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Thanksgiving in Death Valley

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  • Trail Report: Thanksgiving in Death Valley

    Trail Report – Thanksgiving in Death Valley

    DAY ONE – Thanksgiving Day

    In the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day, Rat Patrol (Kurt), Dirtman13 (Chuck, Alyshia, Cody), and Malachi (that's me and Sharon), headed north toward Death Valley. We were planning a trip that would tour through Panamint Valley, the Racetrack Playa, Lost Burro Mine, Ubehebe Crater, down through the main area of Death Valley, back over Mengel Pass to Barker Ranch, and then see what we could squeeze in for further adventure.

    In the first day, we planned to see the South Park Canyon / Pleasant Canyon loop then meet up with Dr.Dirty (Scott and Cloe) and Mywifesjeep (Mike, Shirley, and family) in Ballarat.

    Since it rained HARD in the desert on the day before, we expected clouds and a chance of rain as we headed into the area. We didn't see much rain on the way and as that sun rose, we had some great views of the Searles Valley:


    Looking to the north from Trona Road, we could see a layer of fog in the Salt Wells Valley:


    Crossing over the ridge into Panamint Valley, we also found the Ballarat ghost town shrouded in fog:


    For those that are unfamiliar with the area, there is a dry lake bed that has to be crossed to get to the ghost town. The road is dirt and slightly elevated, but as Dirtman13 found out, when it rains the sides of the road are VERY soft! Chuck was quick and good enough to keep his top-heavy Jeep from flopping in the muck, but it led to a very 'sticky' situation:


    Obviously, the 'dry' lake wasn't so dry! A little further on, the lake had a very real wet quality:


    We toured Ballarat in the fog, which had a surreal effect. Then we headed south of the ghost town to the entrance to the South Park Cyn trail. We climbed a long way over a very washed out trail before breaking out of the fog and being able to overlook the Panamint Valley again:




    Then we entered the high elevation gap to South Park Cyn:


    The canyon is a stunning rock-walled climb:


    Exiting the canyon has a spooky bridge and a scary part on a steep shelf drop-off. This pic is just before the scary part:


    This is a link to a vid of Chuck getting his top-heavy Jeep through the off-camber spot:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKleveFZ5M

    Just past the narrow canyon, you will see some unique rock formations on the north side:


    The trail leads to South Park. South Park is one of several high elevation valleys in the Panamint Range. Of course, Kenny made an appearance in South Park!:


    Looking back at South Park:


    Crossing over into Middle Park:


    Looking from Roger's Pass toward Panamint Valley:


    Clair's Camp in Pleasant Canyon:


    It was hard to believe that we were still in the desert in some parts of Pleasant Canyon:


    Once we exited Pleasant Cyn, the views of the Panamint Valley were impressive:


    We met up with Dr.Dirty and Mywifesjeep in Ballarat and then headed towards Jail Canyon to camp. Along the way, we found some wild burros grazing along the valley floor:


    On the climb up to Jail Canyon, we had some great views of the valley at sunset:


    We camped at the Corona Mine at the upper end of Jail Canyon. We deep-fried a couple of turkeys and had an excellent Thanksgiving Day feast in the heart of the American Desert.

    TO BE CONTINUED.......
    [COLOR=#ff8c00]MYJEEP(crawls)ROCKS(again).com

    I have finally stopped drinking for good.
    Now I drink for evil..... :devil:
    [/COLOR]

  • #2
    DAY TWO – Thanksgiving in Death Valley

    On Friday, we awoke to a wonderful view of the sun rising against the snow-capped mountains of the Argus Range:


    We loaded up and headed off to visit the Racetrack Playa and the lost Burro Mine. Along the way, we had some great views of snow-capped mountains from the Joshua Tree filled Lee Flat:


    After climbing up to the Grapevine Canyon entrance, we found a fantastic view of the Panamint Valley with the Panamint Dunes and Telescope Peak in the view:


    Descending the Grapevine Cyn. The trail soon opens up to views of the Saline Valley:


    Before getting all the way down to the valley floor, we turned onto the Lippencott Grade:


    On the climb up, mywifesjeep lost a bolt to one of his lower control arms:


    Lippencott Grade leads up a narrow shelf road to the high valleys leading to Death Valley:


    We climbed the grade to find that the Racetrack Playa had not changed much from our last visit in April 08. All of the rocks were still in the same position as last year:


    The water level was still managed by the ditches along the Playa:


    The badly wash-boarded road past the Racetrack area was tough to drive and a test of endurance:


    We set up camp at the Lost Burro Mine:


    The sunset from the camp was beautiful but really short:


    TO BE CONTINUED..........
    [COLOR=#ff8c00]MYJEEP(crawls)ROCKS(again).com

    I have finally stopped drinking for good.
    Now I drink for evil..... :devil:
    [/COLOR]

    Comment


    • #3
      great write up mike ......man i feel like i was there lol ....



      here are a few of my pics










      [COLOR="YellowGreen"]"You cant fit 2 fingers in my tailpipe"[/COLOR]

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      • #4






        [COLOR="YellowGreen"]"You cant fit 2 fingers in my tailpipe"[/COLOR]

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        • #5
          Another great trip with some great friends. Nice write up Mike. I’ll just add some photos.

          Every night had a spectacular sunset.

          We spent Thanksgiving night in Jail Canyon. What a fest we had.

          Deep fried turkey.

          Get in my belly.


          Teakettle Junction



          The gang.

          Leaving Barker Ranch. End of the trip. No more dirt roads....

          ....until we hit the traffic going in to Kramer Junction. We hit the power line road for quite a while. Probable saved an hour or two. There we a lot of vehicles.



