4 DAYS IN DEATH VALLEY / Panamint Springs Basecamp

NOTE: Although this post is dated for the day we got home, I’m writing this 6 months after the fact. Life gets in the way sometimes so I’m playing catch up when I can.

As with all great rides, it started as as an idea in our group text. “Let’s spend a few days in Death Valley”.

With a couple of favorable responses Charles then tossed in an idea for a route and from there we started talking about it.

The route had some really great ideas, hit some great points of interest, but in the end we decided the better way to do it would be to make Panamint Springs a Basecamp and then do day trips from there.

Mike T called and reserved camping spots for us at Panamint Springs. I met Mike T at his house where we loaded both bikes up in the back of his truck and headed towards Bakersfield. Seth and Charles would meet us at the Campground.

Mike and I came up from the south through Ridgecrest and Trona. If you’ve ever wondered where the fighter jets in Death Valley come from – it’s the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in Ridgecrest.

We all arrived in Panamint Springs all about on time. As a matter of fact Seth arrived just minutes before we did and came a completely different way. Poor Charles was a little behind as he still had work to do. Campsites were set up with three of them sleeping in the cabs or beds of their trucks and I was happy on the ground in my tent.

Dinner was a simple walk across the highway to the Panamint Springs Restaurant. It was a cooler night and there was an inviting fire in the corner. We found a table near the fire, order food and beers, and decided what we wanted to tackle the following morning.

They had a large amount of beers in the can but we were happy with the IPAs they had on tap. Burgers were good. Oh, and they opened up at 7am for breakfast! This was going to be a very dangerous place!

DAY 1: THE GEOLOGISTS CABIN

I did edit a nice individual video for each day. Do remember I am not a YouTuber. I’ll embed the days edition here at the top of each day if you would rather watch.

The general plan was to head south and then come up north to the Geologists Cabin. From there we would travel over to Badwater, then up to Furnace Creek for gas, then Highway back to Panamint Springs Basecamp.

There was a gas station as part of the Restaurant / Resort where we all made sure we had full tanks. Three of us on our 690 /701 variants and Seth on his new to him KTM 350. I believe this was Mike’s first real ride on his new KTM 690 Enduro!

Just a mile or so east of Panamint we would leave the highway and head south. This section started out easy enough but kept getting deeper gravel and chunkier and chunkier. None of use were using Mousse and I think all of us had tubes.

We stopped and explored Newman’s Cabin first.

After which we crossed the valley to the other side and headed into Ballarat. We stopped there and checked out the store.

We then headed along the long graded road to the south. This road followed the counters of the valley floor as it butted up against the mountains. 10 plus miles where you could just hammer the throttle and drift the back end out of every turn. It was so long I got tired of doing just that!

The road made a sudden left turn and we were heading up Goler Wash! It was 20 degrees cooler and there was a dribble of water running out of it. As soon as we entered the canyon, I was struck by the distinct smell of Donkeys. You could really smell the wild donkeys.

The wash was full of deep gravel at times and we were having fun. I was riding sweep and as I came around a turn I saw a small step up. I could see Mike and Seth had made it with Charles off on the side before it. I picked a line and with little or no traction, I absolutely botched it! Mike T had taken a line off the to left that was way easier.

Out of Goler Canyon the trail climbed up to Mengel Pass. It was certainly the high point of this section of trail as everything after that went downhill towards the Geologists Cabin – but it wasn’t one of those technically challenging kind of passes. Which is not to say I didn’t have a small issue there either. I did.

But first Mike T on his brand new 690 had a small drop on the right side. He was dusting himself off when I caught up to him. Seth was there and waved me on by. Shortly after that I passed by Charles too. I stopped at the top of a small hill and positioned my self where I could get some cool video of them passing by. After a while Charles passed me and joined me in waiting. After another long while Seth and Mike T came up the road and we found out he had punctured his clutch cover and patched it with JB weld! We filled him back up with oil, checked for leaks and then continued on. You can see all this at the 14:09 in the video!

Back to Mengel Pass… I crested the top, admired the marker of stacked stones and then started down the other side when…

Well, you could watch it all HERE but essentially I wasn’t paying attention, slid the front, over corrected and let’s just say… face meet dirt.

No harm done but if you are keeping score at home that was #2 for me that day. I audibly laughed at my self, dusted off, picked up the bike and we continued on.

Just a short way after we came across the Geologists Cabin which had someone staying there. It was a guy with a fully built out Jeep and Trailer.

