First Death Valley Trip: 4 Cold, Wet, Snowy, Wonderfully Awesome Days

DVD

Adventurer
We rang in the New Year with a great, 4 day expedition trip to Death Valley. This was our first trip there, and we were very impressed with all the areas of scenic, historical and off-road interest. New Year’s is a time for reflection and consideration, and the trip provided this opportunity, but for me, these expedition trips are really about wilderness and adventure. I came across a quote from Edward Abbey that sums up my pre-trip state of mind:
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.”​

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This is what it’s about (photo by Jon Christensen)

Our party consisted of 2 vehicles. My wife and I frequently travel by ourselves, but we were happy to have a friend join us for this trip - especially because it was our first time to the area. Jon has been to Death Valley a couple times previously, but we hit many places he hadn’t been, and he said that even the places he had been were quite different due to the weather.

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Cresting Mengel Pass: Who says the Land Rovers and Toyotas can’t get along?

Our planning was intentionally vague, in large part to accommodate cold weather and short days. Even in the Southwest, winter trips can get cold. We determined each night’s campsite based in large part on fire availability and/or altitude. For example, we wanted to stay at one of the first-come, first-served cabins in Butte Valley, hoping for a hard floor and wood-burner on a chilly evening. Unfortunately, Christmas/New Year’s is a busy time at Death Valley, and the cabins were all occupied. No problem. We continued onward and downward (from 4000+ ft to 200 ft), where we found nice dispersed camping overlooking the valley floor and had comfortable enough camping without a fire (campfires are not allowed outside of established campsites in the park).

Also, the days are short this time of year - approximately 10 hrs of daylight. After accounting for the morning routine of toasting bagels, making a couple cups of coffee, and breaking camp, and then setting up camp in the late afternoon, we had only 7-8 hours of travel time each day.

We also allowed for ample time out of the vehicles. The scale of Death Valley is so immense that many of the interesting sites require some decent hiking, and this is fine. During this trip, my wife's activity tracker logged over 5 miles of walking every day.

With that background, here are some of the daily highlights.

Day 1. We started our trip with an overnight stay in Ridge Crest, CA, and implemented our “make it up as we go” approach from the very start. I wasn’t planning to stop at Trona Spires, but we saw a couple pictures while leafing through pamphlets at breakfast, and I mentioned that I had read that some Star Trek scenes were filmed there, so we took the little detour. This would definitely be a cool place to camp … next time.

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Trona Spires overlook

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In the spires

From Trona, we proceeded to the ghost town of Ballarat. There’s not much there, but it’s always interesting to see the old buildings and relics. There’s a rusted hulk of an old PowerWagon truck that supposedly was used by the Manson "family” when they were holing up in the area. I read a trip report that mentioned the stars painted on the inside were a common decorative motif.

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Manson mobile at Ballarat ghost town

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Interior decoration of Manson truck

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Which way to go?

From Ballarat, we headed south, eventually making our way through Goler Pass. This was one of the highlights of the trip. As you look ahead, all you see are solid canyon walls. If we didn't know better, we'd think that the map is mistaken, showing a trail through the pass. But the trail zigs and zags and somehow wends its way through the narrow canyon walls.

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Navigating the narrow trail through Goler Pass

As mentioned, the Manson gang hid out in this area after their string of murders. They were apprehended at a remote, abandoned cabin named Barker Ranch, which is on a spur trail half mile or so off of Goler Pass. We weren’t planning to go there, but it was lunch, so we decided to check it out. The cabin burned down 10 years or so ago. It’s not really my area of interest - infamous people -- but it’s interesting history all the same.

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Barker Ranch - some outbuildings and the gate still remain

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Barker Ranch - burned out remains of the main cabin

From there, we continued east on Mengel Pass. This was probably the most challenging trail we encountered on the trip. There were a couple decent rocky sections, and one tight squeeze where tilting could cause door damage, but we made it through unscathed.

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Rocky section on Mengel, with Striped Butte in the background (photo by Jon Christensen)

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Striped Butte - this is a great photo, but it also serves as a good example of the disappointing nature of photographing the area. Images just don't capture the vastness of the area nor the color nuances in the butte (photo by Jon Christensen)

As mentioned, we had hoped to claim one of the cabins in the Butte Valley area, but they were all occupied. These are at 4000+ feet elevation, so we decided to continue east on Warm Springs Trail to lower elevations and higher temperatures. We finally stopped for the day at a nice overlook just beyond the 2-mile no-camping zone from West Valley Trail.

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Warm Springs Trail heading east (photo by Jon Christensen)

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Campsite off Warm Springs Trail

Day 2. One of the trade-offs of National Parks is that they make many interesting places accessible to the masses. I wanted to see some of the major sites, so we spent some time on paved roads checking out some of the more touristy areas.

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Ashford Mills - interesting ruins, but there are much more impressive and intact ruins on the trails

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The famous elevation sign

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Badwater Basin salt flats

Although there were many people here, it was cool to walk out onto the salt basin. Hiking a mile or so onto the basin really gave a sense of the place.

