The National Park Service is reporting that sometime in recent weeks, joyriders drove a 4WD vehicle across the protected and fragile Eureka Valley Dunes in the Northwest corner of Death Valley National Park. The dunes are home to a number of endangered plant species, and the Park Service discourages visitors from sandboarding or even traversing the delicate ecosystem, never mind driving on it. All wheeled travel in Death Valley National Park is restricted to designated routes.
“I urge the public to come forward with any information that could help identify those responsible for driving on Eureka Dunes,” NPS park superintendent Mike Reynolds said in a press release. “I’m saddened that someone would disregard the survival of a rare species for a few minutes of joyriding.”
Sadly, the damage done to the Eureka Dunes is not an isolated incident. In 2016, vandals wheeled their rigs in wild drifts and circles for nearly ten miles through Death Valley National Park’s famous Racetrack Playa. The Racetrack is a geological oddity where hundreds of large stones leave long, winding tracks across the table-flat desert seemingly all on their own. We now know that over the eons large sheets of ice periodically pushed and pulled these rocks on their wandering paths. It is one of the natural wonders of the American Southwest.
In 2018, volunteers worked to restore the damage done to the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park.
It was mangled spectacularly by the maliciousness of a handful of people over the course of a few destructive minutes. Death Valley is a prized bucket list destination for overlanders and off-road enthusiasts of all kinds. It’s challenging and remote and steeped in human and natural history. But the actions of just a few can give all of us a bad name and put in jeopardy access for everyone. More recently, in May 2024, a thoughtless driver destroyed a 113-year-old salt tram tower in Death Valley’s Saline Valley while attempting to recover his stranded vehicle.
If we want to keep our roads and trails open, both on public lands and the property of generous private landowners, we all have a responsibility to respect the landscapes we travel through. This means staying on designated routes, not trespassing, driving in the least impactful way possible, cleaning up after ourselves and others, and educating ourselves and our trailmates whenever possible.
The National Park Service is encouraging anyone with information about the Eureka Dunes vandalism to contact them. “You don’t have to tell us who you are,” NPS wrote, but please tell us what you know.”
The tip line number is 888-653-0009. You can also email NPS at nps_isb@nps.gov or fill out the online form at go.nps.gov/SubmitATip.
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Images: National Park Service
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