Historic Saline Valley Salt Tram Tower Pulled Down (sierrawave.net)

Adventures to Saline Valley with recovery (youtube.com)

Good find. I'm hoping the NPS is aware of this video? Last I heard they were looking for any clues and didn't yet have any leads. Terrible damage to the area, very sad.

(2024-05-14, 09:35 PM)Kauri Wrote: Good find. I'm hoping the NPS is aware of this video? Last I heard they were looking for any clues and didn't yet have any leads. Terrible damage to the area, very sad.

That video was posted on the Saline forum on a thread I started with the NPS press release. It's apparent that the Tundra driver, the young man in the flannel shirt that shows up at the end, is the culprit. In the video he walks over to the toppled tower and retrieves the end of his winch cable and is carrying it back to the truck. The forum posted another video of a Jeep Gladiator that got stuck near the same point but not as far out. It did not have a winch.

At any rate, the Saline forum admins have close ties with the NPS and I'm sure have already passed the link on to the appropriate people.

Why is it SOOOO hard to not drive out onto these lake beds and playas? There's so many great places to drive out there with out uglying up the landscape. AND you're guaranteed to get stuck if anything is the slightest bit wet, even if it doesn't look it. Stupid on top of stupid.

That's before you even get to the thought process of winching off of historic structures... I worry about humanity.

The video I linked was removed. Fortunately, a member of the Saline forum had also posted some screen grabs of the most telling parts. The thread is at:

Salt Tram Tower #1 (lake bed) Pulled Down - Saline Preservation Association

A company called GFC (Go Fast Campers) put up a condensed version of the video on their website. I don't know if the person who initiated the rescue is a representative of GFC or the person who shot the video.

Go Fast Campers | The YouTube video has been deleted 💥 but heres what we saw. 1) The stuck vehicle that appears to have had a winch line around the salt… | Instagram

If you move the arrow buttons to the side you will find some warnings about such activities. They have reached out to DVNP to help resolve the issue. There are user comments posted on the right of the video box, one being from the Park Service about the huge amount of tips that has come in about this incident.

Loads of articles on this incident now. This one has a bit of analysis:
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-ad...salt-tram/

(2024-05-15, 02:53 PM)DAW89446 Wrote: A company called GFC (Go Fast Campers) put up a condensed version of the video on their website. I don't know if the person who initiated the rescue is a representative of GFC or the person who shot the video.

Go Fast Campers | The YouTube video has been deleted 💥 but heres what we saw. 1) The stuck vehicle that appears to have had a winch line around the salt… | Instagram

If you move the arrow buttons to the side you will find some warnings about such activities. They have reached out to DVNP to help resolve the issue. There are user comments posted on the right of the video box, one being from the Park Service about the huge amount of tips that has come in about this incident.

My understanding from GFC's posts on Instagram is that they have no connection with the incident whatsoever, but (1) some people were asking if the camper on the truck is a GFC (it's not--it's identified in the Outside mag article), and (2) since this incident will almost certainly make the off-road community look bad in the eyes of many folks, GFC is trying to help mitigate this by emphasizing that this is one (of an unfortunate number) of rotten apples but not all off-roaders are like that, to educate folks on what should NOT be done, try to help NPS find the people who did the damage, and help get support for restoration of the area (depending on how NPS etc. decides this should be handled, but it sounds like numerous folks are interested in volunteering to help). 

My Instagram feed today has been full of reposts of this video and associated pictures, people and companies trying to spread the word of what happened and try to seek help in track down the individuals responsible for the damage. Hopefully they'll be able to catch these people.

Thank you for the link. It was an interesting read.

I applaud GFC's efforts to be an ambassador between the Park Service and those of us who enjoy responsible off roading. They conveyed that very well in their words associated with the video.

The tower looks to have survived the fall intact. I'd think it would be a relatively simple effort to re-right it, hopefully falling into its original footprint and doing whatever compaction of the footings necessary to keep it in place.

There is another set of two videos of another couple who got stuck very close to the same spot in March. It appears that they might have brought in a couple of pieces of wood from the tower to aid in traction. Or maybe they were there all along; yanked off by previous people stuck.

Extreme Death Valley BDAY Trip: Part 1 - CAMPING @ RACE TRACK, DUNES, LIPPINCOTT MINE TRAIL (youtube.com)

Extreme Death Valley Bday Trip: Part 2 - Saline Valley Warm Springs Airfield & Mud Recovery (youtube.com)

And I see someone had downloaded the removed video on their Google Drive and has shared it at the Saline forum.

Salt Tram Tower #1 (lake bed) Pulled Down - Saline Preservation Association