# Death Valley - We Made It Back



## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

Well, here it goes, get comfortable!

Our trip started by driving from Roseville, Ca to Tehachapi, Ca via hwy 99 down to Bakersfield then heading east to Tehachapi. This leg was about a 7 hour drive. We spent the night at my wife's cousin's home with him and his wife and an assortment of pets. The next day we drove the rest of the way to Death Valley (about 5 hours) using the directions provided by MJRey (thanks again!







). That last hill climb out of the Panamint Valley over to Death Valley was a *mutha!* I think it's close to a 9% grade. The tranny temp almost reached 250 degrees, but the engine coolant temp needle never moved from dead center. Needless to say it was a relief to make it down the other side safely and then onto our campsite at Furnace Creek campground.

We found our site and before unhitching, located the freshwater supply and filled the tank. Then we set up camp. We had a perfect site with a couple of old and gnarly Pinion Pines, at least that's what I think they were, acting as a partial barrier between our campsite and our neighbor. Darkness came quickly with the sun setting behind the mountain range at around 4:20 in the afternoon. By 5:30 pm we could see the stars, man oh man, what a sight!!! That evening while in the trailer my wife planned out the adventures for the next several days. The weather was perfect! Lows in the low 40's and highs in the mid to upper 60's with light winds and almost no clouds.

On Tuesday, our first full day, our plan was to do the Titus Canyon drive. You actually drive out of Death Valley towards the small town of Beatty, NV. We did drive to Beatty and bought gas and checked for phone messages on our cell phones as there is no cell phone coverage in D.V. Then we doubled back on the same road and found our turn off to Titus Canyon. This road veers away from the main road at about a 45 degree angle and is gravel. It is designated as a one way road through the canyon. Then we saw the road closed sign. Major bummer!







I really wanted to do this trail! (We found out later that a Park Ranger had driven the trail that same day and almost didn't make it out. There was too much snow and ice at the highest levels.) Lesson - check with the Park Rangers about road conditions before you head out. So we got back on the main road and proceeded around to where the Titus Canyon trail ended on the other side of the mountain range. You can drive back toward the mountains to a parking area and either hike the Titus Canyon trail in reverse, or go in a different direction to hike a trail to Fall Canyon which is what we did. You start by hiking parallel to the mountain range, then start your way across and up an alluvial plane. This gradually narrows as you go farther into the canyon. Apparently near its end the canyon becomes only a little bit wider than a person. We didn't make it that far. Nevertheless, we had a good hike.

The next day we planned to go to Scotty's Castle, Ubehebe (U-bee-hee-bee) Crater and the Racetrack to see if we could find any of the Moving Rocks. Scotty's Castle was pretty cool. They offer two tours (they do cost some $$$'s), one is a tour inside the castle and the other is in the tunnels beneath. We opted for the tunnels. The adults found it interesting, the kids did their best to pay attention and they did get something out of it. You can certainly search the internet to find out about Scotty's Castle if you like. I won't go into all the details here. We had a picnic lunch after the tour and enjoyed the beautiful day. Next up was the Racetrack and the Moving Rocks. We decided we would check out Ubehebe Crater on the way back. The road to the Racetrack is about 27 miles long and is a combination of gravel and dirt. It's drivable with a 2wd vehicle. The road has a lot of washboard sections that make it feel like your teeth are going to come out. I figured out that the faster I went, the smoother the road. Kind of skimming across the bumps if you will. We made pretty darn good time, if I do say so myself and make one heck of a dust cloud too! The road ran through some areas of cactus and gave way to Joshua trees. It climbed to around 4,000 feet and then descended down to the valley floor. We passed a fork in the road called Teakettle Junction, we stopped and took a picture on the way back of the teakettles hanging from the sign post. We finally made it to the Racetrack. This dried up lake bed is something else. It stretches for miles, with the only blemish, a rock formation at the northern end called the Grandstand which was great fun to climb on. We parked at the information sign and started walking out onto it in search of the Moving Rocks. Nothing. The kids went one direction, I another and my wife another still. All of us moving kind of in a southwest direction. I took out some binoculars and started scanning the lake bed. Ah hah! I see a dot about the size of a grain of pepper off in the distance. I start walking. 15 minutes later, I'm at a Moving Rock! It is all by itself with a faint trail behind it. My wife and kids met up with me and we all agree it is one. Success! (Later and talking with the Ranger, apparently people have been taking the rocks making them harder to find) Now, where did we leave the truck? Oh wow! That's a walk!