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Devil’s Golf Course - here the salt has formed larger clumps

We stopped at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to purchase our park passes. After a couple days in remote wilderness, the place was like a zoo. Wait in lines. Hand over money. Necessary evil. After spending the first part of the day among the madding crowds, we decided to head out to the east to find dispersed camping on BLM land just outside the park off of highway 374. It was good to get onto remote, solitary trails again.

We had some good daylight left, so before finding a campsite at lower elevations, we headed back into the park to explore the Chloride Cliffs area. I hadn’t heard a lot about this area, and it seems like kind of a forgotten quarter of the park. We found some nice mining relics and incredible views into Death Valley as well as east toward the Nevada side.

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Mining ruins

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Chloride Cliffs shelf trail with Amargosa valley vista

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DVD

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The vistas and conditions at Chloride Cliffs made for some dramatic views. The trails were fun too.

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Chloride Cliffs shelf trail

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We had to get out a hike to better experience the area

As daylight faded, we found a nice place to camp. It’s kind of ironic that we planned our end-game for the day, so we could have a campfire at night. After setting up camp and making dinner, we settled in around the fire only to have rains start. But the day tent on the back of the LR3 provided ample room to sit and solve the problems of the world over a few beers, and the Little Buddy propane heater provided some warmth.

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Sunset at remote campsite in NV, just outside DVNP (photo by Jon Christensen)

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Another nice campsite

Day 3. Another cold morning, but at least the rain stopped during the night. We had packed extra gas, but we were near Beatty, NV, so we went into town for gas before the day’s explorations. My wife participated in the Rebelle Rally this past October, and she started getting deja-vu vibes in Beatty. When we got to the gas station, it turned out that she had stopped at the exact same place for one of the few unsupported fuel stops during the rally.

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Small world - revisiting the DV Candy and Nut Store

As always, we were glad to get back on the trail, and we took Titus Canyon Trail back into Death Valley. Jon had described how scenic it is, but we were blown away. I must have taken dozens of photos.

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Leadfield ghost town

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The outhouse has seen better days

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Titus Canyon Trail

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More Titus Canyon Trail

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Navigating Titus Canyon Trail

The trail is one-way for vehicles, and we saw a lot of foot traffic coming up from the park as we got closer to the trailhead on the park side. Jon followed behind us, and a couple miles from the trailhead, Jon got on the HAM to inform that one of the further-out groups flagged him down. Apparently, they got on the wrong trail and thought they were on a loop trail. Instead they were a couple miles out and had to go the same distance back, and they weren’t in good shape to do so. Jon earned his good-deed button for stuffing 4 passengers in his loaded rig (one young lady had to sit on his ARB fridge).

Next stop was Ubehebe Crater. This brought us back into the more accessible areas, but it was a rainy day and not too crowded. We took the opportunity to do some hiking and walked the rim to where we could see both the major and minor craters.

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Ubehebe Crater - interesting site and well worth the stop

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It's all fun and games until somebody falls over the edge

From there, we took Racetrack Trail to the Racetrack, a big, dry playa, to see the sliding rocks. The reports of bone jarring washboarding on this trail were all too true. We tried to find a sweet-spot speed where we’d just glide over the tops but to no avail. It was a beat down for man and machine.

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Obligatory stop at Teakettle Junction (photo by Jon Christensen)

Unfortunately the wet winter nixed our plans to hike out onto Racetrack Playa to see the sliding rock trails. One of the signs said to stay off the playa when wet, and it was definitely wet.

We continued west on Racetrack Trail to Lippincot Pass. Unfortunately, the clouds had really socked us in, and we had wet conditions and low visibility for Lippincot. It's supposed to be a kind of scary trail with shelf roads and cliffs, but we didn't see anything, so we weren't scared.

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Warning sign at the top of Lippincot (photo by Jon Christensen)

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Low visibility and wet conditions on the trail - we took it slow and easy (photo by Jon Christensen)

Coming down into Saline Valley, the sun emerged and we were again at near sea level elevation. We planned to find BLM camping just off of Saline Valley Trail, which is the park boundary. We found some decent areas, but there was an unclear wilderness marker on the little spur trail we took. Jon was uncomfortable with the uncertainty, so we kept going to the Saline Valley Hot Springs camp area.

The hot springs were pretty crowded on New Year’s Eve. It sounded like a good party, but we were content to find a campsite at the far northern end of the camping area, and ring in the new year in a quieter mode. It was good to see and hear the young folks still having fun.

Day 4. New Year's Day 2017 dawned clear and cold. There was an interesting inversion and cloud formations as we left Saline Springs and started the trek toward home.

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That's a solid layer of clouds over the Salt Lake and then cloud whisps against the backdrop of the Inyo Mountains

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As the trail descended, we entered the cloud bank near the hot springs sculpture (photo by Jon Christensen)

Our exit route took us over South Pass (6000 ft), and as we climbed, the clouds thickened, and it started snowing. We had a concern because the map states that the trail "may be closed in winter,” but the snow wasn’t too bad, and it made for another interesting chapter to the trip.

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Snow on South Pass

It’s always a little sad when you’re on the final stretch of trail on a trip. The trail descended and traversed Lee Flat and the Joshua Tree Forest, with more beautiful scenery, and then it was onto highway 190, and we set our sights for home.

