Death Valley - The Tourist Route

[calledtocreation]

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior ************************.

With my recent trip to Mojave Road seen here: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/120771-First-Expedition-Mojave-Road-East-to-West-in-a-JKUR-with-an-IH-Scout I wanted to keep the momentum rolling. A trip to Death Valley seemed very appropriate especially after reading Cap510's thread on planning a trip with the Monetero guys for President's Weekend. Knowing that my wife and I really wanted to cover all the tourist traps in Death Valley, Cap510's route seemed a bit out of range for the things we wanted to see, but we could certainly spot them or meet up with them at some point.

My plan was to cover a few points that seemed photo worthy. For our trip Furnace Creek, Scotty's Castle, The Grandstands, The Race Track, and Saline Valley, seemed perfect. The route was very straight forward and covered a good combo of dirt and tarmac; it even allowed a Saturday night campout with the others near Furnace Creek Saturday.

We left our "Early" (0930) Saturday morning from our place in Orange, CA and after stopping for breakfast we hit the highway. Photo opportunities of the fantastic traffic and concrete jungles of the Southern California abounded (which is why the camera stayed in the bag - LOL). We opted to do the 15 North with a turn off in Baker on to the 127 West to the 190. I can assure you while I didn't take any photos up to this point, you're missing absolutely nothing. Along the way, I was getting periodic notifications on the thread the others had going for Cap510's group. The night before they were not able to make it to their anticipated camping spot / checkpoints. Jason (Torquey) kept me posted and even pm'd his number to me so I could connect with them when we arrived.

Furnace Creek arrived around 1500 that day and after reading an update that a small portion of the group had decided to head up Echo Canyon to camp, we refueled, rehydrated and hit the trail toward Echo Canyon to meet up with them in time for dinner. Regulations in the park advise camping in remote locations needs to occur no closer than 2 miles off the road. I fully expected to see them at the 2.1 mile mark. I was wrong, we found them nearly 10 miles up the canyon. Nevertheless it was a brilliant location with obvious history involved.

Here is the majority of the group from high atop one of the closer hills in the valley. You can make out a couple of the more obvious historic structures both in the foreground on the lower left and the middle right.

The other more prominent structures near the obvious camp below the mining holes

I was frantic to capture some photos before loosing the light behind the hill. Here are those images (I apologize for not naming people's rigs, as I have a pretty bad memory)

Pretty sure this one belongs to Dimetry (<<-- Sorry about the spelling)

One of my favorite shots of the weekend

Torquey's Cabin - big enough to park his Toyota in!!

Dinner time!!

Speaking of dinner, Melody and I had planned on eating at the restaurant in Furnace Creek, figuring we would be camped close enough to walk over, so we didn't really bring dinner to cook for Saturday night. Tyson to the rescue. His daughter came over as we were setting up our camp to offer steak and beef Stroganoff - mmm how could we pass that up?? Thanks Buddy!!!

Saturday night was a "Festive" atmosphere. I chose to leave the camera packed away to avoid "Evidence" and decided to just mingle with the great people of Portal. The temps were cold enough to warrant a campfire (which is always mandatory in my camping itinerary). The rest of the group Cap510 and others showed up shortly after dinner and they had firewood. After they all set up their camps and had dinner, I decided to move over to their camp and socialize with them for a while. Melody headed to bed around 2100 and I followed about an hour later. Overnight the winds whipped and flattened our "Facilities" as I was lazy and didn't tie it down, however we had no hazardous material clean up

Morning came too early for me and Melody forgot to pack our coffee cups. After scrounging one up for me, she made my favorite camping coffee (Starbucks Via) and I mingled around while enjoying my bean juice. Melody and I packed pretty quickly as we had a long day of travels ahead, with lots of sight-seeing to do. We said by to the Portal crew, half of whom hadn't even started to break camp yet, and headed back down Echo Canyon toward 190. Next stop Scotty's Castle!!!

It was somewhat overcast that morning. With the sunlight lacking the colors of the valley were not real prominent, so the camera stayed in the pack until we arrived at the Castle. We had heard mixed reviews about the place, some saying it was worth every bit of the cost of the tours and others saying don't waste the drive time to get to it, find something better. We wanted to see for ourself and we both agreed, it was worth the trip. We opted not to pay for the tours, as they are kind of on the expensive side and you can read all about the place in the info center. I could have spent more time there taking photos. Here are the best shots I ended up with.

