What an awesome first four-wheeling trip for me to Death Valley with Vidas, Greg, Neale, Dennis, Mike, Yifang, Scott also Greg’s two friends, Lucky and Daniel. It was a ton of fun and improved my confidence in what I can do in my JL, which now has its first battle scars.
The trip for me was the 3 core days and I added the last day too. The first day was about getting into Death Valley from Ballarat by going up Goler Wash and over Mengel Pass. The second day was about visiting the Chloride Cliffs and going through Titus Canyon. The third day was sight-seeing at the Ubehebe Crater, Teakettle junction the Racetrack with the moving rocks as well as wheeling down Lippincott Road. The last day was going over the South Pass of Saline Valley and then over Cerro Gordo Peak, visiting the ghost town of Cerro Gordo and the mine, followed by the long drive home.
Day 1:
Vidas led us out of Ballarat to Goler Wash. Lots of nice wild-flowers which everybody enjoyed. After a short time, we came up to some stone steps, which were wet and slippery. We watched Vidas try several different routes, with his 2-door Jeep jumping around as he tried to get over the obstacle. Once he was up, he winched one of the team up and after a little ramp building with rocks, everybody else drove up with spotter help from Vidas and Greg. It was a nice demonstration of leadership, sometimes it’s just harder to be first and find the best route for everybody else to follow. We stopped in at Baker Ranch where Charles Manson was captured. On the way down from Mengel Pass, there were some very narrow rocky sections, where I was on 3 wheels for a while and then needed spotter help from Vidas. I scraped my front diff on of the rocks there. As we got to the highway in Death Valley, Daniel had a wheel break off his vehicle. That could have been so much worse way up in the hills, he was lucky to find a fellow jeeper who had an on-board welder, but the repair was incomplete and so his trip was over.
Day 2:
Mike led us out and over towards Chloride City and Chloride Cliffs. We stopped at an abandoned mine at Chloride City and then drove on to Chloride Cliffs. As I looked up the road to the top, I was quite sure I could not drive up it, but after watching Mike drive up as if the road were flat, I realized it would be simple. The view from the top of the Cliff was fantastic and I have used that as the photo to represent the trip. From there we went into Nevada and back down the highway to Titus Canyon, which is a one-way Canyon. The rock formations there were fabulous, and I enjoyed the story of Leadville, yet another abandoned mining ghost town. We did have to rescue a very dehydrated motor-cyclist in the narrow section of the canyon. Mike administered first-aid and Yifang loaded the guy into his truck and drove him to the highway for onwards transportation by ambulance. We were late to camp because of the rescue and because the expected (near to Titus Canyon) camp site was closed.
Day 3:
We started the day seeing some of the famous Death Valley sites. The huge volcanic Ubehebe Crater was our first stop and is very impressive. From there, after 20 miles of washboard roads and huge dust clouds, we got to Teakettle Junction and then on to the Racetrack. From there we continued South and went down Lippincott Road. Most of that was shelf road, but some parts were off camber, some were narrow, and some were rocky enough to need spotter help from Vidas. I like the sign at the top of Lippincott Road; “Lippincott Pass - No tow service”. We stayed in Saline Valley Warm Springs camp site, which had hot springs running into the showers and hot tubs, a nice change after some of the dry camp sites we had previously stayed at.
Day 4:
We left the camp site and went South and out of Saline Valley via the South Pass. We travelled through forests of Joshua trees, many in bloom. Some of the best scenery. By this time, we were travelling well as a pack, with everybody leaving lots of space for dust to settle between vehicles. After some difficulty finding the correct road – was it the road, was it a wash – both are very similar, we found the correct route up to Cerro Gordo mine. I must conclude that my Jeep nav. system has a software feature that it moves the “arrow” to be on the nearest road. Which sounds reasonable unless you want to know if you’re actually on the road or just close. We went above the snow line and up to about 8400 feet going over the pass. We then dropped into a small ghost town, where amazingly 2100 people used to live and work the mine. From there we dropped down the mine road through rocky canyons and shelf roads back to the highway and the end of the trip for me.
What a great adventure. Next time maybe we can do Steel Pass Road or Echo Canyon into Nevada. I’m already looking forward to it.
Bruce
2019 JL Rubicon