Eventually we made it back to the truck and started the drive back to Ubehebe Crater. The sun was getting lower and lower and we were afraid we were not going to make it back before the sun actually set! We barely made it with just enough light left to get a picture or two. I suspect the colors are spectacular during the day with the sun shining upon it. Before we knew it, the sun had set and it was starting to get dark. We still had over an hours drive before making it to camp for a campfire that night.

The next day we started off with a relatively short bike ride to the Harmony Borax Works. They actually mined Borax there and hauled it out of Death Valley using a 20 mule team "train". The mules also pulled a tank car filled with water for the team and the people. Those wagons are sure something else! Back at camp we had lunch, then drove to Badwater. It was pretty interesting seeing the vast salt flats and knowing that we were standing 282 feet below sea level! There is a sign up on the hillside showing where the actual sea level is for a reference point. We then drove back to Devils Golf Course (more salt flats) then onto Artists Drive. Very pretty colors in the rocks and on the mountainsides. Then we drove almost back to Furnance Creek to take hwy 190 towards Dantes View. The road leaves hwy 190 and climbs up to 5,475 feet. Quite an impressive view to say the least! In fact, it overlooks Badwater. With binoculars we could see people walking out onto the salt flats. We arrived about 20 minutes before sunset, so we stayed until the sun went down behind the mountain range. The sunset was gorgeous!

On Friday, the day before we left, we headed up to Aguereberry Point. This is all the way across the valley from Dantes View. It is 6,433 feet about sea level. Again, words and pictures hardly do the view justice! We could just make out Badwater and we could see the Furnace Creek area too. Just awesome! From there, we drove back towards Stovepipe Wells which is were the gravel road starts that takes you to the trailhead for the Mosaic Canyon Trail. The canyon rapidly narrows and you find yourself scrambling over mosaic looking rock and what also looks like marble. I can only imagine the force of the water through here during a heavy rain or flash flood! The rock is smooth due to the polishing forces of the rock and water as it barrels through. We had a good hike and made it to a dry waterfall which only the real ambitious continued past. Most others didn't go much further than the end of the "narrows". Then we drove back down to Stovepipe Wells and over to the sand dunes. At this point I opted for a 'power nap' in the truck and my wife and kids hiked to the dunes. They were gone almost an hour. Just about perfect. By then the sun was going down and we headed back to camp.

The next and final morning was get up and go day. We didn't exactly set any records leaving camp, plus I needed to pay a visit to the dump station. We finally left the campground @ 9:30 am. We had one last place we wanted to see and it was on our way out. Due to the rather steep hill climb coming into Death Valley I was looking for an alternative route home. From the Park Rangers at the visitor's center, I was given a map with road information about how steep a grade was and so forth, for all the major roads in the park. It turned out that hwy 190 heading out of the valley in a southeast direction was a 3-4% grade. This route worked out perfectly since the last place we wanted to stop at was Zabriskie Point which is just off the highway. We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the view and all the colors. Then off we went. The rest of the day was spent driving and more driving all the way up through the west side of Nevada on hwy 95. This took us through Tonopah, Hawthorne, Fallon and then I-80 to Reno. From Reno, it was just over 2 hours until home! By the way, this route was almost identical in mileage compared to the way we had traveled getting to Death Valley with probably a lot less traffic. We finally pulled up to the front of the house at 9:30 pm, just over 530 miles later. Whew! I was done in. We had one heck of a good time and the kids were fantastic on that huge drive home. They just read books, played with Legos, read to us and my daughter even worked on some homework for school. She packs her own travel tub full of things she likes to do while we're driving. My son does the same thing too, smart kids! Plus they seem to have the bladder capacity of a long haul trucker! It's usually me or my wife that has to call for a potty break. Maybe I didn't need to include that last part.









