overland

Death Valley Recon: Oct 24-28 2024

OTG Ben

OTG Ben

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***You must have a ticket to attend this event***

Death Valley Recon for the March 2025 trip. We will be keeping this to 4 vehicles only.

Dates: Oct 24-28
Trip duration: 5 days/24nights (meetup Thursday Alabama Hills, head home Monday AM)
Vehicle Requirements: 4x4, AWD (high clearance), and Sprinter 4x4s
GPX File: coming soon

Trip Lead: Roy German @royhgerm-4006

Meeting Location
Eastern Sierra Visitor Center Oct 24 @ 4 pm.
US-395 & 136 Lone Pine, CA 93545

Please make sure you arrive with a full tank of fuel and all of the necessities required for the duration of the trip.

Documents/Fees
There will be park entry fee. Fee info (buy online)

Camping
We'll be camping at all dispersed locations. With that in mind, bring appropriate gear for packing out your trash, and a portable toilet.

Firearms
This is a family friendly event. We ask that you leave your firearm at home or keep it stowed away in your vehicle at all times. Please make sure you read up on National Park regulations if you are carrying a firearm in your vehicle.

Pets
Pets are not permitted in the Death Valley backcountry.

Gear & Fuel
You will need to bring at least 5 gallons of extra fuel on this trip (unless your have a long range or aux tank). Bring appropriate hiking/outdoor gear. [this should be updated with expected weather based on time of year ]. Please have a GMRS radio either handheld or mounted in your rig as this will be our form of communication on the trip.

Medical Info / Emergency Contact
Please print a copy of pertinent medical info and emergency contact info (at least two persons) on a card/piece of paper, and have this attached to your visor.

Comms: GMRS channel 15, freq 462.550
Firewood: please bring firewood if you can!



Itinerary


Day 1 | Alabama Hills

Day 2 | Swansea ghost town, Cerro Gordo ghost town and Find camp!

Day 3 | Lee Flat Joshua Tree forest, South Pass viewpoint and Homestake Campground.

Day 4 Ubehebe Crater and Eureka Dunes Camp

Day 5 Head home
 
Good morning everyone it's getting close, and I hope everyone is doing well and ready for this adventure. Please let me know If you would like the GPX files, and I will email them to you. I also want to set up a pre-trip Zoom meeting on Monday 10/21 at 7 pm. Let me know if that works for you.
 
Hello Roy;
Unfortunately I have to cancel my plans to attend this trip; bummer for me I was very much looking forward to it.
Catch you on the next one, thank you for heading up this trip!
Steve Loos, 831-801-0976
 
SteveL3o7 said:
Hello Roy;
Unfortunately I have to cancel my plans to attend this trip; bummer for me I was very much looking forward to it.
Catch you on the next one, thank you for heading up this trip!
Steve Loos, 831-801-0976
Click to expand...
I'm sorry to hear that, hope all is well and yes I hope to see you on the next trip.
 
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royhgerm-4006 said:
Good morning everyone it's getting close, and I hope everyone is doing well and ready for this adventure. Please let me know If you would like the GPX files, and I will email them to you. I also want to set up a pre-trip Zoom meeting on Monday 10/21 at 7 pm. Let me know if that works for you.
Click to expand...
Yes. The zoom meeting on Monday will work for me. Thanks
 
How did everything turn out @royhgerm-4006 ?

you might want to share the photos in the trip reports section for others to see!
 
An update on the Death Valley Trip: it ended up with the three of us; Rolando, Johnathan, and myself, which turned out to be a good team, thanks to Johnathan for his experience and his help at every turn. Rolando was a pleasure to hang out with and his MacGyver attitude was a delight. The trails were interesting and I would rate them between 2 and 3 on a scale of 1-5. Lippincott Pass was not as difficult as made out on YouTube. That being said I would not try any of this without a high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle. The highlight of the trip was the scenery and and lack of people at the camp sites. The worst part of the trip was the washboard roads, especially at the Race Track. This is where Johnathan and I agreed that to be this bad someone had to intentionally do this to the roads (just kidding). I think this trip is for the adventurous with a well built vehicle, torque wrench, and some locktight. I'm going to find it a challenge to do this again, my little trailer paid a price, but it will recover. I'm hoping Johnathan shares his videos and photos when he finds time, from what he showed me they were awsome.
 
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It was a very nice trip. Specially accompanied with Ron a very nice person, also it was nice to have Jonathan with us, he was very helpful to Ron on the logistic. The trail was rough at time. I won’t recommend it to beginners and also a basic 4x4 vehicle high clearance I did it on my first gen 4Runner after we had a tired driving our reward was the camping sites, beautiful evening and gorgeous sunrise, overall I probably will do it again knowing what is involved.
 
Any chance on where you went in at? Heading down there on the 25th. Which roads did you drive. Driving in over North pass or Cerro Gordo road. Planning on warm springs first night. Over Lippincott pass, Racetrack playa, Bad Water, then Hole in the wall Canyon. Any insight would be great.
 
@Free2roam Make sure you secure a campsite at Hole in the Wall, as it requires a $10 reservation these days. Also, the last few miles of West Side Road where it intersects the pavement on the north end of Badwater Basin is currently closed. Lippencott was running like a dirt super highway after the recent grading, same with the section from Saline Valley Warm Springs up to Steele pass. I'm sure that'll change after a few storms blow through.

More info on the recent camping regs and reservation info for Hole in the Wall, Echo Canyon, and other various places within the park:
https://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/backcamp.htm
 
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