Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Thats why I didn't quote ya.

 

Might as well air up while checking out Ubehebe!


Titus Canyon with @El Taco Diablo

 

yep. long time between DV trips. My last trip was when we rolled out together

The weather was really good. I also saw a lot of traffic in the park, yet I still managed to find pockets of solitude. The southern end of the park is a geological wonderland. I set up my chair and enjoyed the sounds of nothing, no noise, no people, no air planes overhead, and no lights at night. The stars were awesome, and then that big moon--watching it rise was epic. It was great.

I also found some world-class canyons I want to explore, but need special equipment and training to traverse, so another hobby to consider for the next decade?

 

Almost home from Death Valley...



We took the scenic route

 

Alright, 1200 miles later... here we go. Took a ton more photos than this, and I'm sure that the others will post plenty more.

Started off early last Friday morning, and met up with @Blue Canary, @roguegs, and @El Taco Diablo at Trail Gear in Fresno. We then rolled down 99 to Bakersfield, had some fried chicken, and took the scenic route along the Kern River up to Isabella Lake and out to Ridgecrest and Trona Pinnacles, where we linked up with @CrashN'Burn and @2BeersPlease. We woke up Saturday to some beautiful views.





We pushed out relatively early and headed up and over Fish Canyon Escape Route into the southern end of Panamint Valley.





There's a reason that my gas cans are strapped down in their normal position in the following photos, compared to where they're at in the preceding one: They bounced out of their straps on the washboard road between FCER and Goler Wash, slid horizontally under my cooler, and drained a bit of fuel into my bed. Two lessons learned: (1) When you have a good system for strapping down fuel cans, don't change it before hitting a washboard road at speed and (2) I should've ordered that bumper with Jerry can carriers a few weeks earlier. But, anyway, I digress...

We headed up Goler Canyon to Barker Ranch, and then took a fun off-camber detour into Mengel Pass. Me: Hard left. Send it. Team Top-Heavy: We're playing it safe and lining ourselves up properly.









After making our way to the top of Mengel Pass, we ran into some injured motocross riders (who were fortunately already being assisted by another group, which conveniently included a nurse), and moved on to Butte Valley, where... in a joke that turned out to become an honest-to-God-actual-thing, we cooked up something a bit ridiculous for the group.





Woke up to a spectacular view on Sunday morning, regrouped for a last photo with all of us together, and then I scrambled up a crest solo for another scenic shot before we drove up Butte Valley and down Warms Springs Canyon out to Death Valley proper, with @CrashN'Burn and @2BeersPlease dipping out for New Mexico along the way.







As a geologist who spent a lot of time in Death Valley during college, I wasn't the least bit surprised to find that, after airing up, we were tailing a few vans of Northern Arizona University students to Badwater Basin. After a short stop to take in some views from far below sea level, we continued north to Beatty, making a stop at Keane Wonder Mine.





On reaching Beatty, we skipped the Stagecoach Hotel and Casino, gassed up, and then went down and through Titus Canyon for an awesome twilight drive.









After finishing Titus, we headed up to the northern end of Racetrack Valley and made camp, and woke up Monday to yet another great view. @roguegs headed home in the morning.



@roguegs broke off early to head home, and then there were three. We doubled back to Ubehebe Craters, and then down to Racetrack Playa, with a brief stop at Teakettle Junction.















After visiting the playa, we rolled out to Saline Valley down Lippincott Pass... where we took an impromptu lunch break while a pair of Subarus and several trucks, including a pretty well-built Land Cruiser and XJ) worked their way through around an apparently difficult turn. (It was not.) I sadly didn't notice and thus didn't get a photo, but I hit 100,000 miles through the pass.





After passing the groups at the turn onto Saline Valley Road, we climbed out of the valley to a spectacular view of the north end of Panamint Valley, including the dunes and Telescope Peak.



@Blue Canary departed for home when we reached Darwin Plateau (amidst some outstanding Joshua trees).



With a good amount of light left in the day, @El Taco Diablo took the lead and we rolled up and over Cerro Gordo and down into Keeler, where we aired up and headed our separate ways.







The girlfriend and I headed up to Bishop, where we ate surprisingly good steaks for dinner at a bowling alley and pastries that met the hype for Tuesday morning's breakfast. After topping off the tanks, we headed up 395 through intermittent snow showers to Panum Crater and Mono Lake, before making the long drive home with stops in Topaz Lake and South Lake Tahoe.

 

Man... That hill looked a lot different through the windshield.

 

Classic example of "pictures don't do it justice." @Motofox knows all about what I'm talking about from the good old days, haha.

 

Either that, or I was just being a pussy coming over that ledge

 

Panum Crater is a cool place that doesn't seem gets enough visitors. Nice job on the photos!

 

My thoughts exactly....

 

It really is. I wish we'd had more time up there.

Probably never would have gotten into my industry if it hadn't been for a trip to Mono Craters 16 or 17 years ago.

 

I made my own trip report on this but figured I would post it here too: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...death-valley-the-weekend-of-2-18-2022.756661/

 

Nice concise report without any flippant commentary. Sounds like you will be venturing back to DV asap. Feel free to repost the entire report here.

 

Do you guys know how closely rangers monitor fee-payment receipts on dashboards in more "remote" areas? I am heading out to DV soon and my first 2 nights are gonna be at Lee Flat and Eureka Dunes (via 395 from Lee Flat). I looked online and there is no fee payment kiosks anywhere near those locations. My plan is to pay the fee on the 3rd day as I enter the Stovepipe/Furnace area. Was wondering if I should be safe? I see you can do it online, but I don't have access to a printer so that won't help me. If there were a kiosk near Panamint Springs area I would use that but there doesn't appear to be. I guess if need be I will go way out of my way to Stovepipe area first before turning around back to Lee Flat.

 

Buy the death valley np entrance pass on recreation.gov its $30 good for 7days

 

Thanks, I already mentioned that in my post. I don't have access to a printer so that doesn't help me unfortunately. It says on the site you still need to print it out for your dashboard.

 

Swing by a fedex/kinkos, ups store, office max/office depot, etc. and you can print a single sheet of paper for like 10-25 cents.

 

Yea Im thinking thats the probably best way to handle this. Thanks.

 

but to answer your question - I just got back from a 3 day trip and like you, I didn't get to stovepipe until my way out. I was fine the entire trip. More than half the vehicles I've passed didn't have the pass on their dash, even in the more populated areas.