The Cabin sits just above the valley floor and looks out at Stripped Butte which is this super impressive hunk of rock – a thousand feet tall – in the middle of this valley. The Striped Butte looks like none of the surrounding rocks. This picture does it no justice.

Here we are at the Cabin talking to the Jeep Guy and you can see the Striped Butte just behind. I’ll bet at sundown or sunrise it’s stunning!

The Jeep Guy had some sort of short happening and as fully built as his rig was he surely didn’t much about it and was not at all mechanical. Luckily for him there was another jeep guy that happened to stop by and was helping him. He needed a wire connector and I happened to have one in my tool kit.

From the Geologists Cabin we headed north east past the Striped Butte and then down into the southern end of Badwater Basin.

The trail was much more open and definitely easier in this area. This is how many of the vehicles make it to the Cabin (and not the way we came).

We got down into the Basin as the sun was getting low. I knew we had some miles to go north) on the road before we got to the next gas and I think everyone was running low on fuel.

Mike T and I had been here (coming in from Shoshone) when we did the SoCal BDR. This was all newly paved from the southern end of the Basin to the northern end (Furnace Creek) where the next gas was. Google suggests it’s 46 miles.

When we got to Furnace Creek, there was some sort of weird police action happening there. The gas station was self serve and not blocked off so we all filled up – but the rest of the area – the store, the resort, the campgrounds – all of that had a police or ranger vehicle blocking the in and out.

Full of gas we turned west on the Highway towards our basecamp in Panamint. It was getting dark and we passed two different platoons of police vehicles zooming towards Furnace Creek from the west. Full lights and sirens and definitely speeding. Charles happened to snag a blurry pic. On a dark and empty highway this was really a bright and loud event.

We got back to basecamp without issues. We headed over to the Restaurant for dinner and liquids.

One of the servers there said there was an active shooter at Furnace Creek. Disgruntled worker or something. We ate, we drank, then went back to the camp and had an excellent fire and a nearly full moon!

DAY TWO: DARWIN AND MINE EXPLORING

I texted the family in the morning about the police incident. I didn’t want them worrying about it.

I then did a little searching and found a news release

Here’s the video I put together just for this day:

It turned out that Mike T had patched the clutch cover hole on the tail but something wasn’t right. His plan for the morning was to take it apart and see what he did and what he could fix. Charles also had emergency work on his laptop to do so Seth and I decided to stay somewhat local and go explore the nearby town of Darwin and some abandoned mines.

Our first stop was up at Father Crowley Overlook. I had been to the parking lot but had not ventured down the gravel trail to the proper overlook.

it was super windy and at the time we were the only ones there. I followed Seth and we posed for some really iconic shots.

Next it was on to the town of Darwin. We took a small trail that paralleled the highway. Along the way we spotted a mine opening up on the hill that we could easily ride to. We didn’t go too deep – well I didn’t go too deep. Seth was happy to jump in. I took what might have been the last image of Seth before the mine collapse. I loved all the striations in this rock.

As luck would have it, the mine did not collapse on Seth (this time). We got back on the bikes and down the road to the small town of Darwin . It was a mining town back in the day but these days it seems to be a mini mecca for artists and free thinkers. We parked first in front of the Dance Hall.

It had a deadhead / wild west kind of feel about it. I’d dance there! From there we walked up and down the street(s). There’s art displayed everywhere including empty lots.

We sat and lunch under a shade structure that was supported by more art – huge blocks of granite.

Back on our bikes, we headed across the highway and then north up on Saline Valley Road. Just past the Boxcar Cabin we went off the trail towards the east to what was a large abandoned mine.

We spent hours exploring different shafts, abandoned machinery, and mine trash – trying to figure out what went where and what did what.

Seth and I had a great time exploring. I like to take some time to slow down and explore the areas we ride through. That doesn’t often happen in a group setting. We made it back to Basecamp to find that Mike and Charles had pulled the clutch cover off of his 690 – and found out he had squished a little too much JB Weld in the hole. That and his cover was also bent inwards a little. Cast items can still deform a little before breaking and that’s what this was looking like it did. He had broken a tooth off his clutch basket too.

With the help of a dead blow hammer they had gotten it all working a little more freely.

