for 190. As you say, there seems plenty of good reasons for those with the authority to shut this stupidity down.

 

Whatever "prevents" one but not the other is not immediately obvious. The language is effectively the same for both roads with the exception of DV being an advisement and YNP being, prohibition.

Maybe it's time to ping those responsible to get this done--this accident closed the road for almost 24 hours, spilled hazmat, destroyed historical structures, and killed the driver.

 

CA-190 is an RS 2477 easement across the park. The road is not owned, maintained, or controlled by the NPS. It is owned and maintained by the state and any regulations to its use are made by the state. As an example, the road was open when the NPS units shutdown because, again, the NPS has no control over the right of way. Thus Death Valley NP is not able to restrict commercial trucking on CA-190 in the park. They are, and do, restrict commercial trucking on all NPS owned roads in the park and cite offenders (e.g. Mud Canyon). But for CA-190 the NPS has no say in who gets to drive on the road.

Tioga Pass, on the other hand, is an NPS owned road. This is why Caltrans only does maintenance on it up to the park boundary and NPS has to do the maintenance through the park itself. Since it is a federally owned and maintained road directly controlled by the NPS they can do more or less whatever the heck they want as far as regulations on the road. Thus Yosemite NP is able to restrict commercial trucking through Tioga Pass.

CalTrans, on the other hand, actually lists CA-120 as part of its Truck Network all the way up to the NPS boundary on the east side. So as far as the state is concerned, by all means take semis up to the top of Tioga, but just be prepared to have to turn around once the NPS tells you that you can't proceed.

That's the problem. NPS has its hands tied with CA-190, they have no control of it. It is dependent on the state to restrict commercial trucking on CA-190. Which of course the state could decide to do. And I'd like them to. But given Inyo County's past actions with regards to DVNP roads and rights of way, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

 

I do love the dunes...

 

Critter tracks in the Eureka Dunes

 

Dare to dream, if only that were true.