Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[Beardilocks]

Hello Ladies & Germs.  This Dirtbag is back in DV for another adventure or two.  No idea how long I'll stay this time or what we'll see.  To quote the great Douglas Adams "When, in the twists and turns of the plot, some event suddenly seemed to illuminate things that had gone before, I was as surprised as anyone else". 

I can pretty much guarantee that the next couple of months will be disjointed, confusing, chaotic, wasteful of diesel as I zig-zag around, stinky (luckily not your problem dear reader), but hopefully entertaining & indubitably full of gorgeous views.   

I would like to open the floor to suggestions or requests to some small degree.  If you, outspoken forum member and taciturn lurker alike, have any odd or out of the way place you'd always wished you could get a trip report on, let me know here in this thread or by PM and I'll see what I can do.  I'm aiming to spend the bulk of this trip stumbling through the desert where few often stumble.  The Pavement People seem more determined this year than ever to muck up the views for the rest of us by driving into the dunes and salt pan. 

Cheers!

Also:  If you want to check out my other adventures from the last year between DV visits, pop in at www.pocketsfullofdust.com
for some other shenanigans.

[Beardilocks]

For the second year in a row in Death Valley it will be challenging to navigate the flood-induced road closures and new permits needed for camping in various regions of the park.  The later is a larger concern this year with a new permit-required section (Greenwater Valley Rd) and with West Side Rd closed probably for the foreseeable future.  This essentially eliminates free/no-permit camping in the center of the park and anywhere within about 60-70mi of Furnace Creek and anywhere near Stovepipe Wells (since Lemoigne Canyon Rd is also closed).    Logistically this is a bit of a challenge for us dirtbags.  (For the uninitiated: in 2022 the park initiated a permit system in certain popular camping areas of the park.  These permits are free, however they must be picked up in person on the same day at the Visitor's Center in Furnace Creek and are very limited in number.  You are also only allowed 7 permits in the year.)

I started off the brand New Year by heading into one of the most remote places in Death Valley: the Owlshead Mountains.  The Owlsheads were named such in the late 1800's long before we had satellite view or even planes to fly overhead.  They were named for a rock outcropping that looked like the profile of an owl's head.  Coincidentally, many years later it was discovered that the range looks like a straight-on view of an owl's head from above, with two dry lakes where the eyes would be. 

WARNING:  Do not attempt to drive out into these areas without a HC 4WD & enough supplies in case you run into any issues.  Or without doing your research.  The dirt roads like these in the park are unimproved and especially bad this year after two summers of flooding.  Also confirm with NPS the road conditions AND that it is open.  I encountered no Road Closed signs or gates on the way out, but it is always best to check with NPS first. 

I headed in with my fellow dirtbag Brice (piloting his nicely built 5th Gen T4R) because I was unsure if anyone had tried to get back in there since Hurricane Hilary decimated Death Valley last summer.  It's about 42mi of rough off-road in one-way to the dead-end at the old Radar Array from Highway 127, so self-rescue is pretty much your only option.  Being prepared is the best defense.  Bring a friend. 

As expected we were the first to traverse this route other than one set of tracks that only went as far as the military gate to China Lake Naval Weapons Station.  First we had to navigate the ~10mi of massively large wash mostly by instruments (GPS on USGS maps) in order to stay on the former “road” and not stray into Wilderness.  The surface itself was quite easy to drive on (for our lifted rigs with aired-down tires) with no cross cuts or major damage.


I expected the drive to be easier than it was, however.  In years past, the road was heavily used by the military (I have seen tractor trailers coming up the wash) and the berms on the side of the road left by the graders and bulldozers were 4-5ft high for the whole 10mi to Owl Hole Spring.  To the point where we had marked places in our maps from previous trips in the few spots you could get through the berms to camp off of the road.  Those huge berms are almost completely erased the whole way. 


The rest of the drive in was slow but uneventful.  It seems this storm (or at least the part of the storm that hit this area) was long & slow instead of fast & hard.  Huge areas have been rearranged or filled with gravel, but not the deep cuts and damage you get from flash-flood type rains.  To the point that some old cross cuts were actually more filled in rather than cut deeper. 

Once we passed through the pass into the drainage to Owl Lake however, the cross-cuts got deeper and a couple would be hard to navigate with anything less than pretty high clearance or any kind of overhang or trailer without some road-building.  One of these days I'll actually start filming these more interesting sections.  My brain is always in drive-to-survive mode instead of document mode for these. 

There are two hills/passes between the military gate and the old radar facility at the end of the road where the road is slowly eroding away on one side and these provide some off-camber thrills that could be a bit much for larger vehicles like Sprinter vans and the like.  Proceed with caution if you choose to come out here in anything other than a solid 4WD rig. 

A storm system moved in overnight and battered the Mighty 80 with 30-40mph gusts.  The clouds and very light rain moved out right on time at 8am to start hiking.  The winds however stayed and would batter me throughout the day. 





