Nevada desert and Death Valley NP trip - Page 2

kmessinger · 11-25-2009, 01:18 PM

Great pictures. Looks like the Sprinter could do some of this and the 250 mile part sounds excellent. How many miles a day did you travel? What was the starting/stopping point for the dirt?

Regards,

Keith

saline · 11-25-2009, 03:32 PM

Yep your Sprinter could do a great deal of the Nevada roads. They were great, with hardly any washboard. The only semi rough area was near the Cherry Pass area, but still doable in a 2wd in my opinion. We didn't use 4wd until Lipincott rd in DV.
We started on the dirt about 45 miles west of Delta Utah, turned south onto Tule Valley road from Hwy 6&50 down to Crystal Peak rd.. West on Crystal Peak to the town of Garrison.
South on paved hwy 21 for about 15 miles then west on dirt towards the Atlanta mine site and continued west to hwy 93.
South on hwy 93 for about 13 miles then back to dirt west on the Bristol Wells road to hwy 318.
North on hwy 318 to just south of Sunnyside.
West on dirt once again then past lake and towards Cherry Creek/Cherry Pass area across the Grant Range (spectacular!!) down to Railroad Valley Rd. (dirt)
West on Railroad Valley Rd to hwy 375. This section was pretty long but worth it.
It was great, very scenic and we saw nobody on any of the dirt sections. All of our westward progress was on dirt until near Tonapah.
Going through all the different mtn ranges and dry valleys was pretty cool.

Plus we did another 80 miles or so of dirt in Death Valley NP.

Aldercrest · 11-25-2009, 04:57 PM

I've wanted to visit the Racetrack in DV NP for several years. I'll be heading to southern California from Oregon at the end of March and am thinking of doing it then, about March 19-20, 2010. Is the route in the attached map similar to what you traveled? Any words of caution about doing this alone? What about with my wife and 1 year old? (I'm thinking of having them fly down to allow some longer driving days on the way south. We'll take it a little slower on the way north.)

saline · 11-25-2009, 08:08 PM

I gotta figure out how to attach a map.
Jackcheese,
The route we took is similar. We came into DV via the road into Scotty's Castle (the NE portion of your route) and then following your route over to Ubahebee Crater and then to Racetrack ( some of the most God aweful washboard on this continant

). From Racetrack we continued down Lipincott as your map also shows.
Going down Lipincott by yourself could present a challenge. I had my wife get out and spot me on one corner and had her help judge distance on her side a couple of other times.
Also we left Saline Valley via North Pass as your map also shows.
Just be aware that it wil be rather warm that late in March.

TwoVans · 12-23-2009, 12:30 AM

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to see any very low altitude jets during your trip in Saline or Panamint Valley’s?

saline · 12-23-2009, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jessenej

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to see any very low altitude jets during your trip in Saline or Panamint Valley’s?

Yes, there are always a lot of military jets around, especially in Panamint, and Saline Valleys. This year we saw a few F-15 E's, F-16's and as always a plethora of F-18's. This was the first year that I can recall that I saw an F-15 in Saline, it was pretty cool to see a flight of 3!

cellularSTEVE · 12-23-2009, 05:29 PM

Hey Saline,
Enjoyable trip report. I only now read it. I love DV and Panamint Valley and have gone each year for the past 4 years. I would really like to see more about your dirt road trip from UT. If you are having trouble putting up the map then PM me and I can help out.

steve

TwoVans · 12-24-2009, 09:37 PM

For those that are interested in military jets, Panamint Valley is frequently used by the two F-18 training squadrons at NAS Lemoore for low altitude training. They routinely operate at 200 feet and occasionally down to 100 feet, all at about 500 mph. On the northwest side of the valley, there is a road that goes from the Owens Dry Lakebed to Panamint Valley. When it turn east to drop into the valley, it is bordered to its north by a significant little valley with what appears to be scenic overlook. Typically, the F-18s drop into Panamint Valley by flying from Owens and dive through that little valley. When they do that, they are BELOW to people that are watching from that scenic overlook. I don't know what the name of the road is, but I've always wondered how surprised those people were as we go screaming by...

Anyway, although it doesn't happen every day, it might be worth checking out the next time you travel through Panamint Valley.