Flooding 7/31, 8/5/22, and Park Reopening

[GowerGulch42]

CA190 over Towne Pass is owned by CalTrans and the NPS has no authority to close it; they can however close Wildrose, North Highway, and Badwater roads as needed.

[jkpaulsen]

This doesn't seem to bode well: https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.p...n=-116.817.

Hopefully this doesn't set back the repair efforts from the August storm.

[Beardilocks]

Looking at the NPS map right now, the ONLY open portion of road us 190 from Furnace to Stovepipe. No ways in or out. Damn.

[jesportland]

190 from the east is open now, so that's a plus! Five weeks and counting, for nine nights.

[Daymoth]

This was posted on Tripadvisor by DesertRambler1 I hope they dond mind I put it here:

"So today ( Sept 28), I talked to Richard Farabee, owner of Farabee's Jeep Rental at Furnace Creek. He is actively checking out roads and trails to see what is passable (legally of course) for his guests. I asked for his permission to report what he found.

So far he had made it to Racetrack Playa in one of their Jeeps (before they recently declared it shut it down so its not legal to drive it any longer, fyi) but nevertheless, it has areas where no road is visible. Only 4x4 passable.

Lost Burro mine to Teakettle section on way to Hunter Mountain has no visible road any longer, it's gone. Good news though is that the bad sand section has filled in and hardened into clay.

Lippincott Rd/Pass is fortunately in tact and passable with a few areas more tricky than usual. Toward bottom at Saline Valley end, it's a mess and quite rough. Figure much longer to do the road.

Echo Canyon and Hole in the Wall are hard closure with concrete barriers blocking.

Chloride City and hills around it are intact but the really steep hill climb/decend area is more exposed and higher pucker factor now. Also the back way in and out to Nevada from Chloride area was passable but watch for deep ruts across road that catch you off guard. Also, as of now you can't get to start of trail from Daylight Pass, you can only come in from Nevada side on the backcountry road.

Goler wash is still unknown at this point, but since it starts on private land it may not get reported accurately. In other words, NPS can't close it down, as there is private land up there, such as Meyer's Ranch. So you could get up there thinking it shows open, but it could be a mess, and Mengel Pass is beyond the private residence so it could be washed out. Richard may be checking the route this week and I'll report here if I hear from him.

Cottonwood Canyon trail, which is near Stovepipe Wells is a complete mess up further into narrow section. It's all closed now.

I hear that Cerro Gordo road is somewhat passable and up and over to the backside and out to Saline Valley where you could get back to 190 to avoid the closure to the west.

Richard says that he sees Cal Trans crews working like mad to open 190. Every machine they have has an operator in it.

Gas at Furnace Creek is just under $9 /gal and expected to rise , so gas up outside of park or hit Stovepipe Wells."

Crossing my fingers and toes we can go to DV this december. No way to enter from the west last time I checked

[TacoLand]

That's solid info, thanks for sharing.

[Bluegreen kayak]

Question about entering DEVA from the west: the NPS website, under Plan Your Visit/Conditions has a map that shows Emigrant Canyon road to Trona Wildrose road as open to traffic. Is that a viable route to use from Ridgecrest?

[netllama]

Question about entering DEVA from the west: the NPS website, under Plan Your Visit/Conditions has a map that shows Emigrant Canyon road to Trona Wildrose road as open to traffic. Is that a viable route to use from Ridgecrest?

That road has a long history of falling apart under light rain. I'd be surprised if it was passable after the past month's chaos. That said, I have no actual recent information about the conditions of that road.

[jkpaulsen]

Maybe a dumb question: if the roads are closed, that's just for vehicles, correct? So, for instance, if I wanted to hike up Echo Canyon, that would be OK? When the NPS site says "backcountry travel not advised" are they referring to vehicle traffic only, or also foot traffic? I have been assuming that as long as I can drive to where I want to start my hike, I am allowed to hike anywhere I like.

[jesportland]

Question about entering DEVA from the west: the NPS website, under Plan Your Visit/Conditions has a map that shows Emigrant Canyon road to Trona Wildrose road as open to traffic. Is that a viable route to use from Ridgecrest?

Yes, it's open! I've driven it when it was  "closed" with barricades.