Most of the hike out to the … my mind was so focused on the road report that I forgot to introduce the hike.  Lol.  I was planning on hitting a minor peak in the Crystal Hills with my dirtbag compadre before he peeled off to hit some larger peaks and I did some exploring in the Crystal Hills to include the old Epsom Salt mines and the monorail that an overly ambitious chap attempted use to haul the ore out. 

The old road out to Crystal Hills crosses into the military base ~1.5mi in.  From there you follow the fence around to the North and around the corner of the base. 

Or you go into the base!


Kidding!  Joke photo.  Don't go on the base kids.  You would only save something like a couple hundred yards of hiking by cutting the corner. 

Some gorgeous color in the Crystal Hills.  The geologic make-up of this small group of hills is very diverse. 


View back into the Owlsheads.


Looking over the Crystal Hills.


Very odd and very large rock-cairn on the slope.


Heading into a colorful canyon searching for a ULPB (Ultra Low Probability Bridge).  Finding previously unpublished natural bridges is quickly becoming a hobby out here. 


Lovely little canyon that I doubt few have ever ventured into. 


The colors were amazing. 





Amazing purple colors. 


Alas, no bridge here.  But it is a very colorful (if short) narrows.


Looking back through.


Another narrow section approaching a dryfall.


This one is only about 8-9ft tall and easily climbed or bypassed.  Very pretty though.


The mix of colors and rock types here is at times reminiscent of Kaleidoscope Canyon and at other times Artist's Drive. 





Approaching the namesake Crystal Hills from the West. 


Namesake crystals.  I believe they're Gypsum?  I should educate myself on the difference between gypsum and epsom….


I came across this odd assortment of junk.  At first I obviously assumed it was your standard mine-camp junk: old stove shot full of holes and assorted smashed car parts.  But on closer inspection...


I've seen a lot of car fenders and old fridges that get battered coming down washed in flash floods but that is a pretty intense, uniform crush pattern...


Uh… that's not a car part.





Upon further inspection, this pile of scrap seems to contain 5 or 6 crashed rockets.  Finding a bit of military junk out here is quite common.  But I can only explain this pile of so many in one place as someone's collection of crashed rockets or targets.  I doubt the military crashed 6 rockets in one cluster here.  And the ages seem to vary.  Very strange to find so many in one place. 


This frame is in better shape than a lot of them at this age. 





Old dugout cabin.





Modern archeology.(I found them like this, please don’t move & make piles of anything old you find; it ruins the context of the artifact).


I'm guessing this long wall was to keep flash flood water away from the front of the cabin.


Another collapsed cabin.


View of camp from above. 


Section of the old monorail track/trestle.





I was surprised to find this.  According to every map that I have, this is NPS land and the corner of the base is at least a quarter mile NW of here.  I thought maybe it was an older relic, but the lock is new. 


Right near by was a nice section of old monorail track however.  There is a much longer section a 1/2mi north of here before you get back onto the base (according to my maps anyway), but this satisfied my thirst for monorail-related trestle. 








On the hike back I stopped at this old earthwork structure.  USGS calls it a “levee” but it would seem to be a rail track from a small mine.  Is an earthwork-trestle just called a levee? 


The road headed back into the base before I turned off over the pass for home.


Overall an absolutely lovely back into Death Valley hike:  About 12mi of windy open desert, colorful canyons, and old trash, geologic history and modern history.  It's great to be back!

[TacoLand]

Hooray! Looking forward to reading about your DV adventures and will shoot you a line if we get down there in two weeks or so.

One spot that has been on my list forever is Corridor Canyon. It's never lined up with driving and basecamp schedules, and now I'm wondering how chockfull of crap it is after the storm. Due to the elevation and temps we'll probably stick to the Owlshead region ... so if you have any thoughts or updates on the area that's cool. Otherwise just have a blast and share what you can. Happy trails and don't forget your trowel.

[Beardilocks]

The next day we hiked out to some more LPB's in the Owlsheads.  Spoiler alert: we struck out.  But just being out here hiking into these remote & unvisited areas is amazing enough.  Chasing ghosts like this brings you out to all kinds of amazing areas that you would never see otherwise.  And almost no one has ever been in a lot of these areas.  At least not in 150yrs since the wave of prospectors came through looking for riches. 

The first hike of the morning was from a minor drainage near the end of the road & the radio/radar tower. 

Starting off the morning with a flower that I don't think I've seen before. 


Really pretty narrows as we enter the larger wash. 


Very tall cairn.  Likely left by prospectors. 


Then I stumbled across this sticking out of the wash.





The base read “CT Ham MFG No.0 Clipper”.  Complete they're going for about $60-80 online right now.  Looks like they made quite a few of them.  CT Ham was based out of Rochester NY (close to my origin point as well) and was making lamps in the late 1800's. 


Lots of very cool rocks today.  This one was doing it's best impression of wood grain. 


Looking back at the radio/radar array.


Looking toward the Quail Mountain Range and the road we came in on.