Anyway, we had a really great time and it came to an end way too soon. Wintertime is the perfect time to camp in Death Valley! I look forward to going again someday.









Here's a LINK to my photo album of the trip. There are over 80 pictures in here with captions and info. Grab a warm or cold beverage of your choice and maybe a snack and enjoy the pictures. Especially if you are surrounded by snow right now.









Take care!


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## Yianni (Aug 30, 2006)

Looks like a really great trip.
Thanks for all the work with the pics and excellent descriptions. We may do this trip one year.


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## rdvholtwood (Sep 18, 2008)

Thanks for sharing your trip and all the pictures along with their descriptions!!


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## GarethsDad (Apr 4, 2007)

As I sit in front of my computer looking out the window, drinking my coffee, knowing that we passed the (snow) 100" mark three days ago waiting for the warmer weather to come. I have to live my camping days through all of you till we can get out and enjoy the outdoors in longer periods of time. Thanks James


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## puffer (Aug 28, 2008)

Not even fair! I sit here in Central Michigan freezing and you are out partying. Do you not realize how FLAT MIchigan is? Were talking pancake flat,i hate my life..........


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

You're welcome everyone! Yeah, it took awhile to post all the pics with descriptions and then doing the write up. I've been working on this little by little for the last two weeks. But it's worth it! I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures and there are times I'm _*real*_ happy we don't live in snow country.









Keep warm everyone.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Hey, that looks like a fun trip and you have some great pictures there! Thanks for sharing!











puffer said:


> Not even fair! I sit here in Central Michigan freezing and you are out partying. Do you not realize how FLAT MIchigan is? Were talking pancake flat,i hate my life..........


You can fix that problem with only 4 days of driving!








Of course the Rockies are only 2 away, but I'd wait until summer.


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## slingshot (Aug 14, 2008)

Looks like you guys had a great trip.

Thanks for sharing.


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## dunn4 (Feb 16, 2008)

Thanks for sharing the details and photographs of your trip. I had a hard time checking out the trees at the campsite, but could it be a mesquite? They look a lot like the ones here in some dry and not so dry areas of Texas. They really sap water from their environment, not very tall, have beans on them in the fall I think, and are great for bbq'ing (umm, especially steaks). I digress, looks like a fun trip with the family.


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## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

Herbicidal said:


> That last hill climb out of the Panamint Valley over to Death Valley was a *mutha!* I think it's close to a 9% grade.


Glad to hear you had a great trip. You saw quite a bit but there's still more to see for your next trip. You're right that climb is one long steep hill and it's even a bit harder going back the other way. My old Expedition could barely do 35 mph up that hill. The new truck handles it with ease though







. The way out you took is much easier but for me it adds close to 2 hours to the trip home.


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## MaeJae (May 12, 2005)

GREAT pictures, thanks for posting ...

MaeJae


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

You're welcome everyone! I think it's worth the time to post the pictures and do write up's so that folks in other parts of the country can see places they may want to visit someday.

*Dunn4* - that sure is possbile that they are Mesquite, I should have asked a Ranger.

*MJRey* - That hill is a real test for the pulling power of any vehicle! I've no doubt that your towing experience is night and day with your new truck. Yeah, I wish we had more time. I'm sure we'll be back for more!


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## campingengineer (May 16, 2008)

Great log of your journey. I did a one day bonzai trip through Death Valley two years ago at the end of April...thought it would be fun to do some hiking and sightseeing before heading home from a work trip to Vegas. Got to do Artists drive, badwater, devil's golf course and Dantes view. I knew it got hot in DV, but I thought April would be OK, well, not the year I went - it was HOT!







Like "Africa Hot". Only got two hikes in before we realized it wasn't safe any more - even though we were drinking water and gatorade like it was going out of style. When we got to the visitor center, the ranger told us it was 110 degrees outside in the shade! Some folks in front of us had just checked in to do some tent camping - how hot do you think it gets in a tent when it's 110 degrees outside? Wow, those are hardy campers.