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Joshua Tree Forest (photo by Jon Christensen)

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Looking back at the entrance sign for DVNP as we turned onto the highway

I’m always amazed that we can live in a huge metropolitan area with millions of people and within a day’s drive find the wilderness, solitude, and adventure of a place like Death Valley. It was a great trip, and we look forward to returning.

*********
Here's a Google Photos album with many more photos.
 
Good post, I don't know if you are an Easy Rider fan, but in the start of the film where Peter Fonda throws his watch on the ground was filmed in Ballarat. For your next trip to DV try Palm Springs hot springs in the Saline Valley, so nice.
 

DVD

Adventurer
I watched that film at least a couple times, but the last time was over 25 yrs ago. I forgot that scene. Thanks for the tips - gotta watch that again and get back to DV again!
 

Offroadmuch

Explorer
Great report and thanks for sharing. I like your go with the flow style. It seems relaxing any you can pick where to stop and observe. Can you give quick stats on vehicles: tire size, lift, any recommendations to me or anyone if we try to cover the same trails? Thank you again!
 

krick3tt

Adventurer
Good to see a LR on the trails. Thinking of the route, any issues with the LR and the roads? Doesn't look like you had to be in the happy rock mode much as the trails seem to be rather flat except for the one section.
 

DVD

Adventurer
Great report and thanks for sharing. I like your go with the flow style. It seems relaxing any you can pick where to stop and observe. Can you give quick stats on vehicles: tire size, lift, any recommendations to me or anyone if we try to cover the same trails? Thank you again!

Thanks Offroadmuch.
The LR3 is a different animal - with adjustable air-suspension ride heights - so I'll tell you what I know of Jon's Tacoma. It's a nice kind of stealthy build in that if you saw it at the grocery store you wouldn't envision it crawling at Moab. He has a decent lift. Icon I think. I know he mentioned that it's not the absolute best, but it's near the top-end. He has oversized tires, but similar to the lift, not extreme. 33's I'm guessing. And he has low-profile sliders (without the tree bar). I don't think he needed them at DV. In fact we spotted him in the narrow section of Mengel Pass that I described due to abundance of caution and concern about scratching his rims, which are still in good shape.

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Somewhere on this trip I got a new ding in my front skid plate. I think it was on a graded gravel road where my LR3 will automatically lower to standard height when you go over 24 mph, and then you come to a wash with some moderate rocks and forget that you're not in off-road height, and then get a thud to remind you of height setting and why you got skid plates.

As for recommendations, I always like to geek out on research. E.g., I find it makes the trip much more enjoyable to have read the story about how the Manson gang was apprehended at Barker Ranch when visiting there. The LEO was investigating what he thought was a bunch of hippies squatting at the abandoned cabin for some minor damage/theft at nearby mining operations, not looking for the gang responsible for a string of gruesome murders. Or as mohavephonebooth mentioned, it's cool to recall the scene from Easy Rider when visiting Ballarat.
 

DVD

Adventurer
Good to see a LR on the trails. Thinking of the route, any issues with the LR and the roads? Doesn't look like you had to be in the happy rock mode much as the trails seem to be rather flat except for the one section.

Hi krick3tt, this was kind of a unusual trip with more pavement and graded gravel than usual. Once I'm on gravel, I like to hit “off-road height” but there are some long sections in DV --10+ miles -- where the trails are well graded and speeds significantly exceeded the 24 mph pre-programmed limit for off-road height. That said, my idea of an offroad adventure isn't blasting down a gravel road at 50 mph, and it's safe to say that we spent more time (if not distance) in happy off-road mode than not.
 

1Louder

Explorer
Great report. A group of us are headed out at the end of March. Hopefully another super bloom or close to it will be taking place. Too bad you missed the views coming down Lippincott.
 

jgaz

Adventurer
Nice job on the report. I was there just last March and am ready to go back. You are so right about pictures not doing justice to the vastness og the scenery.
 

Nomads365

A Most Adventurous Couple
Thanks for the report. It brings back fond memories of attending many an annual January motorcycle gathering in Beatty each year. It was always a challenge to get there from the Portland OR area in the winter, and we rode in some brutal cold a few of the years. But it was always worth it to see DVNP in the winter. We always made riding Titus Canyon part of our weekend, definitely one of my favorite places to ride.
 

DVD

Adventurer
Hi LDRyder, wow, I thought we were kind of hardcore camping in below freezing (at least a couple nights), but doing that trip on motorcycles (what, no seat warmer?) takes it to another level. I like your quote:
... and we rode in some brutal cold a few of the years. But it was always worth it to see DVNP in the winter.

I also had to chuckle about your sig block. with the line from the bartender in the alternate universe in It's a Wonderful Life:
"Hey, look mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around here to give the joint atmosphere. Is that clear?"
One of the best comments about a movie was when I was watching this movie with a bunch of college roommates, and one guy observed that he'd rather much rather live in the alternate universe, with hopping night life and good bars that serve hard drinks, than the sleepy little town in the real one.
 

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