Give us your DEVA backcountry plans or dreams!

[MojaveGeek]

Funny, I haven't seen this till now because I was in the Cascades (Rainier area) for the last couple of weeks. Beautiful foliage up there, btw, but the weather took a turn while I was there and a couple of multi-day rain events came through, with snow down to about 6800 feet. I had some excellent days though.

I've not yet begun to think about this year's DV follies. I think if I take all my "out takes" from previous years - hikes I scoped out but didn't have time to do - I'd have more than enough, but I'm always looking for new stuff.

Oh, Taco, Corridor, *highly recommended* It is an interesting hike, as the trail bends and twists to conform with the totally up-tilted strata, and the corridor itself is stunning!

[Beardilocks]

Try to figure out the secrets (if any) as to why no one, I mean nobody, reports on Chuckwalla and Death Valley Canyons....

What are some of your future plans and/or dreams; immediate or far reaching?

John
Roslyn,WA

Chuckwalla and surrounding area does have some neat stuff.  Chuckwalla Crater is very cool and mostly unvisited.  Although based on the abundance of old roads and foot-trails in the area, I suspect it was once a tourist attraction in the park.  I have been scouring old maps and tourist books but have yet to stumble across a mention of it.  



Theres also some really neat wind-eroded rocks in the area.  Ive even found several firepits that seemed to be fairly old out there.  A much more active area at one time and it has always fascinated me.  I need to explore it a bit more.

[John Morrow]

Try to figure out the secrets (if any) as to why no one, I mean nobody, reports on Chuckwalla and Death Valley Canyons....

What are some of your future plans and/or dreams; immediate or far reaching?

John
Roslyn,WA

Chuckwalla and surrounding area does have some neat stuff.  Chuckwalla Crater is very cool and mostly unvisited.  Although based on the abundance of old roads and foot-trails in the area, I suspect it was once a tourist attraction in the park.  I have been scouring old maps and tourist books but have yet to stumble across a mention of it.  



Theres also some really neat wind-eroded rocks in the area.  Ive even found several firepits that seemed to be fairly old out there.  A much more active area at one time and it has always fascinated me.  I need to explore it a bit more.

Cool, thanks Beardilocks!   Any chance that is a native trail?  Mojavegeek once posted about a native trail out from Mohagony to Calville Ridge.  Dropping off from there into Chuckwalla seems improbably steep but could these have connected as a travel route, prehistory?

[Beardilocks]

I talked to the Naturalist in DV about the trails and he said that some of them were most definitely old native trails and some were likely later but he hadn't been out to Chuckwalla, he'd just heard multiple first hand accounts. He said almost every canyon has/had a trail into it on that side of the valley and there was a trail that skirted the edge, passing the mouth of every canyon. There's definitely one going into Chuckwalla, but I have no idea if it goes up the ridge. Zoom in on Google Earth and you can see a lot of it. There were obvious trails heading in all directions from the crater sort of willy-nilly. That was one reason to think some of them were later. The native trails are usually more direct.

The sheer number of old roads and footpaths that you can either follow or that you cross btw Hanaupah & Chuckwalla really surprised me.

I've done some Goolgeing, and some old fashion research but haven't found much about the crater. If anyone has any leads or old documentation I'd love to hear it.

Cheers!

EDIT: Oh and to answer your original question, I'd really like to thru-hike Ubehebe to Eureka this year. But I don't think I'll make it this winter...

[John Morrow]

EDIT:  Oh and to answer your original question, I'd really like to thru-hike Ubehebe to Eureka this year.  But I don't think I'll make it this winter...

When you do trips like this, do you cache H2O by vehicle ahead of time?  I get wussy about driving so much but would love to cross connect major valleys/flats, with over range routes.  there seems to be non-tech canyons coming off Dry/south L Chance Range as ccrossings.  

Copper Queen Tr->>Corridor Cany->>the big wide bajada valley thingy (advance short hike from Teakettle Jct to cache water in that valley)->> Serpent Canyon->>Saline Valley (H2O cache)->>White Rock cany->>Saline Peak->>hidden dunes->>Eureka

I don't think I could "sell" those thru hikes with my current cadre

[bbbb]

EDIT:  Oh and to answer your original question, I'd really like to thru-hike Ubehebe to Eureka this year.  But I don't think I'll make it this winter...

Wow. I've been thinking of doing that sometime too. I've always wanted to see Eureka Valley but always afraid of getting stuck on Big Pine Rd. I haven't looked closely at the topography, so this is just a guess...

Capture2

[Kauri]

What part of Big Pine Road are you most concerned about? The paved stretch is fine, and sees a reasonable amount of vehicles, but I will say that the two times I've been to Eureka Valley the washboard has been horrific on the dirt part of Big Pine Road and out towards the Eureka Dunes. On the second trip I opted to turn around early, out of concern for the stock suspension on my RAV4.

[bbbb]

What part of Big Pine Road are you most concerned about? The paved stretch is fine, and sees a reasonable amount of vehicles, but I will say that the two times I've been to Eureka Valley the washboard has been horrific on the dirt part of Big Pine Road and out towards the Eureka Dunes. On the second trip I opted to turn around early, out of concern for the stock suspension on my RAV4.

Definitely the unpaved stretch. I remember reading a story about a photographer/tourist who drove out there and had three flat tires by the time he got to the dunes. It seems like a long distance to slowly creep along in a rental car, so backpacking there from Ubehebe Crater seems like it could be a neat alternative.

[Kauri]

What part of Big Pine Road are you most concerned about? The paved stretch is fine, and sees a reasonable amount of vehicles, but I will say that the two times I've been to Eureka Valley the washboard has been horrific on the dirt part of Big Pine Road and out towards the Eureka Dunes. On the second trip I opted to turn around early, out of concern for the stock suspension on my RAV4.

Definitely the unpaved stretch. I remember reading a story about a photographer/tourist who drove out there and had three flat tires by the time he got to the dunes. It seems like a long distance to slowly creep along in a rental car, so backpacking there from Ubehebe Crater seems like it could be a neat alternative.

Ouch, yes, the sharp rocks on road probably wouldn't be nice to rental car tires. I personally wouldn't do it without good tires, a full size spare, and tire repair kit and air compressor and/or fix-a-flat (but admittedly I also tend to be over cautious about things like this). 

Your backpacking trip from Ubehebe Crater to the Eureka Dunes looks great!

[Beardilocks]

EDIT:  Oh and to answer your original question, I'd really like to thru-hike Ubehebe to Eureka this year.  But I don't think I'll make it this winter...

When you do trips like this, do you cache H2O by vehicle ahead of time?  I get wussy about driving so much but would love to cross connect major valleys/flats, with over range routes.  there seems to be non-tech canyons coming off Dry/south L Chance Range as ccrossings.  

Copper Queen Tr->>Corridor Cany->>the big wide bajada valley thingy (advance short hike from Teakettle Jct to cache water in that valley)->> Serpent Canyon->>Saline Valley (H2O cache)->>White Rock cany->>Saline Peak->>hidden dunes->>Eureka

I don't think I could "sell" those thru hikes with my current cadre

All the thru hikes I've undertaken to this point have not been conducive to caching via vehicle (as in they crossed no roads).  I've always travelled in the winter months and carried just what I needed.  It doesn't leave much margin for error, but I usually just make it.  Lol.