Historic Airports of Death Valley

[MojaveGeek]

There are still hints of an old air strip, appears to have been partially paved, up by White Sage Flats. I sort of presumed it was related to the fact that the park HQ used to move up to Wildrose in the summer, but I have no source to back that up.

[DeathValleyDazed]

There are still hints of an old air strip, appears to have been partially paved, up by White Sage Flats.  I sort of presumed it was related to the fact that the park HQ used to move up to Wildrose in the summer, but I have no source to back that up.

Never heard of White Sage Flats so I tried to search for details but came up short. I poked around on Google Earth but not being sure of its exact location around Wildrose Campround I could find no evidence of a landing strip. No mention of White Sage Flats in Digonnet's book. Can you point me in a better direction? Thanks Geek for bringing up cool details like this!

[DAW89446]

White Sage Flat: https://goo.gl/maps/1g5e7XKuCxqp3bS38

[DeathValleyDazed]

White Sage Flat: https://goo.gl/maps/1g5e7XKuCxqp3bS38

David, thanks for the link which I just searched around for signs of MojaveGeek's airstrip but find nothing. Any idea which direction from you tag on the map the strip might exist?

[DAW89446]

White Sage Flat: https://goo.gl/maps/1g5e7XKuCxqp3bS38

David, thanks for the link which I just searched around for signs of MojaveGeek's airstrip but find nothing. Any idea which direction from you tag on the map the strip might exist?

Not a clue. First I’ve heard of the airstrip myself.

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I now believe I was too far south for White Sage Flat; it was actually in A Canyon. I was thinking it was south of Emigrant Summit. However, check here: https://goo.gl/maps/5AqbShtspMrcDEti7

White Sage Wash flows southerly from the playa and past where I had my old pin. Where this link is at certainly looks like an airstrip.

[DeathValleyDazed]

White Sage Flat: https://goo.gl/maps/1g5e7XKuCxqp3bS38

White Sage Wash flows southerly from the playa and past where I had my old pin. Where this link is at certainly looks like an airstrip.

David, Thanks for another pin on Google Maps and it sure could be an air strip. Further study shows a faint "air strip" like formation on the southwest section of that playa. (I've never seen this playa in person or on Google Earth until now, so thanks for that also.) Another air strip possibility is following that dirt road exiting the south west playa and heading towards Rattle Snake Gulch. There is a long and very straight section which appears to have a bypass around it, but maybe that is just the stream bed? 

I'd like to haver Mojave Geek weigh in on this thread and hopefully settle these questions.

[DAW89446]

I was thinking it was a playa but a closer look shows shrubbery. Since it is so light colored, it might be the name behind white sage.

It’s been many years since I’ve been up and over into the valley via Wildrose Canyon I forget. When I lived in Trona and Ridgecrest I regularly travelled it. The last time I think I’ve done it was in the autumn of 2002, when I took a two night-three day camping trip to Greenwater, Willow Creek. I was living in Big Pine but left from my apartment I had in Trona for use during my work week.

[MojaveGeek]

Sorry you guys are barking up the wrong "White Sage". White Sage Flat is a very noticeable area to the west as you go over Emigrant Pass. There's an old road trace there and, if this link works, you can see the airstrip pretty clearly:
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.3283744,...a=!3m1!1e3

I was curious about White Sage Flat for years. One year we started up the old road to Pinto from the pass and saw a guy going out that way. Later saw him coming back down our way. So we decided to replicate that loop, which turned out to be nice. There's a lot of Joshua trees out on the flats. There were hints of some former thin coating of asphalt like material on the part that I considered to be the air strip. We followed the old road trace that goes just to the north side of the flat.

[DAW89446]

Sorry you guys are barking up the wrong "White Sage".  White Sage Flat is a very noticeable area to the west as you go over Emigrant Pass.  There's an old road trace there and, if this link works, you can see the airstrip pretty clearly:
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.3283744,...a=!3m1!1e3

I was curious about White Sage Flat for years.  One year we started up the old road to Pinto from the pass and saw a guy going out that way.  Later saw him coming back down our way.  So we decided to replicate that loop, which turned out to be nice.  There's a lot of Joshua trees out on the flats.  There were hints of some former thin coating of asphalt like material on the part that I considered to be the air strip.  We followed the old road trace that goes just to the north side of the flat.

My first response to the location of White Sage was a bit south, in A Canyon just east of where White Sage Wash flows through. My second post had the same location as your link. For some reason, even though I posted fifteen minutes later, two of my posts were merged, making it confusing even for me ... 

[MojaveGeek]

Interesting. I saw only the reference to White Sage wash, but I may have missed something in the embedded responses. The wash drains the flats. Might be interesting to go down there some day, or up via that dirt road shown on the Google image.