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

[Daymoth]

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.

Is it high clearance or sedan passable? I dont think ive ever been on that road east of the panamints.

[DVexile]

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.

Is it high clearance or sedan passable? I dont think ive ever been on that road east of the panamints.

In the past it has been nearly entirely paved. Right now the website lists it as open, the only qualifier being some sections unpaved and single lane. No mention of needing “high clearance” in the report which I take to mean it is sedan passable as that would be its standard condition.

[DAW89446]

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?

[DVexile]

That Caltrans map is inaccurate showing more closed than actually is. Big Pine Death Valley road is in fact open until you get to Ubehebe Road. Drove it from Eureka to Big Pine a few days ago. And lower Wildrose is now open as well. The Park website has the most up to date information and has been updated almost daily for the past week.

[John Morrow]

One thing I can think of regarding "hard " (4x4/HC) road closures such as Echo, for example.  This could be a nice opportunity to hike in for an overnight when otherwise visited by folks in appropriate vehicles.  (I have enjoyed complete solitude and wildness in Horse Canyon of the Needles Canyonlands twice when the road was closed to vehicles due to flooding.)

Also, if limited access remains, it opens up the opportunity to maybe hike some of the hikes from pavement that I didn't think would be as "grand" as other hikes I sought to do:  Indian Canyon, Grey Wall, S. Lamoille f/Emigrant RS, etc.

When I say "hard" I mean determined by the Park to be officially closed by regulation and not simply washed out, requiring volunteer jeeper maintenance.  Since some of the bajadas have likely "rearranged" and obliterated some 4x4 road bed segments, will the NPS opt to not allow a new road to be punched in, I wonder?  One could say that vehicles would be travelling "crosscountry" if no old road bed is discernable and thus not legal travel.

[MojaveGeek]

I sent you an email a while ago, John... and didn't see any recent posts at NWHikers so I wondered if you'd dropped off the grid?

But yes, John makes an excellent point that I almost posted about. Titus closes to vehicles regularly, and when it does, it is a really nice walk up from the lower parking area. I also enjoyed Keane area one year when the road was "hard closed" due to being washed out - that was years before the big closure that ended a year or two ago. Salt Creek is nice when that gate is closed as well.

[DeathValleyDazed]

MG, I'm with you on getting out of the damn vehicle and walking. I've walked Twenty Mule Team Canyon after it's flooded and closed to cars to enjoy a different and stimulating perspective. Just stopping along the paved highways at random points and walking out into the flats on both sides of the road rarely disappoints. Way out in some alluvial fan one often finds cool artifacts washed down from above.

One of the coolest natural artifacts found was just south east of Lake Hill (located in Panamint Valley between Panamint Dunes and Highway 190) a few hundred yards out on the tiled, dry playa were small scale "sailing rocks" and their zig zaggy tail drag marks.

[Djamald]

That Caltrans map is inaccurate showing more closed than actually is.  Big Pine Death Valley road is in fact open until you get to Ubehebe Road.  Drove it from Eureka to Big Pine a few days ago.  And lower Wildrose is now open as well.  The Park website has the most up to date information and has been updated almost daily for the past week.

So reaching Eureka Dunes from Big Pine is possible?
Any idea if Panamint Dunes can be reached?

[TacoLand]

That Caltrans map is inaccurate showing more closed than actually is.  Big Pine Death Valley road is in fact open until you get to Ubehebe Road.  Drove it from Eureka to Big Pine a few days ago.  And lower Wildrose is now open as well.  The Park website has the most up to date information and has been updated almost daily for the past week.

So reaching Eureka Dunes from Big Pine is possible?
Any idea if Panamint Dunes can be reached?

Sounds like a great question to ask DVNP directly, but here is their most recent closure map – https://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

[trailhound]

The park map gives Daylight Pass and the Beatty Cut-Off Roads a tentative opening date of October 15. Once open, you would have access from Beatty NV into the park. The North Highway leading from Mud Canyon Road towards Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater has no estimated opening date. Does anyone have any information as to when the North Highway might open. Even guesses based on previous experience are welcome.

I want to visit the park next February or March, but the North Highway needs to be open to access canyons on the west side of the Grapevines.

Thank you.