Death Valley - Panamint Valley Run March 27th-29th

[AlpineM3]

I'm so in for this... Berky, put up a date to mark down on the Calendar

 

[Berky]

I'm so in for this... Berky, put up a date to mark down on the Calendar

@AlpineM3 We are headed out on 3/26. I will leave Long Beach around 3pm. If you can make it, we can meetup along the way. Otherwise I will send you the coordinates / directions for the camp site and you can meet up with us on Friday morning.

I'm going to try and make this. I love DV and haven't been for a couple of years.

@bstoner59 I hope you can make it out. Should be a fun trip.

 

[Berky]

With all the talk about Titus Canyon I may need to add it to the list for Saturday. I have not done this route before. I always discounted it because it looked like such an easy road. Hell, Ive seen pictures of Prius's on that road.

How long does the route take? I have taken the dirt from 190 to Ubehebe and it took almost all day with the different stops, lunch and ******** around.

 

[Berky]

@Trick_Raptor Taking Lippincott Road all the way through to Saline Valley sound interesting. I read that this is a pretty sketchy , narrow road. You think it will be doable after these storms? I haven't done this route either, but if we end up in Saline Valley we can stop by the hot springs and see some old naked people What has been seen, cannot be unseen.

 

[Bigg50]

With all the talk about Titus Canyon I may need to add it to the list for Saturday. I have not done this route before. I always discounted it because it looked like such an easy road. Hell, Ive seen pictures of Prius's on that road.

How long does the route take? I have taken the dirt from 190 to Ubehebe and it took almost all day with the different stops, lunch and ******** around.

Titus Canyon is definitely worth doing. It's beautiful scenery. The road out before you make the climb is a blast too. You can catch some air on one of the cattle grates. A prius may be able to make it out there but what will take you an hour will take them 3-4 haha.

Shoot when we (Raptor Expeditions) did the run in November, we encountered a couple cars on the way to the Racetrack. They were going 5-10 mph though. In spite of having to pass several slower moving cars/suv's we made it in a little over 40 minutes from Ubehebe. I'm sure it to most of those vehicles north of 3 hours to get out there.

Here's a trip report from our run. We came in from Ridgecrest and across the Panimant Valley, and into Saline Valley by way of Mengel Pass, then made our way north from there.

http://www.raptorexpeditions.com/#!...th/c13p6/7F1B120A-AB20-41AF-97A5-C145770F63A1

 

[Trick.Raptor]

@Trick_Raptor Taking Lippincott Road all the way through to Saline Valley sound interesting. I read that this is a pretty sketchy , narrow road. You think it will be doable after these storms? I haven't done this route either, but if we end up in Saline Valley we can stop by the hot springs and see some old naked people What has been seen, cannot be unseen.

The road is narrow in few spots. I needed a spotter on the right to squeeze through two parts. The pucker factor was one left hand turn on a narrow section where the drivers side rear wheel was at the side of a drop off. My line might have been off because my spotter wasn't experienced.

This photo shows the rough parts...



This shows how narrow it can be. The Grand Cherokee barely fits... the Raptor is much wider!



Disclaimer... I am an experienced off-roader with 25+ years off-roading and I've worked for both Camp Jeep and the Jeep Jamboree events. I also spent two weeks researching Lippincott before I made the decision to go with friends who are not as experienced with off-roading.

There are some videos of a 2WD Suburban from Hertz (I've actually rented the same model in the past) driven by what appears to be Russians...

Go to 1:50 where you will see the left turn I've talked about above. It is worse in person and the right foot of the guy in the blue shirt is where the cliff starts now. The right front bumper on the Suburban is close to a large rock you will have to watch out for...



A big F250 with a camper shell...



And a more recent video from 11/2014 on a bike showing the entire 7 mile stretch to Saline Valley Road... Turns out the narrow sections that I thought were not that bad because of the camera angle was wrong... they are narrow!



All of this info could be worthless because I have no idea if the road has been damaged since 02/15/15 when we ran it. Plus there is zero room for two way traffic or turning around should you not be able to pass. We got lucky, nobody was going in the opposite direction.

On a side note... my family with their '06 Grand Cherokee did this trail with 202,000 miles on their Jeep... looks great and runs perfect. Not even the horrible washboard road to The Racetrack took a toll on this Jeep.

I'll still take my Raptor over another Jeep anyway

 

[puddle hunter]

With all the talk about Titus Canyon I may need to add it to the list for Saturday. I have not done this route before. I always discounted it because it looked like such an easy road. Hell, Ive seen pictures of Prius's on that road.

How long does the route take? I have taken the dirt from 190 to Ubehebe and it took almost all day with the different stops, lunch and ******** around.

I recommend starting in Beatty, NV at the Death Valley Nut & Candy. Cheap gas, food, and flushing toilets.

Then head to Rhyolite Ghost town.

Then you start your trip down the road to Titus Canyon. The road to the mountains is VERY easy, but that means you can have some high speed shenanigans. It's also one way, so any traffic you hit, will be in front of you traveling in the same direction. Once you hit the mountains, the road narrows, as well as climbs through switchbacks.

Other than the random vistas you'll see along the way, there's really only 4 places that are worth stopping.

1. Red Pass - highest point of the road to Titus


2. Leadfield Ghost town - rusted buildings, mine shafts


3. Petroglyphs

4."The Slot" - eat lunch beneath tons of rock teetering over your head

 

[Berky]

Headed out in a week

Anyone else want to come along?

 

[KaiserM715]

This trip is definitely one I have wanted to do for a long time, but will not work out this time. I hope to see a lot of pictures and a trip report!!

 

[beadblaster]

I just got back from Death Valley. Road to the racetrack is very rough. Titus Canyon was just graded so road was very smooth. Also did Lippencott No problem with a raptor.