Death Valley Adventure

fifthconspiracy

New member
Packed up the family in the Jeep and headed down to Death Valley. I'm sure for many expedition portal readers, Death Valley is old news, but for us, it was the first time there and I thank the folks on this forum who helped us plan our route for a first go.

This trip had it all... howling coyotes, sand dune sledding, canyon crawling, a wind storm that damaged our tent, ghost towns, abandoned mining shafts, clear stary nights and miles upon miles of desert driving. Awesomesauce.

After two days of driving, we made it to Bishop, California, loaded up on groceries at Von's and headed into the North end of Death Valley. Our first stop... Eureka Dunes for the night. The next morning we sledded the Eureka dunes and headed out via Dedeckera Canyon to Steel Pass. We found Marble Bath and carried down to both the upper and lower springs. Saw many nudes at the lower springs.

We continued across the vast Saline Valley, ran into some wild donkeys, checked out the old salt tram towers and headed up Lippincott Pass. Once at the top, we visited the Racetrack Playa and the "moving rocks". We finished the day with a drive to Teakettle Junction and the Lost Burro Mine. We camped at Lost Burro, but that night there was a severe wind storm and all four of us ended up inside the jeep with the tent packed up... the wind was insane.

The next morning we headed up to the Ubehebe Crater, over to Scotty's Junction and down to Stovepipe Wells. We then made our way over to Panamint Springs for gas and a quick shower. Had a good lunch at the Panamint Springs Restaurant before heading over to the Tucki Mine. After exploring the Tucki Mine site, we drove over to Chloride Road and camped for the night.

The final morning, we continued on with Chloride Road and reached the Chloride Cliffs. Amazing mine ruins everywhere you look. Huge holes in the ground, old buildings, shafts, wells, etc. Could spend an entire day there exploring. However, we continued into the desert valley that separates California from Nevada and eventually found the highway and entered Nevada. Within the first 5 minutes of driving in Nevada, we discovered the Rhyolite Ghost Town which has an interesting art display.

We continued North on the I-95 to head home, but stopped for a mini-adventure on the Coaldale Salt Mine Flats before continuing to Reno.

Drove from Reno to home in just over 16 hours. Total round trip driving distance was 4285kms.

Here's the trip video:

[video=vimeo;89820120]http://vimeo.com/89820120[/video]

Cheers! ~ Paul.
 

jonster

New member
Kool Video! My wife and I will be there for a week next week. Going to a lot of the same places.
 

v_man

Explorer
Great video .... from someone who understands the extra time it takes to get out , set up your shots , get home , go through all the pics and footage , and then the hours it takes to slap it all together into a coherent video . Well Done . Your family will have the video forever .

BTW , what happened to that fender at 4:20

2nd BTW , a cool transition shot is to mount the gopro under the rig to capture the suspension articulation , driveline moving , tires flexing etc.
 
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1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Great write up and video...
I really really need to drag the family out to Death Valley, thanks for the inspiration.
 

Big50

Adventurer
Looks like an amazing family trip. Can't wait to take my boy out there once he gets old enough. Thanks for sharing!
 

j2dd

New member
Just watched video. Really well do e. Thx for posting.

One more question, do you think a Tundra with a pop up truck camper would make it through all of these canyon trails and passes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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