Death Valley Thankgiving 2012

[daveb]

Who would you contact to find out if that edge has deteriorated? I found a spot like that but slightly worse on the Old Coulterville Trail that had me backing up a long distance.

[CJ]

You can always stop at the main Park office and ask, they usually have good information for current conditions. The park Ranger drives most of the trails on a routine basis.

My suggestion is to just drive out to the trail and walk ahead to check it out. Most likely you’ll find someone on it that can tell you about it.

Just go for it you can always back up )

[TomsBeast]

Originally Posted by daveb

Hidden valley and Hunter Mtn is a fine way in but closes in winter. Guess you can call to find out if it's open.

we took saline valley rd up and over hunter mountain, teakettle to racetrack, then down Lippencott (at dusk) and back to Panamint Springs last Christmas of 2011 in my Suzuki Samurai, which was an unseasonably warm year. We had some ice and snow on the northern slopes, like you'd expect, but no big deal, hardly locked the front hubs. No what the park rangers would have had me believe. I guess my experience in snow with VW buses on the annual Shasta Snow Trip has taught me a couple tricks, or the rangers don't like rescuing stranded pilgrims in the back country.

But the Sami is just a jeep that someone washed on hot, "Honey i shrunk the 4by4!" pretty easy to stay out of trouble with nimble little thing, and pretty easy to shovel out of any trouble one might find. Our SMB is a different beast

Dave, the pictures of you winching your SMB out of sand are sobering... particularly since I don't have a winch On the other hand, i will have 2-3 teens with us, who can wield a shovel

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by TomsBeast

But the Sami is just a jeep that someone washed on hot, "Honey i shrunk the 4by4!" pretty easy to stay out of trouble with nimble little thing, and pretty easy to shovel out of any trouble one might find. Our SMB is a different beast

Tom, I just saw one for sale in someone's yard the other day, which is getting to be a pretty rare site. I had to force myself to keep going, just too many toys right now. It would be the perfect toad behind my 2WD van!

[daveb]

Originally Posted by TomsBeast

Dave, the pictures of you winching your SMB out of sand are sobering... particularly since I don't have a winch On the other hand, i will have 2-3 teens with us, who can wield a shovel

That was CellularSteve's van that got burried... it was a fun trip but I'm glad he got stuck where he did. During the recovery I walked up the canyon and it just kept getting worse! Sure nice to have another vehicle when you try places like that. We actually had to use 2 winches and a high lift jack to get out

[Christopher Thwaites]

Definately go to Carruthers Canyon. It's spectacular and it wasn't crowded when I went there a couple of years ago. I used Charlie56's map and directions...find them on the this forum. To get to the camps near the rocks stay right across the creek bed. Lots of options.