Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Understatement.

 

Can't disagree but if calling helps get you out of what is potentially a serious jam, maybe it's time to do that?

 

If they must, I guess I’d be ok with just call boxes- let’s not put in friggen ugly cell phone fake palm tree towers with solar panels and new roads leading up to them in the park.

I used to follow along and monitor Motorola workers doing this on BLM land along some desert freeways and they have to put the towers on high points since the signals are line of sight, so they have to cut new roads up to the hilltops to do it. At least with call boxes they can network them together for long distances and even use satellite for them so the boxes don’t cause as much impact beyond the roadsides. Another benefit is people won’t be using their smartphones to watch boobtube or whatever while they are driving in the park!

 

You can't run towers or call boxes along every desolate roadway....it's costly and impractical. you're not going to protect every numbskull that wonders into the wilderness either. There will (always) be the few that go past the boundaries or out of cell range only to get caught in trouble. Compare these few incidents with the thousands of people that frequent the same areas, but are prepared for it. Just the way people are....."believe it or not"

 

Most cellphones will end up with satellite based SOS features faster than the NPS would ever get through the impact studies to install even one tower.

Where they were would be trivially covered with a single tower covering the entire south of the park. But as someone else said, there would still be idiots getting stuck in canyons not accessible by cell.

In the meantime, if they don’t die prosecute them to the fullest and use their stupidity for public outreach as they are here.

 

I'm scratching my head at how you get lost on west side road.

 

People just cannot pay attention.

 

From what I gather MOST people have absolutely no sense of fucking direction!

 

8/12/23 debris flow DV/BP road.


cakewalk of course...but what about the tesla/prius



fresh and wet

 

well placed boulder


well packed powder



your teakettle



my teakettle 0444

out looking for Perseids and the elusive nightjar...(common nighthawk)

 

Park Service must of made a kettle collection. I've never seen just one.

 

And Inyo County road crews must be taking the weekend off. lol

 

yeh..weekend off...drove by this AM and road open to all as if no monsoon..maybe monday they'll figure it out

 

Butte Valley Below..

Best spot ever watching the near by and distant thunderstorms and the Perseid Meteor Storm.

From Light into Dark

 

Missing DV badly...thanks for sharing all the great photos.

 

Is that packed powder picture in hidden valley? Where the wicked silt bed was?

 

I think you have flashbacks everytime you see pics of that Valley

There's a section behind Eureka Sand Dunes before Dedeckera that's getting just as bad as the Hidden Valley silt..

 

sawbladeduller,
Did you do a big loop from the Scotty's castle / Ubhee Crater road out the Big Pine road?
The Big Pine / Death Valley road was clear, no flash flood debris on 8/9/23 - I drove out in the am after camping for the night on the pass, near the Saline Valley Road

 

No. drove Lee Flat to Ubehebe to Eureka Valley into upper Inyos. Camped 8/11/23 under eastern edge of large electrical cell that flashed and boomed for several hours and precipitated to the western slope, which then flash flooded down western canyon and flowed over DV/BP road in this one spot.