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Randomly happened across this on the DV Alerts & Conditions – https://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/conditions.htm
This is a new one for me. Kind of messes with my plans, but grateful to have found out in advance.
Quote:Planned Power Outage March 4
On March 4, from 10am-2pm, power will be out at Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells. Gas pumps will not be available at Stovepipe Wells, but should be available at Furnace Creek and Panamint Springs. Food service may be limited, and phone lines may be down.
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Won't bother PSR, as they aren't on the grid ever. At least there is advance notice. Interesting they are doing it in the middle of the day, as opposed to early in the morning, when I'd think there might be less activity.
David Bricker / SYR
DV Rat. Live upstate NY, play Death Valley, retiring to Hawaii. '95 Cherokee, barely.
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Mid day, the places like SPW are pretty much empty, as everyone is out having fun. Evening power outage and people don't eat dinner. SPW at dusk in a power outage is a bit difficult, guests get cranky!
Hopefully they post it well around the park!
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Can anybody "shed some light" on how the power outage hiccupped life or blew some temper fuses of visitors in DEVA?
Life begins in Death Valley
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It sure didn't do me any favors. After having been down in the Owlshead & Butte Valley for 4 nights, we rolled back north through Furnace Creek after 2pm on March 4 to grab some gas and all the pumps were shut off. Signs taped on them that said: "Due to a planned power outage, service station will be closed on March 4th 2021." – running low on gas we zoomed over to Stovepipe Wells and didn't even bother to stop as there were construction cones blocking the pumps.
We ended up driving over to Panamint Springs Resort for gas which was great – rather give them our money, but it meant we had to drop our plans for a last night at Stateline "Ghost Town" and ended up on Lee Flat instead. Details to follow.
Does anyone have more insight as to what happened with the power outage? Total PITA from our perspective. Not sure what it was like for folks hanging out in the actual facilities.
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2021-03-06, 08:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 2021-03-06, 08:27 PM by DAW89446.)
I’d have gone to Beatty before trying Stovepipe and PSR. Best chance of getting gas at all hours. And your plans for Stateline could be realized by heading to Gold Point then south.
Back in about 2000, I was guiding a friend in his 4Runner up Goler, Barker, Mengel, Butte, Warm Springs, to the Badwater road, then to FC. Arrived a half hour before posted closing at what was then a Chevron station to find it closed and me with a quarter tank of gas. Kind of put a real damper as to what to do about gas while dining at the restaurant. The restaurant waitress told me that gas was available until 9 at Stovepipe, but I shot up to Beatty lest I waste time and gas going to Stovepipe and finding it closed early as well. Gassed up. Arrived home at midnight. But it was pleasant since I didn’t have to watch the gas gauge the entire trip.
DAW
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.
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I considered Beatty, but complicating everything was I'd just discovered a rear differential leak and figured if I was going to be stranded anywhere on the way back home I'd rather be on 395 versus 95. Being stuck in Bishop for 24 hours sounded a lot more appealing than Tonopah or Hawthorne! Also would rather limp home on a four lane highway versus the two lane game of chicken that is 95. In the end it all worked out fine, but I'm still a little confused by the Park having zero gas for an entire day when the shutoff was supposedly only 4 hours and I saw plenty of folks walking in and out of the buildings at Furnace Creek and Stovepipe as well.
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In my experience, the stores have all been open during power outages, but only for cash.
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This is interesting. Not power outage related, but if it happened during the outage could have been more tragic.
https://sierrawave.net/explosion-in-deat...-injuries/
DAW
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.
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(2021-03-09, 07:58 PM)DAW89446 Wrote: if it happened during the outage could have been more tragic.
OK, which employee farted while smoking which set the propane tank ablaze?
No, seriously, this was a close call and I'm so glad no one was injured or killed. Looks like a war zone. Maybe SPW should invest in a gas sensor alarm next time?
Life begins in Death Valley
