Death Valley 2020 Spring Break

tx_shooter

You ever try to roughie a bear?
Staff member
Getting the thread ready while I process and upload the pics/videos.

It was a great trip thanks to @TacoXpo taking time to show us the trails around the park that make the area amazing for trips like this. The actual National Park is a tourist trap that has little to offer for our purposes. There were some neat parts; but like we were told - once and done areas. Now that I have them done the next trip we will stick to the back country. The whole trip was great and the Navy jet fly over at South Pass when we parted ways was awesome.

But now what everyone is looking for; the pics and videos. Now the disclaimer on the videos; we were still learning the GoPro but it is a heck of a piece of hardware. No the video speed has not been edited; we did not use the brakes much.
 

tx_shooter

You ever try to roughie a bear?
Staff member
Day 1

We met up at Baker, CA to top off fuel, check the radios for good com, and then headed out. We cut north into the park and then took to Harry Wade Road. This dirt road cuts a lot of time off the pavement route when following @TacoXpo . We started getting into the hills and trails in the southeast part of the park on Warm Spring Canyon and stayed on dirt roads for the rest of the day. This park is so big that you just drive and drive and drive to get anywhere. The views around Striped Butte were impressive and amazing to be hidden so well.



We were headed towards Ballarat when I started to learn that transmission coolers that work great at less than 1000' do not always work so well after a day of going up and down passes with inclines that never seem to stop. We camped at a spot that was off the main trails for the night.



Day 2

We made a bee line for Panamint Springs to let me get transmission fluid so I could reroute my 4Runner to go through the radiator before the B&M cooler. We topped off the fuel tanks (gas was surprisingly not at gouging prices), routed the transmission lines, and took off to test the changes on a trail that is close by.

The trail to Darwin Springs is pretty nice and probably overlooked due to it's location. It did give us a good test of the transmission cooler setup which was tested as pretty good after a 2nd quart of fluid was added. Then we were off to the races again. We drove through Father Crowley Point but did not see any jets this time. The view is still pretty impressive.

We took off on the trails up towards South Pass where we saw some amazing views. Completely amazing. Due to the time lost on the transmission issue and snowfall we headed straight to camp. We camped in Saline Valley for the night and headed back out in the morning as we had to part ways so TacoXpo could get back to work. We were stopped at the split in the road and talking when we had a Navy jet fly over just over our heads. I have been around a lot of military aircraft and that was still pretty freaking awesome.

As we headed back to pavement to head into the National Park we did a quick test on the radios distance using the GMRS Ch 20. We were about 6 miles apart when we lost contact between the rigs. That is pretty good considering the terrain and shadowing in the mountains. I will be getting a good dual channel radio for my 4Runner in the near future. At the pavement my sammich maker and I headed into the tourist trap National Park.

There were some road closures due to road issues so some of our options were limited. We looked at getting a camp site around Furnace Creek but after driving through the camp areas we decided to get back in the back country. So we quickly drove down to Artists Drive where we drove the loop and checked out the views. It was nice but like I was told earlier in the week - a one and done. We then headed up to Dante's View at 5475 feet over the valley to take in the view. The drive there is not bad but the last mile is pretty steep with the last 1/4 mile being at 15* grade. The view at the top is worth the drive though. It was impressive to be able to see almost all the way to both ends of the valley.



We stayed the night off of Greenwater Valley Road. There are a number of trails back in there but we did not get there in time to check them out. We setup camp and enjoyed being away from the crowded camp sites at the center of the park. There were other rigs along the road but everyone respected distance and camped at least 1/4 mile apart.

Day 3

After breakfast and breaking camp we headed up to Titus Canyon. The canyon is pretty worth the drive but be ready for slow traffic. The road is in really good shape since the park maintains it for 2WD access so not all vehicles are moving at normal speeds. After the canyon we decided to start working out way home since we were over 20 hours from the house.





Along the way home we did go through Cloudcroft to check it out since it is only 8 hours from home.
 
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tx_shooter

You ever try to roughie a bear?
Staff member
TOR Media Album

Death Valley 2020 | ToyotaOff-Road.com

Also attached the Death Valley National Park map and a few others.

full


 

Attachments

  • death-valley-national-park-map.pdf
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  • death-valley-backcountry-roads-map.pdf
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  • death-valley-map.pdf
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TacoXpo

HOAX DENIER
Good times - wish I could have stayed longer.
 
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