The clock tower in the background with the trees of the ground in the foreground where we had our picnic lunch prior to "touring" the grounds on our own. It had a Westminster movement (chimes on the quarter hour) event though the hands were incorrect the chimes were on time LOL.

The detail on the clock was impressive

We walked up to the top of the Power House by way of a great exterior staircase that had trademark period features

Arches abound the castle, as did the rod iron accents

to be continued…..

 

[calledtocreation]

&#8230; From the top of the Powerhouse, we had great views of the grounds.

Note the Miner Wind Vane in the middle toward the right. Awesome details!!

On the way back down the staircase I noticed the wood detail that was begging to be part of the report

These light fixtures were prominent on the grounds. I wish they were candlelit instead of bulb, but again the details were pretty priceless

The layout of the Castle really was amazing

We said bye to the castle to move on down the route

Next stop Ubehebe Crater. I was expecting the trip to the crater to take a while, as I thought the road there was dirt, but it turned out to be paved (the dirt starts South of the Crater). We arrived at the Crater in no time at all.

At 500 ft deep it was truly impressive and apparently not all that old. There are a couple of options for hiking, including a trip around the rim and a couple of routes that take you down to the bottom, both of which we decided to skip as the wind was really whipping through there and while it was that cold, the wind made it somewhat uncomfortable. We continued down Racetrack Valley Road which as mentioned turned to dirt. The dirt seemed maintained but with the Kevlar Side Wall of the amazing Goodyear MTR 37's we aired down to make the ride plush. We were still pretty loaded with weight, so for those that are curious we aired down to 14psi. We probably could have gone a few pounds lower than that, but it worked fine. The road was surprisingly well traveled, and while the sign indicates the road requires high clearance 4 wheel drive, I think most pick ups and passenger SUV's would be fine down the portion from the Crater to the Grandstands. Of course sticking to the tourist nature of the trip we had to stop at Teakettle Junction for a few shots!!

The road after Teakettle Junction is painful. The wash board there must of been created by God himself to wash his massive robes. Seriously, the harshest washboard I have ever seen. If I had a mouth guard I probably would have worn it - LOL !! We made it to The Grandstands where there were a handful of other vehicles and people checking out the scenery.

Here is a view of the Grandstands from near the road

And here is a shot from the backside looking toward the afternoon sun

At this point I was a little disappointed as I hadn't really seen an abundance of "Racetracks" as I had imaged there would be. My wife then advised she read the majority of the Racetrack Rocks were on the South end of the playa. Onward I said, and we jumped back in the Jeep. Not a hundred yards off the road I spotted the first of several Racetrack Rocks.

The rock was a pretty good size, but more awesome it was lined up heading North directly toward the Grand Stands (seen in the background)

to be continued...

 

[calledtocreation]

…. the most impressive cluster of rocks is located about a half mile from the parking area on the South side of the playa. It was worth the hike, which was surprisingly cooler than the North end and substantially breezier. Here are the shots of the Racetrack!!

and my favorite of the Racetrack photos

With the sunshine falling and needing light to find and set up our camp we decided to press on South toward the Homestake Dry Camp, an official campsite which would allow for the mandatory campfire. Again not really knowing the scale of how far things would be I was expecting at least a 20 to 30 minute drive to the campsite, but it was a little less than 10 minutes. When we arrived at the camp I noticed the road continued on through a more rugged and Jeep worthy trail, which actually required a little clearance and 4 wheel drive ( I even dropped the t-case to 4 low for good measure). While climbing up the trail, we came across a family of three that mentioned if we could continue to the top of the road, we would be rewarded with an amazing camp spot that had an established fire ring and sat next to one of the abandoned mine shafts. The lady of the family did advise there was some narrow sections and that the vehicle would probably be challenged. I smiled and thanked her as we continued up the rugged trail. Arrived at the most difficult section, I engaged the Creation Crawlers rear locker, slowly ascending the steepest section. We round the point to find a great location, just as the family had mentioned.

The mine shaft is to the immediate left of the tent in the picture. The valley on the right side of the photo is Saline Valley where the sun was setting as we set up camp. The location was about 4k feet in elevation and was well above the valley floor offering awesome views.