          I haven't downloaded everything yet but here is some more.
          http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...-08/?start=all
          Check out .

          Comment


          • #6
            Very nice pics guys, Thanks for sharing. Panamint Valley has great scenery,,
            06 UNL RUBI 4.5 LA,KM 2-35's/ 4.88 BEADLOCKS/SKIDS/WINCH
            07 AT CHASER TRAILER

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            • #7
              Great pictures, I love the stark beauty of the deathvalley area. Doing an expedition style wheeling trip looks like quite the adventure

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              • #8
                Awesome trip report and pictures!

                Originally posted by dirtman13 View Post
                ....until we hit the traffic going in to Kramer Junction. We hit the power line road for quite a while. Probable saved an hour or two. There we a lot of vehicles.
                I heard that the traffic line was 6 miles long both Eastbound on 58 and Southbound on 395. What a mess. When you add in all the new stoplights in Adelanto the 395 is a nightmare.
                Over 2500 hours donated to the San Bernardino National Forest. Life member of CA4WD, CORVA & BRC. Tread Lightly Trainer. Reforestation Supervisor. CASSP

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                • #9
                  Better late than never I always say...

                  I got back from all this fun to a broken PC so... It's fixed now.
                  Mike, as always you do a damn fine report, so I'll just add pics and be on my way.

                  Chuck in the mud (day one, ya know this trip is gonna be fun)


                  Then we get to Ballarat, and find this! It really is Death Valley. Supposedly the guy who keeps this place is a Manson escapee...


                  Charlie supposedly drove this. I tried but it wouldn't start (yellow top, go figure)


                  Chuck rollin up out of the fog. The whole morning was a photogs dream.


                  The obligitory Trail rig photo


                  This was a very tight trail that had some getting out of the Jeeps. Pretty rickety bridge with a 100' drop on the driver side

                  Way up in the air

                  I think this is Middle Park (one of my favs)


                  Climbing back to the clouds


                  Uhhh, a pine cone


                  The edge of Heaven


                  Alien creature or just an algae?


                  Hairy little buggers


                  Mine cabin at claim 101 if I remember right


                  It comes with TP too!


                  Hard to beleive this is Death Valley


                  I wish this one would post in full size, it's stunning


                  Orion's belt from Jail house Canyon


                  Day two morning at Jailhouse


                  Cool cactus


                  The rest ar here:http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...2008/?start=40

                  Thanks everyone, you made this Thanksgiving one to remember! Here's to you all
                  Last edited by RAT; 12-01-08, 08:51 PM.
                  [CENTER][COLOR=#ff0000]Resistance Off Road
                  [/COLOR]Join the Resistance...
                  http://www.resistanceoffroad.us[/CENTER]

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by mrchips View Post
                    Very nice pics guys, Thanks for sharing. Panamint Valley has great scenery,,
                    X2 you guys always post up great pics and stories
                    Ford Raptor 6.2l

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                    • #11
                      By the way, I took over 1000 pics on this trip and all but 75 of them are keepers. The rest will be on Photobucket in the next day or two.
                      [CENTER][COLOR=#ff0000]Resistance Off Road
                      [/COLOR]Join the Resistance...
                      http://www.resistanceoffroad.us[/CENTER]

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                      • #12
                        Sorry for the delay....

                        I'm finally home from work so I can continue the trail report. Whew! After today, I'm not so sure why I wanted to come home.

                        Oh well, at least I can relive the adventure....

                        But before I start Day Three, I forgot to post this pic of "The Greatest Mine Ever" - Lost Burro Mine:


                        DAY THREE

                        The first task of the day was to add a tea kettle to the Teakettle Junction sign:




                        We took the the long trail to Ubehebe Crater and stopped in the moon-like landscape of the pummice field surrounding the crater:




                        The crew at the crater:


                        Afterwards, we hit the pavement for a long tour through the length of Death Valley. First stop was Scotty's Castle:


                        Next we stopped at Stovepipe Wells and the nearby Dunes:




                        We toured the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, Badwater - 282 feet below sea level. The mountain in the background is Telescope Peak, 11,049 above sea level:


                        We took the Butte Valley Trail towards Mengel Pass. Along the way we passed an open talc mine:


                        At Warm Springs Camp, we checked out the old machinery:




                        The sun was fading by the time we passed the Striped Butte:


                        The pass was a little rougher than the last time that I crossed it in April:




                        We took the extra credit trail up to the overlook and we thought that we were going to lose Chuck. No chance for pics, but it was quite a show. Mike and Shirley caught some air during the climb:


                        We made our way down to the Barker Ranch for the night to camp. It is where Charles Manson used to hide out. It didn't seem to have any effect on us:


                        It was a great place to camp and the kids loved it.

                        TO BE CONTINUED...
                        [COLOR=#ff8c00]MYJEEP(crawls)ROCKS(again).com

                        I have finally stopped drinking for good.
                        Now I drink for evil..... :devil:
                        [/COLOR]

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Finally got my photos downloaded. Got to love photo bucket. Here is on I played with a little.

                          This thing would hurt a bit.
                          Check out .

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                          • #14
                            Why is it that when these two fine young ladies are around I wind up in a photo looking like this?

                            [CENTER][COLOR=#ff0000]Resistance Off Road
                            [/COLOR]Join the Resistance...
                            http://www.resistanceoffroad.us[/CENTER]

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by FishPOET View Post
                              Awesome trip report and pictures
                              I heard that the traffic line was 6 miles long both Eastbound on 58 and Southbound on 395. What a mess. When you add in all the new stoplights in Adelanto the 395 is a nightmare.
                              It was a mess. While on the powerline road Kurt got on the radio and said "I love my Jeep". I have to say at that point I really loved mine.
                              Check out .

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