Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

That sucks. Hope you heal up quick.

 

I hope you don't have an MT

 

@dtaco06 Sending you good vibes man.

 

Ouch! Hope it heals up well and soon!

Good reminder also to be prepared when out there - as you say good thing you had splints along.

 

What part is broken? Elbow? Wrist? Sounds like you dislocated the elbow and subsequently fractured it at the same time. Good times reducing that in the field.

 

Anyone ever do backcountry camping at this spot: 36.734208, -116.966971?

Or does anyone know of any good spots around the middle of the park?

 

Sub’d af

 

That's a borrow pit (place road crews get sand/gravel for construction) and if you look on Google street view is signed "Service Road". Typically those aren't considered a place to camp by the NPS. In addition the road is less than 1 mile long and NPS requires dispersed camping to be one mile from the pavement in DVNP (it used to be two miles but was recently changed to one mile when they updated which roads could have camping on them). It also excludes the entire valley floor from dispersed camping (so no camping along West Side Road).

So I despise camping in a campground and like you would prefer to dispersed camp instead. That is allowed in the park and you can do it in some locations quite close to the center of things but they've tried to make sure people aren't destroying the view shed and camping where they are visible for tens of miles. The above spot you found was a good choice because it appears tucked out of view, but being on a service road and not 1 mile from pavement it isn't allowed.

Fortunately there are some really good easy locations - remarkably so for a National Park. Echo Canyon Road is one of the best. This is just south of Furnace Creek on the 190 near Zabriske Point. You just need to drive 1 mile up the road to be legal. There are a couple of miles of legal dispersed camping as you climb the aluvial fan to the mouth of the canyon and some of these spots are tucked against the embankment of the wash give shelter from winds from the south or east. There are also a fair number of places to camp once inside the canyon and these can be nicely shaded for a large part of the day if camping in warmer temperatures.

Closer to your original location you can continue a few more miles NE along Daylight Pass Road until you are exiting the park and camp on BLM land. There are a few roads just on the other side of the pass that cross BLM land and camping restrictions are almost non-existent there. The Echo Canyon location is a lot closer to things though but the BLM land puts you close to the start of Titus Canyon Road if you are planning on doing that one morning.

Another popular option are the various roads climbing from West Side Road to the eastern escarpment of the Panamints. West Side Road is a "day use only" road which means no camping on it or on any side road within one mile of it. So if you go more than one mile up any side road you can camp along there. Trail Canyon Road is the closest one to "civilization" and has a few flat spots along the lower portion that make a sensible open camp.

Definitely check out the NPS guide on backcountry camping. It has a helpful map where you can clearly see all the roads camping is allowed along and which are not. Read the regulations carefully:

https://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/upload/Backcountry-Camping-2017.pdf

DVNP is incredibly permissive about dispersed vehicle camping compared to most National Parks. Please follow the rules so they keep the regulations reasonable for as long as possible! As mentioned they even reduced the two mile limit down to one mile recently - when has a NP made things less restrictive?!??

 

Glad you're alright. Good job on the wilderness first aid!

 

Shit man. I'm hoping youre 100% real soon.

 

Canadian company trying to put a open pit cyanide leach mine on Conglomerate Mesa (Inyo Mountains on western border of DVNP). If you like exploring the area keep your eyes on this and contribute to any public comment periods:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front...e=renderDefaultProjectSummary&projectId=91166

 

it's funny that when a mine is proposed, BLM is all over that. But if you wanna recreate with your 4x4? No can do.

 

Very nice. Looks like the Warm Springs pool is ready to be cleaned out.

 

Very nice!

 

It fills from rain runoff and gets really nasty. Yoda would be at home.

 

very nice as the sun sets to have a fire to warm my way into a long cold night. morning was cold, i packed the trucktent and drove off without coffee in search of morning sun. arriving into this valley i came across two young austrian men with totally packed vw jetta. they were searching for an oasis rumored to be near here, they'd gotten stuck in the sand and spent the night and were able to dig them selves out and get turned around the next morning when i spoke with them.

 

Dude, don't even joke....

 

LOL, they aren't getting to the "oasis" from there in a Jetta! Fortunate the sand stopped them - that you can get unstuck from with relative ease. Headed up canyon they would have just started ripping important parts off the bottom of the car and lost multiple tires.

Sigh - was at the "oasis" last week and it has way, way, way too much visitation now - even in the previously empty early December time frame. Eff the internet...

 

On a recent visit to the oasis, I saw this guy out there. You can do it but it is certainly not recommended.

 

I'm planning a trip to DV with my old high school buddies in January. As it stands there are four of us going, and four seats in my Tacoma. All well and good. But there is a fifth guy who is thinking of coming along. I don't have a seat for him. He's all, "No problem, I'll drive myself." In his Prius. I mean sure, I get that the trip is more about getting together and fellowship than it is about exploring the nooks and crannies of DV. But still.