Beautiful location for the tent

Creation Crawler enjoying the view of the trails

Melody inspecting the mine shaft

The view of the Racetrack Playa and valley from the squatter

That night was unreal. Temps were a little cooler than the night before, views were spectacular. The mice that showed up at dinner time didn't stick around very long. The star gazing prior to the moon rising was incredible. We spotted a Satellite and several constellations and even a few high elevation commercial aircraft. When the moon rose over the hills it lit up the valley again allowing us to see the landscape in an entirely different light. With enough wood to have a fire for a while we sat there and discussed life for hours (ok really only until about 2200, then I was beat). The wind was pretty consistent through the night, but it was worth the views and privacy. The morning came with a spectacular view while enjoying my morning coffee. I reviewed the route and after packing up we decided to get a few photos of the mine shafts and equipment before leaving the camp.

Shortly after introducing myself to Portal, I was told the answer to all my questions was the 80 series, so when I asked myself what this was a picture of, I was Pretty sure this is an 80 series

At this point we were heading home as it was Monday morning and we had a little over a 6 hour drive to get home. Not knowing entirely what we had ahead, especially the difficulty of the trails, we decided to try to get ahead of schedule. We left camp about a half hour earlier than the day before. We went back down the somewhat technical trail from the mining area to Racetrack Valley Rd. We then headed West on Lippincott Rd on Google Maps, or what my Garmin Referred to as Ubehebe Road. Later we would confirm that the road is indeed Lippincott Rd including the Lippincott Pass. This is a road that certainly warrants a high clearance vehicle. I think most short wheel base vehicles on 31's or higher would be fine and longer wheel base vehicles on 32's would work. I can not describe the confidence that 37's on a long wheel base 4 door JK gives you when facing trails you are not familiar with, especially when the family that pointed out the campground to us the night before advised Lippincott Rd. was suppose to be High Clearance Short Wheelbase only. Glad they were incorrect. Epic views along the way, made the moderately rocky trail worth every moment.

My wife is a pretty big fan of desert flowers. She spotted this as we rocked our way down Lippincott Rd.

This view point made for a great Called to Creation Crawler feature photo shoot

As we descended toward Saline Valley Road I noticed a set of 3 or 4 vehicles headed South on the road toward the 190. Given that I was not familiar with the route out I was anxious to meet up with someone to make the pass with, especially if things got difficult. As we approached I noticed one of the vehicles looked really familiar. It was Ray from Portal. Ray already had a hard weekend. With a flat tire and needing to be winched to prevent a tip over on the first day, the last thing he needed was more issues and wouldn't you know it shortly after we met up with them his engine took a turn for the worse (sounded like a rod knock). He ended up getting strapped out. Thankfully he had others with him to help him out so we continued on our own. The pass up and out to the 190 was totally tame and despite requiring "High Clearance" according to the signage, I think it was similar to the Racetrack Valley Road, without the washboard.

There was an epic Joshua Tree Forest as we descended down from the pass of nearly 6k feet to the 190.

The Death Valley portion of our trip officially ended as we aired up on the 190.

The toss up of 14 to 5 South vs the 395 to 15 South is always a gamble. We opted for the 395 with a pit stop for lunch in Ridgecrest. We made it home just about 1800 hours Monday with memories and great tales to tell. Thanks for reading about our adventure. Until the next adventure, God's speed and God bless

Scott
Called to Creation

 

[onemanarmy]

Fantastic pics and report.....thanks

 

[Big50]

Great write up and amazing pics!

 

[eurosonic]

Fantastic report.

It was nice to meet you two. We passed you on 190 when you were airing down.

 

[wgyouree]

Great report and photos! Good to meet you guys, look forward to wheeling with you next time.

 

[steve c]

Great write up, Scott. That campsite you found on the second night looks SO cool!

 

[heehawhardy]

Amazing post! Me and my gf are simply in awwweee....

 

[profdlp]

Another terrific series of photos - great job! :elkgrin:

 

[SteveG]

Beautiful! Thanks for the report. We might be doing this soon.

 

[AKmoney]

Outstanding trip report and pictures, thanks! The campsite you had overlooking Lippincott Pass and Saline Valley looks amazing. And thanks again for organizing the OC/Tustin Brewing gathering last week. Next time you see my truck it'll have larger tires and sliders. Hanging with this group isn't particularly kind on the wallet...

 

[richard310]

A wonderful trip report! I really wish I could have made this trip. Next time for sure!

 

[gearheart]

Looks like a great trip! I'll have to get there one of these days.

Mike

 

[WininUtah]

I thoroughly enjoyed the report and great pictures. Thanks

Win