Death Valley No. 17 (Meet the In-Laws)

[TacoLand]

This will be my 17th trip to the Park and it's throwing me a bit of a curveball. I'm trying to work up some plans to visit the Park in February/March, with the added difficulty factor of guiding my in-laws who drive a Dodge RAM9000+ with a camper shell & no off-road modifications.

I'm sticking to my guns about at the least dispersed camping but a lot of my usual haunts, and places that I've wanted to check out, are not even remotely viable considering what the family is driving. As such, I've been looking into the new backcountry roadside camping that DVNP has implemented and it's .... fine.

Looking at two nights in Marble Canyon so we can hike the narrows, dragging them out to Butte Valley / Geologist's Cabin for a night, and then wrapping up with Echo Canyon if only to break up the drive back to Northern Nevada on the last day.

They know that Death Valley is one of my favorite places in the world as I've spoken so highly of it, but I'm a little worried this trip lacks a certain "wow" factor that I get when I'm in the deeper backcountry and typically don't see anyone else for days on end. Unfortunately their truck is just too damn big to want to risk taking it most places. It doesn't have any sort of lift, but at least it's 4x4 and has E-rated tires. Dog help us all if it gets bogged down in sand / gravel anywhere. I'd probably just bail & file for divorce when I got home ...

Well, that's my confessional for the New Year. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas they'd like to chime in with please do. Otherwise stay tuned for trip report photos of picking up campsite tags at the Furnace Creek Ranger Station and whatnot!

[DAW89446]

Farabee's and a tent?

I'm not sure what a Ram 9000 is, but a friend has a stock Ram 3500 4x4 with the Cummins, automatic transmission and single rear wheels, and I'm surprised that it is as capable as it is. A few years ago, during the last days of chukar hunting season, we bashed through old deep snow and mud that would have stopped my Tacoma TRD in its tracks, the Ram only having a set of generic all terrain tires on it.

Might be a little early in the season, try the Nevada Triangle. Strozzi Ranch is nice and little visitation. If there isn't much snow this year, and they're not afraid of cold, upper Oriental Wash and the ghost towns of Oriental and Stateline has great views and empty. Roads should pose little trouble, especially since Esmeralda County generally performs their grading in April.

[TacoLand]

Hrmmm ..... RAM9000+ was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Terminator movies. At least that's how their rig seems to me when parked next to my itty-bitty Tacoma TRD. Their truck matches up similar to what your friend has so maybe it'll be better than expected. Their top-heavy Four Wheel Campers pop up and long wheelbase made me ixnay taking them down Lippincott though.

I had been thinking about Strozzi Ranch initially, and really enjoy the general area you mentioned, but we're going to be in DVNP before Esmeralda County does their usual grading so will probably skip that part for now. I've also snow camped at Strozzi in March before, which I thought was hilarious, but was jarring to my friends who I took to DVNP for their first time ever and didn't bring much in the way of cold weather gear.

I've never explored Marble or Echo Canyon before, so maybe it'll be okay in the end. I'm wondering if maybe grabbing a spot on Greenwater Valley Road after Geologist's Cabin – and specifically taking them up to Dantes View for sunset – would be more memorable than Echo Canyon though.

[Daymoth]

Have you traveled with them before? I will file for divorce the day the husband has the audacity to suggest such a thing as bringing his parents to my vacation. Oh hell no.

Also do you have to be together all the time? maybe split a couple days and they can check out some of the more front country stuff if they havent seen it and you can go enjoy a couple of days your way.

[MojaveGeek]

Marble is wonderful. Totally. It goes on and on. Hard not to like.

Personally I prefer Dante's at sun rise, watching the shadow creep down across the Panamints and then the valley floor, but sunset is pretty nice too. It's worth the short jaunt up Dante's Peak to get away from the crowds. Echo is good too. The Inyo Mine has a lot of old stuff and a huge ore bin. You can continue walking the old RR grade from where the road ends and there is some great rock art (PM me if you want details on that) or hike all the way to the end of the grade for great views into the Amargosa Valley. I gather there used to be winch works going down the escarpment, but I could not find any direct evidence of them.

Geologist Cabin is a long drive for one night? That is not the fastest road and it grinds along.

[Brice]

There's Gold Valley. The drive in is easy but for one very short off camber curve which needs to be taken slowly. I haven't driven all the roads in Gold valley so I don't know if there are good camping spots in the valley itself, but on the drive in there are a couple. You could carpool into the valley from a campsite if worried about it.

The climb up Smith mountain (36.01816, -116.68921) is not too difficult but also not boring. It will be an interesting challenge for people who aren't used to hiking/climbing off-trail. The view from the Smith summit is 10/10.

[shane]

A few easily accessible and shortish hikes with a big payoff come to mind: Kaleidoscope, funeral slot, double bridge/squeeze slot and even DV buttes. A bit longer but the smoke tree slots in the Owlsheads are a lot of fun.

[TacoLand]

Ha! Well, thankfully, I've got great in-laws and the one time I've shared a campsite in the Sierra with them before was a breeze. Splitting the group up isn't a bad idea but I think 95% of the reason they're headed down to DV is to spend time with us, which is super cute.

Thanks for the confirmation that Marble & Echo are solid options. Fingers crossed the DVNP campsites aren't as weird as the Hole in the Wall ones with the big gravel berm and whatnot. From the pictures I've seen they look okay as long as you cross-reference them with topo maps to make sure you're not in a dumb spot right on top of the road in a canyon with no room to stretch out.

Geologist Cabin is definitely a long drive for one night. Looking at probably four hours of driving from Marble Canyon to Striped Butte ... but there's not anything in-between I can think of to camp at and break up the drive, especially since it looks like the north end of West Side Road is still closed.

Gold Valley was something I gave serious consideration to as it used to be a favorite haunt, and now I really want to check out Smith Mountain after seeing the view in Google Earth. Thanks for the info! I'll keep that one in my back pocket as a second option this trip if we get more time or things change. Would be great to revisit Kaleidoscope & Funeral Slot. So many rocks to kick, so little time.

Now to figure out what we're eating this trip! The in-laws travel with a full blown kitchen setup and do wild stuff like cook steaks and stir-fried rice in their Skottle™, which is pretty insane to me. I think they also have a small gas campfire deal so there's definitely going to be some culture shock going on.

[TacoLand]

Okay, think I've got this reconfigured a bit to make more sense:

Night 1: Panamint Valley (Panamint Valley > Echo Canyon ... 1.5hrs)
Night 2: Echo Canyon (Echo Canyon > Striped Butte via Greenwater Valley ... 4hrs)
Night 3: Striped Butte (Striped Butte > Marble Canyon ... 3.75hrs)
Nights 4&5: Marble Canyon

At least, I hope I've got this sorted out. I've got like 15 emails from recreation.gov and death by a thousand $10 charges on my card now for booking & editing the itinerary. So it goes ...

[Kauri]

Ha! Well, thankfully, I've got great in-laws and the one time I've shared a campsite in the Sierra with them before was a breeze. Splitting the group up isn't a bad idea but I think 95% of the reason they're headed down to DV is to spend time with us, which is super cute.

That's awesome. One of my best friends from grade-school age, he and his wife often travel with his parents because they all want to spend time together, and that's really sweet. And they take trips on their own too, so best of both worlds (or whatever the correct phrase is). Hope you all have a great trip!