Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

I hate when people do that, that's my main way of figuring out if there's other people in the vicinity. Whenever I come across someone out there I always compare their dust trail to mine....they've got a little puff immediately around their vehicle, and I've got a 500ft long dust trail rising from the ground I can see when going around bends.

 

Too bad others don't, I constantly pick up broken glass here, there, and everywhere. I can tell the method is toss them out along the road, or toss them into the fire pit. Very irritating.

 

I was in AZ winter 2015, south of I-8 by Gila Bend there was plenty of BLM Rangers armed to the hilt. I went south on Ve-something Road just wanting to settle down for the night before I got to Gila Bend. What a zoo. I hung around there for another day just to see the zoo. BLM Rangers zeroed in on me since I was a stationary vehicle, looked suspicious on a known smuggling route.

I asked them where I could camp, they said "North of I-8", not much more info, they were moving on. I won't make any judgements about border security, I helped a kid out when I went north of I-8, kid was alone maybe 20yrs old and dang near starved to death and dehydrated. It was daytime, the black lab starts barking so I know someone is approaching. I look out, I can see the kid's legs shaking, says, "Ayudame, ayudame". Kid wolfed down two apples, three cans of juice, then a break, then still hungry he wolfs salami and swiss cheese. Dog was jealous, she wanted the salami and swiss.

I've had people tell me I shouldn't have helped an illegal, I'm proud I did, he was a nice kid.

 

I wouldve done the same thing. But if the bat senses started tingling that the dude was a bad hombre then no. Not getting all political, but theres a difference between people who are trying to cross the border for a chance at a better way of life as opposed to smugglers crossing the border.

 

Funny that you don't see people willing to die to leave here...just sayin.

 

It's a shame that some people feel that way. Take him to the authorities, border patrol, the police, whatever...if that's what you feel is right, I wouldn't have issue with that...after giving him some water and food. But denying a starving/dying human being food or water when you have plenty is straight fucked. There are some hard lines that politics shouldn't cross.

 

I was on Vekol Road, east of Gila Bend, east of the Barry Goldwater Range. Never saw any buttons or poles. Looking forward to your trip report.

 

Headed to DV right now in the new truck. Going to stick to the easier routes and camp somewhere tonight. Probably be at Panamint Springs around noon. Should give us plenty of time to get in and set up camp somewhere.

 

Nice! How's the weather going to look out there tonight/tomorrow? SoCal is getting hit hard with rain over the next couple of days and the mountains are going to get substantial snow with freezing temps...stay safe out there!

 

and really windy from the looks of it, just checked out the weather for DV. Not much in the way of rain but tons of wind and cold, sounds about right for the desert this time of year.

 

Bring it on. Haha

Probably just stay tonight. Maybe do Titus tomorrow. And then head off to Zion and monument valley. Who knows

 

Awesome, I just did Zion last Thanksgiving for the first time in my life...it was incredible. Would love to drive through there on my own (without a group) and camp/explore over several days

 

Back from a few days in Death Valley this past week. This was mostly a photography trip although I did get the chance to drive through Titus Canyon, that was awesome!

Huge shout out to @DVexile who helped me pinpoint certain spots and gave great DV advice in general. This my first time back in 5 years, such a cool place. 1750 miles, half of that was getting there and back and half of it was in the park itself! Lots of driving...

Here are a few of my pics, with the obligatory Tacoma pic at the end....

 

I'd say you succeeded with the photo mission.

 

That military jet in your pic, I saw a pair of them sporting on the Virgin River valley. They weren't in formation, just sporting around. Lead guy went over the bridge on the old highway towards I15, tail guy lifted over the power lines and cut south. Probably about fifteen minutes from DV.

 

@Shwaa - Nice haul of pics! Those storm clouds worked out nicely in a bunch of shots. Glad you had an awesome trip.

I’ll be out there in a week, but with my five year old in tow likely not very much photography going on...

 

Enjoy the trip! Thanks again for all the help!

 

When I was 13 I took a mini cross country trip with my grandparents, they drive me from Oregon to Minnesota through places like Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone park...and I was glued to my Gameboy 90% of the time. I remember my grandfather finally pulling over and telling me to put it the fuck away and pay attention, haha.

 

We never had “real” video game devices at our home for our kids, but they both had GameBoys and yes, they were often glued to them during road trips through the West. But now, 15-20 years later, they still remember a lot about places we visited. Kids are pretty good at multi-tasking.

 

I remember a trip to Clear Creek in central California, when it was unrestricted, around ‘96-97 with our son who was about 5 years old then, in our Land Cruiser. I had a very early DeLorme GPS that plugged into the serial port (no USB in those days) of my laptop, and he helped me navigate. Now he’s in the military, doing stuff he can’t talk about, with geo-data ...