Now these are an odd duck.  We found literally dozens & dozens of these in one general area of the wash.  Way more than one usually finds of one style of container.  The odd tap on it wouldn't suggest gasoline or motor oil.  Lamp fuel?  Cooking oil?  Guessing the size was about 2.5-3gal. 


You can just sort of tell SOMETHING was written there.  I can't actually make anything out though.  There are zero mine or prospects on any of my maps in this entire area either.  But someone was making heaps of trash out here.


This is definitely a bit more than burro trail.  Since it is close to the can stash, I'm guessing that it was a mining trail of some kind.  Nothing obvious on satellite view though.


Looking towards Lost (Dry) Lake.


Here's where we were hoping to find a natural bridge. 


The way the canyon makes a J-shape here gives you at least a small chance that the water could punch through and make a bridge here, depending on the type of rock. 


Really cool twisty dryfall though. 


Second hike of the day was on the other side of the range overlooking Crystal Hills.  But the starting point was only a couple miles away from the first. 


Looking towards Wingate Dry Lake.  A future destination I hope. 


We found a whole section of canyon with these crazy rocks.  The concentric circles were everything from an inch to a foot in diameter.  And the color varied from brick to maroon to tan. 








Minor dryfall to downclimb. 


Alas, no bridge again.  But a really cool area to explore that would otherwise be unvisited. 


Crazy iridescence on this rock.  I'm not sure I've seen this before quite this loud. 


We had spotted a reflective something perpendicular to the wash on the hike in and thought it couldn't be anything other than a semi-reflective rock.  99.8% of the time that's the correct answer.  We took a slightly different route back and with the sun at a slightly different angle we could tell it was a whole freacking drone target that had somehow crash-landed mostly intact in a very odd way on the slope.


Crazy zoom distortion, but a better view.  Looks like it's hovering there.  Very weird. 


Finishing off with a couple shots of Crystal Hills and where I hiked the previous day. 





Amazing first hikes in the park.  Broke fresh ground and found some cool stuff.  Got to check out a road that no one had really been down yet since the flooding and had a gorgeous part of the park all to ourselves for a few days.  Perfect wild solitude.

[Beardilocks]

Hooray! Looking forward to reading about your DV adventures and will shoot you a line if we get down there in two weeks or so.

One spot that has been on my list forever is Corridor Canyon. It's never lined up with driving and basecamp schedules, and now I'm wondering how chockfull of crap it is after the storm. Due to the elevation and temps we'll probably stick to the Owlshead region ... so if you have any thoughts or updates on the area that's cool. Otherwise just have a blast and share what you can. Happy trails and don't forget your trowel.

Hey TacoLand!  Corridor is amazing.  Everything has been rearranged slightly and I'm sure that's no different.  Lol. 

I'm assuming you posted btw my posts.  You immediately got your wish for an Owlsheads road condition update.    If you need further details hit me up.

[TacoLand]

Oh sweet baby Jesus. I definitely posted while you were posting and my prayers were answered. I haven't been out to Crystal Hills in almost 10 years and thought it'd be a good place to drag the wife out to. Got a big laugh out of the _just kidding_ shortcut you took across the base land. Took a similar photo when I had the chance.

Having to get a permit at Hell, I mean Furnace Creek Visitor Center, for dispersed camping on Greenwater Valley Road is a total drag. In the past I've dispersed camped on Gold Valley Road which is a trek in when you're just looking for somewhere to crash real quick off of Salsberry Pass or on the north end if you want to hit Dantes at sunrise or sunset.

Also having West Side Road and Lemoigne closed is making it real hard for dispersed camping. You do have options in Warm Spring Canyon road though ... but it's a bit of a zoo sometimes with the 4x4 Moar Powar Crowds.

And ... taking a look at DVNP map now, that road out to the radar array is considered closed right now. Whoops. Oh well.

[trailhound]

These reports are sensational. Thanks for showing me places that I would never see otherwise.

[netllama]

Hoooooooooly crap, this is amazing stuff ! Those rocks with the colored circles, the wacky drone, and the old mining gear.

This is some top tier content. Please don't stop...

[DAW89446]

On the hike back I stopped at this old earthwork structure.  USGS calls it a “levee” but it would seem to be a rail track from a small mine.  Is an earthwork-trestle just called a levee?

USGS often confuses levees and old railroad grades on maps. It doesn't appear to have been made for directing water. It appears there would be a trestle where the wash bisects it. Is it part of the monorail route?

That old lantern was a superb find!

[Beardilocks]

On the hike back I stopped at this old earthwork structure.  USGS calls it a “levee” but it would seem to be a rail track from a small mine.  Is an earthwork-trestle just called a levee?

USGS often confuses levees and old railroad grades on maps. It doesn't appear to have been made for directing water. It appears there would be a trestle where the wash bisects it. Is it part of the monorail route?

That old lantern was a superb find!

There were definitely ties left in a few spots on the surface.  Not sure if there’s still a map of the whole monorail.  I would think this was a shorter ore cart rail but can’t be sure.