Death Valley and 2WD

[SierraHawk]

Thanks daveb Cottonwood was the one I had in mind. Enough flat spots along the way to park the van on and stay a few days.

[arctictraveller]

Originally Posted by TomsBeast

Now, beyond the Racetrack, a few miles south, to your right is the entrance to Lippincott Mine road, which drops you into Saline Valley. (I have a great story about this older couple that followed me and my Suzuki Samurai down Lippincott, in a street tired Acura SUV). I think a few guys have done it in a van, not sure 4x4 is a must (as it's a moderately steep decent) but I'm not sure I'd try with an extended base (EB), or an RB without an 8" lift. There's several stair-step drops on the decent, that would try to high-center a lower van, and catch your rear bumper.

No way I'll ever drive my van up or down Lippencott again. I followed Claude (VivaLavida) up, but little did I know how fearless he is. By the time it was too late to turn around, the road narrowed down to a spot where it had been repaired several times, but continues to slide away, with a drop of several hundred feet at the narrowest part. With two wheels high on the bank, and the other two at the edge of the crumbling road, it was truly a butt puckering moment. Mrs A/T said, "hell no, I'm walking". Obviously we made it, but once was more than enough. Then again, perhaps it's been fixed again, but I'll take your word for it.

[IanF]

My guess is off-roading in one's house will always vary depending on each owner's risk assessment. Personally, I've become more risk-averse as I age, so I doubt I'd want to take my van any place where it couldn't get into or out of in 2WD.

[TheLetterJ]

Well, I'm happy to report that my proposed route was absolutely doable in a 2wd. Unfortunately, my van developed a nasty misfire about 30 miles from my house, so I made the tough decision to turn back and switch vehicles. We made the trip in a '19 Jeep Wrangler JL and I was missing my van the whole time (except at the gas station.)

The descent down the East side of Hunter Mountain was just steep enough in the dark that I had to ride the brake in the JL (with highway gears), so I shifted into low range and let it have 2nd (of 8!), anything with lower gears (like my 4.56's) would have been fine in high/1st, no need for 4x4. There was a bit of snow and mud, as well as some large rocks in the roadway, but easily navigated through/around in 2wd with 31" mall terrains.

Being my first time in Death Valley (shocking, I know) I found navigation to be pretty straight forward, using nothing more than a paper map and common sense, even considering that we traveled from Saline Valley road to the South end of the Racetrack in the dark. We camped at the base of Lippincott Mine road (we aired down a bit at this point) and checked out the Racetrack at sunrise. Continued on to Teakettle Junction (this time in daylight) and on to Ubehebe where we aired back up. It was definitely worth taking the time to air down a bit (20psi) for that road, just to smooth out the washboard.

Westside road was still closed so we just took 190 to the South end of the park, where we cut across Furnace Creek wash for ~7 miles to 127, with a side detour to Dumont Dunes before heading home. I'd like to check out the Northern section of Furnace Creek wash on a future trip, as the Southern tail end was totally passenger car friendly.

I saw no less than a dozen SMB's on our ~1,000 mile loop, and I was missing my van every time I saw one. This was the first time I slept in a tent since I bought my van ~6 years ago! I look forward to being able to go back with my van for further exploring.

Thanks to all who posted here!

[NavyNuke]

Glad you had a good time, explore the Mohave Preserve to enjoy less traffic and beauty