Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Hard to know what happens next. Whether others are allowed to help, who knows. Best we can do is to let them decide and let us know.

I will say that because so much of the visitation is in the coming months and into the backcountry, perhaps they'll have more info in a couple of weeks?

 

They’ve all washed away before and been regraded. It’s just a bit unusual to have so many at the same time and will take longer this time. Closing existing routes is really not in the cards.

Most of the closed routes are periodically bladed/graded by NPS so likely they will do it themselves. Some routes have been maintained by 4WD clubs (e.g. Lippincott) so not out of the question but seems unlikely. I believe there is usually a MOU in place for things like Lippincott. Probably not worth the effort for a one-off event like this. But I of course have no direct knowledge of what they will do, merely can observe what they’ve done in the past.

Yep, this a lot to deal with all at once. Naturally they have to triage and prioritize the roads that handle the most visitors. They are updating road status almost daily and have made some amazing progress. They opened lower Wildrose just a few days past, meaning you can now enter the park from the west finally. Still so much to do that it seems like some routes will stay closed for months.

 

Pessimism is good..i've always been a semi-realist, and pessimism is a healthy aspect of reality. I attended a university lecture in 1975 with Anthropologist/Poet Loren Eiseley and from that I've maintained a faint glimmer of optimism throughout the years.
For some of the backroads at least, North Highway to Ubehebe will be reformed, and Racetrack road will be reformed, both areas are big tourist draws, but we see how long it has taken for Scotty's Castle road to be made whole again. Interesting that a report indicates Hidden Valley has improved at the sand bog, if only till the trucks/jeeps tear it up again. Reports suggest Lippincot is within the 'use extreme caution' range and needs no work. Saline Valley road from North to South, or South to North is in wonderfully challenging condition for speeds from 5mph to 25mph, and the best thing there is to keep Inyo County road graders busy doing other stuff.
Problem area is Eureka Dunes where the Steel Pass route starts, and is pretty mucked up from years of multi tracks, that is a section I fear DVNP could close for restoration. The other end of the route thru the sloping valley down to Saline Valley road has been re-roaded several times after washing out, but since most recently a few monsoonal deluges have returned the valley completely to its natural state, it could probably remain closed for good. I have no thoughts about south of the Cottonwoods...but optimistic

 

It is worth noting that DVNP, and its roads, are managed under extensive management plans that went through formal evaluation and approval processes including public comment. These accepted and now implemented plans define various classes of backcountry roads and define the level of maintenance they will receive. Not maintaining them is not one of the choices. The minimum required maintenance is for them to be restored to the point that they are passable to high clearance 4WD vehicles after being washed out. Many dirt roads are suppose to be maintained to a higher standard.

If NPS wanted to close a route they can’t just ignore the management plan and not repair the road.

 

Good to know. I figured they would repair trails to the better known tourist spots but wasn't sure about the lesser known canyons like those off West Side Road which are likely to have major washouts. Since these do show up on the NPS backcountry road map it sounds like they will be brought back to some degree of trafficability giving reason to be optimistic.

 

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I'm a few trip reports behind at this point, but in the meantime a new to me view of Death Valley from a couple of weeks ago...

 

Oh man! You nailed the light with this one - beautiful shot

 

....short
https://youtube.com/shorts/xwikTJbdMs4?feature=share

 

these guys were seemly doing laps on us back in July, was very cool

 

Talk about a cliffhanger. And knowing that there are a few stories coming (hopefully soon)... very cool. Hoping my first trip down for the year will be the first week of Nov.

 

CA 190 is now open from US 395 to Panamint Valley Road. Still closed from Panamint Valley Road to Emigrant Canyon Road over Towne Pass. But with Emigrant and Wildrose open that does mean you can transit the park east/west with just a bit of a detour and only a little bit of gravel road along Wildrose. Estimate for Towne Pass is still end of the month.

 

Not to be rude, but don't you have stories to write? Surfing the 'net and providing traffic reports can wait.

/in fun

 

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Just for that I'm going to leave you to get wet while you wait for it...

 

Recently I scampered down an incline shaft immediately east of DV, likely in NV, and found this cool piece of quartz -- anyone know what the red veins are? Disclosure: I dumped water on the rock.

 

Probably hematite or cinnabar.

 

We tried to go 190 to ps road on Sunday. Closed.

The trail from Swansea to the salt tram is open but not to Cerro.

We spent our time in the eastern sierras

 

Was it impassable at some point? If so where?

 

190 was closed at the storage facility, but we made it to the stop sign before we were asked to leave. Only 3 parts of 190 were damaged and they were almost done with that. No idea about ps road.

 

Oh thought you were talking about the Swansea to Cerro Gordo grade.

 

That I heard was a total washout, didn't even try