Oh, and by the way, the "it's a dry heat" thing...well, you know how 88 degrees can "feel" like 95 with the humidity and all? Guess what, 110 degrees feels like.....wait for it.....110 degrees!


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

I've been to DV several times, the first time tent camping with a motorcycle in August 25 years ago staying at the Furnace Creek Campground. Twice with a Miata, both time staying at the Furnace Creek Resort. And once in a 4x4 Ford Ranger pulling a hybrid trailer, but we stayed at a campground in Lone Pine. But in a couple of weeks I have reservations to stay at the same Furnace Creek Campground with my OB.

Although I have been to many places Herbicidal mentioned and photographed, I will use his guide for this trip. Thanks in advance!


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## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

Hey Ray, we're going to be there from 13 to 16 Feb. If that's the same time you'll be there stop by and have a beer. We've got a larger group going and we go all out for the dinners.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

MJRey said:


> Hey Ray, we're going to be there from 13 to 16 Feb. If that's the same time you'll be there stop by and have a beer. We've got a larger group going and we go all out for the dinners.


That's exactly when we'll be there, we're going with one other RV'er. We'll be in drive-in loop space #126. See you there!


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## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

See you there! We'll be in site 58 and our group will be in sites 56 - 66. We're planning turkey dinner Saturday and tri-tip steaks on Sunday. We do the turkeys in weber barbeques and the tri-tip in dutch ovens. Both nights we'll also have various types of cobbler made up in dutch ovens.

We've camped in the area you're in before and it was nice. The only issue we had was people driving through the campground too fast. It's close to the exit and people seem to want to speed up on the way out. Our group then had a lot of young kids 4 to 10 years old. It made me nervous when they were out with their bikes. On that trip I was there by myself as DW stayed home with our son since he was only 9 months old. Trying to keep track of the girls by myself was making me extra nervous about the traffic. If I didn't have young kids I probably wouldn't have really noticed. We ended up getting the ranger to set up some cones to slow folks down.


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

How about that? A mini-rally at Death Valley!







This may be a first! Have fun everyone!


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

MJRey said:


> We're planning turkey dinner Saturday and tri-tip steaks on Sunday. We do the turkeys in weber barbeques and the tri-tip in dutch ovens. Both nights we'll also have various types of cobbler made up in dutch ovens.


Great! Now we won't have to bring any of our own food! Thanks!









Nah....I'm even bringing my 82 year old mother as my personal chef.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

MJRey said:


> See you there! We'll be in site 58 and our group will be in sites 56 - 66. We're planning turkey dinner Saturday and tri-tip steaks on Sunday. We do the turkeys in weber barbeques and the tri-tip in dutch ovens. Both nights we'll also have various types of cobbler made up in dutch ovens.
> 
> We've camped in the area you're in before and it was nice. The only issue we had was people driving through the campground too fast. It's close to the exit and people seem to want to speed up on the way out. Our group then had a lot of young kids 4 to 10 years old. It made me nervous when they were out with their bikes. On that trip I was there by myself as DW stayed home with our son since he was only 9 months old. Trying to keep track of the girls by myself was making me extra nervous about the traffic. If I didn't have young kids I probably wouldn't have really noticed. We ended up getting the ranger to set up some cones to slow folks down.


Well, we only stayed two of the first three nights, and our friends bailed before even leaving home. If you weren't there it was Rain City. Roads were closed. To get to Scotty's Castle we had to drive through Beatty, NV about 180 miles round trip, because of the closed roads. Snow was down to about 4200'. When we left Sunday morning, there was only one road open to leave the park, 190 east. We were glad to get out when we did as Death Valley got as much rain in the two days we were there then they get in in entire year!


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

Wow! I saw that D.V was getting some rain as the storm was sweeping through southern CA., but I had no idea how much. Sorry to hear it was pretty much a wash out.


