Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

I'd say it's a big bummer. But, I'll follow up when I receive a reply.

 

The only reason we went out Steel Pass was North Pass being questionable. Some recent posts on SPA also pointed to Steel Pass being fine, but like you said, NPS wanting to limit impact. In previous Saline trips in the last few months and before the round of big January storms, we avoided Steel Pass due to the closure. Thanks again for the heads up on Titus Canyon.

 

Organizer says it’s official marking of the trail.

 

Not that my opinion matters, but I’d say you made a sensible decision based on North Pass reported conditions and the posts on SPA saying the Steel Pass route had been marked by users.

 

I did the Escape Trail about ten years ago. There are other yellow signs of similar fashion in and around the Western Panamints. Most notable being Rogers Pass.

 

interesting that BigPine/DV road is marked closed from 168.

 

I participated in Cal4Wheel’s Escape from Death Valley tour last Fall. Those signs were put up by a historical group and I presume with the NP’s permission. They are intended to show the historical route and were not for an event. At least that’s how I understood it … could be wrong. In any case due to storm-related road closures we didn’t do that side, only over Mengel up to Striped Butte from the west and then back.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174570

Edit: the final day we went from the Coyote Canyon area south of Ballarat over to Trona and passed the more detailed signs as well as some of the smaller ones. The CA4WD group had a permit from DVNP for the event.

 

That hmdb site was a great find! Thank you.

Cal4 events are always pretty well run and the organizer mentioned them as being official markers in his reply. What surprises me is that you don't see any of them in any sort of official documentation. These are pretty nifty markers as well.

Thanks for another confirmation!

 

Those signs are in some of the DV books that talk about the "Escape Trail".
I don't remember which ones off the top of my head.

 

This is the same sign that @ian408 posted, in Fish Canyon, except that I took the picture myself last November. Flame cut steel, it looked like. Note the weird font, all upper case except the i and l. FYI the canyon is named after a guy named Fish; not much water here to support aquatic life. And of course this sign is outside the NP.


Gratuitous Taco picture a bit to the east on the same trail, same trip. Mine was the only Tacoma on the run so I cropped out the Bronco’s and Jeeps.

 

Fish was one of the emigrants that the Emigrant trail is named after. Along with Manly etc.

 

Sign hunting has been an interesting history lesson.

 

I couldn't find the photos from the time I traveled the escape trail.

This is the current window placard for the park. The last one I remember getting was a small one with a piece of tape.

 

Traveling eastwards on Fish Canyon last spring, the trail became very nebulous not too far after that sign, right about where the canyon ends and the alluvial fan begins.

 

At the risk of asking a dumb question... what is SPA?


And on the topic of route-finding when nature has erased the trail, or when you just can't find the stupid road leading to some nearby destination... let me proclaim, a flying camera is the perfect tool for the job! Except of course where prohibited, such as within Death Valley National Park. Doh! But it's truly shocking how difficult it can be to follow even established routes from a ground-level perspective, yet how easily the terrain can be read from above. Where permitted, and when its use won't impact others, a flying camera is the most useful route-finding tool yet invented.

 

Saline Preservation Association, they have a forum with road conditions reports.

 

I always thought F/R lockers where the most useful route finding tool invented. lol

 

Why fuss around with route finding tools? Use a route creating tool instead. (Though this might not be approved for use in a National Park, so call the visitor center to check first)

Photo Credit: Master Sgt. John Nimmo, Sr

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