Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Totally overlooked that route, seems pretty straight forward compared to having go all the way up and around, thanks!

 

Curious to hear about this as well, as this hike is on my list

 

Scotty’s Castle/Road are still closed.

 

Fairly interesting article in the New Yorker about Shoshone and the surrounding area. It's about one of it's current inhabitants but their is a ton of history as well.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-queen-of-the-desert

 

I'm still planning to go up there sometime towards the end of next week and can report back. Can highly recommend the hike, best one in the park IMHO.

 

I live 3000 miles away from New York, have been there not by choice a few times and have zero interest in going back, but I’m an avid reader of the magazine and though I also have zero interest in classical music, I did know that their classical music critic Alex Ross is a desert and DV fan. When I was in Anza Borrego a few years ago the volunteer who helped me in the gift shop wore a name tag that read “Alex Ross”. Not the same guy. I asked

 

...We never made it that 45 minutes - at least, not uneventfully. It was just as we were exiting Saline Valley - and starting the climb toward South Pass - that I heard Mike over the radio, "Oh awesome, look at that!" I had no idea what he was talking about, but figured that it must have been something to do with his - or Monte's - truck. But then, I heard it - just as Monte exclaimed, "Holy shit!" - and seconds later......

https://www.youtube.com/embed/04kNK2ydVAU​

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Keep reading the rest here
Buzzed by a C-17 Transport - Back for More #2​

 

I am entirely envious! I spent about a dozen days in the park in 2021, and not a single flyby. Or anywhere else in CA for that matter.

Last winter I set up an SDR to look for radio traffic while I drive, hoping for some advanced notice (so I can park and fumble with the lenscap on my camera per usual). Don't know if it would actually work though because I never encountered a plane. I just cannibalized the parts for another project, so maybe I'll never know. But... hoping to see some more low-flying aircraft this year!

 

What part of the park were you in?
I've seen a lot in the northwest part of the park.

 

Why not look at one of the flight monitoring pages? If the aircraft is running a transponder, it should show.

 

That only works if the transponder is actually illuminated by a radar and the aircraft is simultaneously in line of site of an ADS-B receiver connected to the particular flight monitoring network you are using. While that’s probably true of flights over say 20,000 ft in the DV area it certainly isn’t true of anything low enough to be worth calling a fly-by.

 

On top of the fact that almost all fighter aircraft don’t have ads-b. They use MLAT and it’s hit and miss if most monitoring/tracking websites will even see them. The c-17 does have ads-b but low level does interrupt the signal at times.
Your best bet is to google the sidewinder low level route and print a map. Then stay near the route listed during weekdays and you will increase your chances of seeing aircraft. Weekends are usually dead.

 

I tend to get lucky and have been there on reserve weekends. I can imagine most reserve pilots wanting something more fun on training flights, like hauling around Death Valley.

 

Don't look for specific aircraft but activity in the area. I know Flightaware sells kits and that they're deployed in Inyokern, Bishop, and China Lake--you can get this from their coverage map.

 

Interesting. I was under the impression all aircraft except GA were supposed to have ADS-B. Something like 20% of military aircraft are fitted with it (tho regulation says it can be turned off) as of 2020.

I did just read that flightradar24 and others like it filter military ads-b traffic. adsbexchange does not tho.

 

Fix for that is to come back for another visit! if you want to see low flybys, then one of the best place is to hang out at the north end of the middle hot springs in Saline Valley for a couple days. Weather permitting, on weekdays, there are usually 1 or 2 low flybys screeching down from Steel Pass. Typically, the lead plane come down the middle of the canyon going directly over the spring followed shortly by their wingman coming down the eastern side of the canyon.

Getting good pictures are a different story, they come down the canyon so low and fast that when you hear them coming, you better already have a camera in you hands and at correct settings pointed in right direction otherwise all you will get are tailpipe pictures. People have done it but I’ve since found it is more enjoyable to sit back and enjoy the show.

 

On my adventure list in 2022.

 

It wont disappoint you.... beside the gas price.......

 

Per @ETAV8R ‘s request, I’m sharing this post from the Truck Camping thread I originally posted it on. I’m guessing that they were kind of a reminder to ETAV8R of the DV terrain.

I’ve only been to Trona Pinnacles once; it was Spring of 2020. It’s desert land with odd land formations, very interesting sights to see outside of the city. They remind of the hoodoos in Utah, but brownish grey instead of reddish brown. Lots of trails to go off-roading on and ride a mountain bike. There was a spot near where we camped that had a slightly steep rocky downhill I tried on the mtb. It’s probably no big deal for the more experienced riders, but I was a bit… concerned for my life. Lol. Definitely you’ll get to see some nice evening sky star canopy and beautiful sunrise there, weather permitting. If you’re into that kind of stuff, it would be worth a weekend trip. Or, at least an overnighter and then go to the Sierras the next day, like we did. Great spot to have pork adobo and adobo fried rice for breakfast, too.

 

Any of you fly boys ever play this game? It’s what my avatar name is partly named after.

I’m sure it isn’t as cool as flying a real plane, but it was a fun video game to play.