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## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

raynardo said:


> See you there! We'll be in site 58 and our group will be in sites 56 - 66. We're planning turkey dinner Saturday and tri-tip steaks on Sunday. We do the turkeys in weber barbeques and the tri-tip in dutch ovens. Both nights we'll also have various types of cobbler made up in dutch ovens.
> 
> We've camped in the area you're in before and it was nice. The only issue we had was people driving through the campground too fast. It's close to the exit and people seem to want to speed up on the way out. Our group then had a lot of young kids 4 to 10 years old. It made me nervous when they were out with their bikes. On that trip I was there by myself as DW stayed home with our son since he was only 9 months old. Trying to keep track of the girls by myself was making me extra nervous about the traffic. If I didn't have young kids I probably wouldn't have really noticed. We ended up getting the ranger to set up some cones to slow folks down.


Well, we only stayed two of the first three nights, and our friends bailed before even leaving home. If you weren't there it was Rain City. Roads were closed. To get to Scotty's Castle we had to drive through Beatty, NV about 180 miles round trip, because of the closed roads. Snow was down to about 4200'. When we left Sunday morning, there was only one road open to leave the park, 190 east. We were glad to get out when we did as Death Valley got as much rain in the two days we were there then they get in in entire year!
[/quote]

I guess we got our dates crossed. We're going this coming weekend and there is another storm expected to roll through on Friday/Saturday. I'm getting a little worried about the weather causing road problems. We usually take Hwy 190 and 178 and have occasionally encountered snow on the pass between Panamint Valley and Death Valley. That and washouts are the biggest concern. The only good thing about the bad weather is it will keep down the crowds on an otherwise busy 3 day weekend.


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

MJRey said:


> I guess we got our dates crossed. We're going this coming weekend and there is another storm expected to roll through on Friday/Saturday. I'm getting a little worried about the weather causing road problems. We usually take Hwy 190 and 178 and have occasionally encountered snow on the pass between Panamint Valley and Death Valley. That and washouts are the biggest concern. The only good thing about the bad weather is it will keep down the crowds on an otherwise busy 3 day weekend.


Hey, MJRey! Did you go to D.V? I don't recall seeing a post from you one way or the other...


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## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

Yes, we did end up going. I haven't had a chance to write much since I've been in Tennessee this past week for work. We came real close to calling off the trip because it was snowing at home while I was loading the truck and trailer. We got delayed leaving Friday afternoon because my middle daughter was late getting back from a school field trip due to the weather. We didn't get on the road until about 5:15 and because of our concern about the conditions on Townes pass on Hwy 190 we decided to take the long way around through Baker. We didn't get to the campground until 11:00 pm and quickly got set up and went to bed. The weather over the weekend was great, 60's and no wind. We didn't go anywhere on Saturday, we just stayed at the campground and I took the kids over to the hotel pool in the afternoon. A lot of people must have been scared off by the weather forecast as the campground had a fair number of empty sites. I did see 3 other Outbacks there but only spoke to one of them briefly. On Sunday we went to the dunes and hiked out to the big dunes where the kids went sledding down the sand dunes. They were flying down the hills and had lots of fun. I tried it once but didn't go very fast and got my pants full of sand, my kids said I was like a turtle going down the hill. Another storm was predicted to come through Monday morning and we go up and out of there fairly quickly. We left the campground at about 9:30 am Monday and ran into a fair amount of snow on Townes Pass on Hwy 190 heading out to the west. The pass is about 5,000 ft and the snow started about 4,000 ft on the way up and it kept snowing hard until we got back down to 3,500 ft on the other side. I was a bit nervous towing the trailer in a snow storm but it handled just fine. I think if we had left later in the morning the pass would have been closed. After that it rained most of the way home but it turned out to be a good trip even with the snow at the beginning and end of the trip.


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## 7heaven (Jun 4, 2005)

Great report Herb! Brings back a lot of fond memories of going there as a kid.


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

*MJRey* - Wow! Quite the start and end to your trip! There's nothing like sand in your pants!







Glad you and your family had a good time.








*7heaven* - thanks, glad you enjoyed my ramblings!


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.









Thor


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## Herbicidal (Aug 29, 2003)

Thor said:


> Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You're quite welcome!


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