Trail Report: Death Valley

[FishPOET]

Linda, Scott, Waldo, Verny, Itzia & myself met at Peggy Sue's Diner at 8am on Friday April 12, 2013. We had a wonderful breakfast and held our safety tailgate meeting. We headed North on Interstate 15 and turned left in Baker and headed North on CA 127. We turned right on Dumont Dunes Road. We aired down and disconnected. We turned left onto the Sperry Wash Trail at N35° 41.925 W116° 15.204















to be continued...

[FishPOET]

After exiting Sperry Wash we drove to China Ranch Date Farm for lunch. Their date bread was as delicious as ever. After China Ranch Date Farm we drove through Tecopa and Shoshone and entered Death Valley National Park on Greenwater Valley Road. We took Greenwater Valley Road North to Furnace Creek Road and CA 190. We turned right on Echo Canyon Road at N36° 26.252 W116° 49.450.

Echo Canyon


Eye of the Needle




Inyo Mine




From Inyo Mine we headed to Lee's Camp





Short video of Scott and his trailer






We arrived at Lee's Camp shortly after dark. We set up camp, had dinner and called it a day. The weather was fantastic all day. We put approx 100 miles on dirt and 100 miles on pavement after leaving Peggy Sue's.

to be continued...

[FishPOET]

On Saturday morning we headed into Beatty, Nevada for gas. After Beatty we headed West to Rhyolite Ghost Town.

http://www.nps.gov/deva/historycultu...ghost-town.htm

The Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Depot
http://www.rhyolitesite.com/tidewater1.html


Cook Bank Building
http://www.rhyolitesite.com/cook2.html


Overbury Bank


Porter Brothers Store
http://www.rhyolitesite.com/porter1.html


School
http://www.rhyolitesite.com/school.html


Tom Kelly's Bottle House
http://www.rhyolitesite.com/bottle1.html


Goldwell Open Air Museum
http://goldwellmuseum.org/

Ghost Rider


The Last Supper


Shorty Harris


to be continued...

[vwtipeii]

looks like a great trip! I have always wanted to do DV... I hope next fall once it cools down again... be safe and look forward to seeing more pics of your journey!

[DaK]

Thanks for sharing. Pictures never seem to do that place justice. Pics just can't pic up the beauty of the place, natures raw power and fury of back when the area used to be a volcanic wasteland let alone the expanseness of the valley. Something that has just got to be seen and enjoyed in person.

[dirtman13]

Great report Doug. Need to get back out to DV. Thanks.

[GP4Play]

Thanks for sharing your great pic's

[FishPOET]

After leaving Rhyolite Ghost Town we headed just a few miles down Nevada 374 to the Titus Canyon turnoff. We pulled off on a side road to air down and Scott put his lunch on his manifold. Even though we were on a side road a group of motorcycles decided they needed to use the side road and they struggled passing us.

As we are heading for Red Pass we catch up to the group of motorcycles. They are 3 and 4 wide and then they just stop in the middle of the road. I almost had me a new hood ornament.



Red Pass






The motorcycles had passed us and going up this turn one of them laid it down.








Nearing the top of Red Pass








Coming down the back side of Red Pass








We had lunch at Leadfield Ghost Town


After lunch we stopped at Petroglyph Rock at Klare Spring


and then we headed into Titus Canyon


Two motorcycles went down in front of us during the tight turns of Titus Canyon

Video inside Titus Canyon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN6a5z3BU5M

to be continued...

[CVD]

.... We put approx 100 miles on dirt and 100 miles on pavement after leaving Peggy Sue's..
.

That, plus ~100 miles to get to Peggy Sue's - you did some traveling that first day. Thanks for the report and pictures.

[FishPOET]

We exited Titus canyon around 2pm. Our original plan was to camp at Mesquite Springs just a few miles up the road. We had been having very comfortable temps all trip....until we got to the valley floor. It was 95° and we decided to continue North looking for more elevation and better temps. We took Death Valley Road North



to Crankshaft Junction.




We continued on to to the mines at 5000' but they were sulfur and talc mines and not suitable for camping. We continued on to South Eureka Valley Road and headed South to Eureka Dunes for the night.





We all BBQd dinner. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset.


We had a nice campfire and called it a day around 10pm. We put approx 80 miles on dirt and 70 miles on pavement on Saturday.

One last view of Eureka Dunes from Sunday morning


to be continued...

[FishPOET]

Sunday was our easy day. We only had to travel approx 30 miles all on dirt to our destination of the Saline Valley Lower Warm Springs.

After leaving Eureka Dunes we passed through Dedeckera Canyon.








And then up to Steel Pass






A quick stop at the Marble Bath - N36° 58.190 W117° 38.152


As we were heading down Steel Pass into Saline Valley we spotted a couple of vultures.


We were in camp at 2pm. It was hot and the wind started blowing. It blew most of the afternoon and evening. We cooked in the back of the Jeep and didn't set up tents until just before bed at 9pm. Luckily the wind was not too bad during the night.

to be continued...

[FishPOET]

Monday morning we had a decision to make. Take South Pass or North Pass home? South Pass might be a littler quicker time wise. It is longer on the dirt and we heard reports that sections of the road had washed away and it was rough going. North Pass added over 100 miles to our journey but the road conditions are much better. We decided to take North Pass.

Climbing out of Saline Valley headed for North Pass.


North Pass - 7200'


Marble Canyon




The really nice part about coming down North Pass is the view of the Eastern Sierras.


The really crappy part of coming down North Pass is I was only 14 miles from Bishop and I couldn't go fishing

We had lunch in Lone Pine and said our good-byes.

I was back home in La Habra at 5pm on Monday. 782 miles from door to door. It was a fantastic adventure.

[RAT]

Nice trip report Doug. Definitely need to get back to the Valley.

[suntinez]

Same trip, different pics.

Stopping in Baker for gas, we met this happy rock climbing gal with a nice setup in her TJ. The part she has her hand on flips forward into a sleeping platform.



Verny/Itzia, Scott and Doug all have a lot of seat time. It was Waldo’s first offroad trip and my first multi-day trip in the new-to-me TJ. It was a great group to go with. It looks like Waldo is well on his way to cloning Verny’s 80 series Landcruiser.



Driving Sperry Wash, first time I’ve seeing Doug’s WJ at work.


Coming in to China Ranch




Mine outside of Tecopah


Furnace Creek Wash Rd must’ve been graded recently, it was easily a 50 mph road. Stupid fast.


Inyo Mine


Waldo

[suntinez]

Echo Canyon and Lee's Flat Camp

The waterfall in Echo Canyon




This was Waldo’s first obstacle, he did pretty good and only mangled his running boards. Betcha he has sliders next time we see him. And listens to his spotter



Verny did fine


Scott and his trailer made it look easy.


We landed at Lee’s Flat Camp for the night and woke up to a beautiful sunrise.