Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Not sure of many places in the desert where the campers take the unburned wood AND ashes on a regular basis. SV is a special place and needs to have a different level of respect when compared to Slash X area or Baja.

 

I wish that were true but the case is with so many visitors these days, we really do need to step it up everywhere or we will lose it.

 

Yes, I know how much a campfire is central to many folks’ camping experience, but I actually rarely if ever have them myself as I’m almost always dispersed camped. I’m also usually solo and a campfire is much less enticing without an interlocutor. Prefer to keep my camp dark for stargazing most of the time as well.

SV gets a lot of traffic through it because of the springs, so indeed it needs even more attention than many places, but everywhere is getting a lot more traffic these days as well. Keep typical “camping” activities like fires to the actual established campsites with fire rings and aim to leave “zero residual presence” when dispersed.

 

It is possible to have a campfire and leave no trace afterwards. It's the crowd of a-holes that throw their trash and all other items that they don't want to bring home into the fire and leave it all as they drive away. If you're doing it right....you "will" leave no trace.

 

who is the "SPA"?

 

Saline Preservation Association.

 

More importantly, they are a group of people who some say would qualify as "indigenous to SV" as many of them have gone there for 50 years or more. They work with the National Park Service to ensure cooperation between those that have 'cultivated' the place and the Park Service. They fight for what is there. The people involved are anyone from farmers, lawyers, doctors, and a bunch of semi-average folks that want to preserve what has been going on there since the 50s.

They don't get paid. They do it for themselves and 1000s others that they do not know and may not like.

The reason they don't like people being disrespectful to the place is that they know, more than others, the fight they fought and how the Park Service could decide to remove what is there.

 

It is probably impossible to overstate the degree to which community efforts have been instrumental in getting the Springs to finally be incorporated into NPS management with a documented management plan that is actually sane and probably unique within the entire Park System. This included somehow convincing a whole group of NPS folks from around the country to come out to the springs and spend a night there during the planning process. I happened to be there the week after their visit and someone who overlapped with their visit indicated the impact of the first hand experience on the group was obvious. One of the group apparently said something to the effect of, "there is nothing run like this anywhere in the Park System and we have to preserve this community spirit."

So yeah, stuff like this doesn't happen by itself and it is incredibly fragile to maintain. Before whining about policies and attitudes at the Springs always keep in mind how many people have dedicated their time and effort making sure the springs even exist still, and most importantly relatively recently getting the NPS to share their view and codify it in policy in a manner that is about as un-NPS-like as one can imagine.

 

I'm not telling you what to do yet you have failed multiple times to be accountable for your actions and violating park regulations. Rules for thee but not for me I guess. Your lack of accountability is quite common.

Couldn't have stated it any better than HBMurphy and DVexile. The management plan specific to Saline Valley took years to actually happen and many people provided input and worked with the NPS to ensure the area remained accessible in it's current state for everyone to enjoy. I personally took part in public access meetings, had email dialogue with SPA members and NPS. I also read the proposed plans and the final draft. So yes, I'm one of those naked people at the springs who actually give a damn about the place. Another one of those naked humans who I trust to give accurate information was at one time the camp host for seven years. He commented about the "Road Warriors" and their "hell bent" driving style.

 

Lack of accountability/regulation violation is also a major factor in the loss of services and closures of our beloved resources. We are all guilty of violating rules to some degree, but openly highlighting such behavior on the open internet is, well, stupid.

And I’ll leave this here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tacomaworld-code-of-conduct.17179/

 

The Subaru Guy and the 2WD 1995-ish Econoline Chick who have been stuck there for 30+ days are still there and are pretty well supplied..

South Pass late Friday Night.. I did my best staying on top of the snow and not staying in the established track. A lot of water run off just after Lee Flats before the snow line..

 

Mojave, though not DV:
https://twitter.com/SBCOUNTYFIRE/st...9gjun3r1tJ0TfmUCGMlfuGhu8Rarc&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Also https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/up-train-ore-derails-in-california-desert/

“crew was not in the cab” … hmm, did they jump or forget to set the parking brake?

 

Yikes. Was just through there a couple days ago. Chilly, but nice. And we joked around as I dug out a UP wash, that it'd suck to have the train derail. I can say - it was loud under there, and the concrete trestle (I suppose that's technically what it is) has seen (much) better days.

 

FYI as of today, Cima Road is closed just south of I-15 for repaving.

 

Just got through watching this - a Death Valley (primarily, plus a bit of the surrounding area) trip report from 1926 with some great captions to the photos. Pretty amazing to see many locations I recognize, and how similar or different they are today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYFH7byJDEw

Thanks to @Area51Runner for sending me the video in the first place.

 

Glad you enjoyed it.

To see these people head out nearly a hundred years ago chasing down that same desert adventure, very cool stuff.

 

Some info on the bottle house. We saw the place as kids. I don't remember what I thought about it at the time but I cannot imagine living in a place like that today.

 

Hows willow springs road from baker ranch headed east across to badwater road and up north to the 190?

 

I think you mean Warm Springs Road from Barker Ranch. Is this right?

 

Barker range and blue line east then orange line north which I believe is called bad water road.
I have a friend that wants to see a few "popular spots" but would like to spend some time on trail and away from those spots before heading there.
I selected this route.