We discussed our next two day’s route options over a few beers at the restaurant that night. We had 2 more days and few more POI to hit. Gas Range was our biggest limiting factor. I could get around 140 to 180 miles before running out. Seth on his 350 was even less. I carried almost a gallon in fuel bottles, Seth could carry a 1 gallon rotopax if needed. (it was needed)

As for those POI – we wanted to get in Ubehebe Crater, Tea Kettle, Racetrack, Lippencott PassTitus Canyon and a few others. I have always suggested getting to Saline Springs as I think it’s a magical place. We mapped out an idea that looked feasible. If we hit the last possible gas station at Stovepipe Wells, and carried as much gas as we could, and packed all of our stuff for an overnight (food water, tent, sleeping bag), and didn’t do wheelies, we might be able to make it all the way around in a big counterclockwise loop, spending the night at Saline Springs. We could have gotten gas in Beatty but with Titus closed it didn’t make sense to go that far out.

So we had a plan. If we started running out of gas we’d be close to Basecamp where someone could run back and fill up a can or two – or we could siphon of of those who had some gas left. The idea was to pull back into Panamint with all 4 bikes on fumes.

DAY 3: UBEHEBE > RACTRACK > LIPPENCOTT > SALINE SPRINGS

It looked like another perfect day. We packed only what we needed and headed down the road to Stovepipe. We filled up there and then headed up the paved road towards Ubehebe Crater.

VIDEO:

I had music on and enjoying the ride. We got to Ubehebe and took some time looking around.

Next it was down the gravel road to Tea Kettle Junction. While it was mostly just a big gravel road, there were sections that had larger chunky rocks. I definitely would head the warnings to take only a high clearance 4×4 (or motorcycle) down that road, yet we passed a regular old Subaru!

And then it was on to our next POI, The Racetrack Playa. We stopped at the southern tip that has the better view. I got off and walked out onto the Playa. There was one close rock that had traveled a few hundred feet. I took a few pictures of it. The grooves it had made seemed pretty deep (maybe an inch deep).

Back on the trail, still heading south, we could see on the map that there was a camp of sorts off in the distance. It was just past our turn for Lippencott Pass. We decided to go explore a bit and see if it was worthy. It wasn’t much of a camp, so we turned around and started down Lippencott Pass.

Mike T’s bike was running fine but he had bent his brake lever and so had just the use of his front. No problem I said as I use my front almost 100% of the time. We let him go down first so he didn’t have to worry about running into the back of us.

Lippencott Pass was much chunkier in the past. Somebody had come through recently and smoothed it out. It was still chunky, still steep – just wasn’t as bad as it had been before. At one point Charles had rounded a curve and barely saw Mike’s Gas Bag on the side of the road. He said he almost missed it and if he did we would have been in big trouble.

Once we got down off of Lippencott we had to cross the valley floor to get to Saline Springs Road. This was an up and down chunkfest for a mile and a half. You can see why on the map. It’s an old river wash that we were crossing over and not a smooth dry lake bed.

Once we were on Saline Springs Road, it was a little better. There were sections that were deeper sand, sections that were chunky rock, Sections of horrible washboard, and then sections where you could rip it up.

When we turned onto the road into Saline Springs it was pefectly bermed, hard packed sand and we had a little fun getting in there.

Once there we rode through to the top and decided to make camp near the lower pools. I had never camped on this side and we tucked up under a small section of trees/bushes.

We set up tents and then Seth and I declared that we were heading to soak. We all had a good and refreshing shower and soak, met a few people, had some good conversations and saw some nice things.

We met an old guy with a dog who said he was bringing back Margaritas and some cheese and crackers so we made sure to be there for his hospitality.

Before we made dinner we discussed stopping by these moto guys camp. They had driven trucks in and set up there as a base camp. It turned out we really hit it off and spent the rest of the night drinking their wine, eating their food and telling wild tales and lies of our sorted moto past.

Literally stumbling back to our camp, (I had a lot of wine) we ran into a single wild Burro. He saw me and I stayed still as he approached and got a good nose scratching.

Once again, Saline Springs is a magical place!

DAY 4: SALINE TO PANAMINT SPRINGS

Let’s start this day with the video:

We woke up, made breakfast, and got packed up. It was going to be a slightly shorter day as we were just heading back to Panamint Springs (our basecamp). We didn’t have the gas to deviate or explore.

On the way out we saw the old guy wit the dog that had provided margaritas the night before. His name was Walt and his dog was Roxie (sp. Roxy?). We set up a picture with him. It turned out blurry but who’s complaining? Good Times!

We also stopped by our camp hosts (who supplied all the wine and food) and said our good byes.

On the way out of Saline Springs, Charles and I explored up in the airport. The plane was definitely coming back as they left their tent. We were careful to not ride on the runway itself – not for fear of planes landing – we didn’t want to make any divots or grooves in the sand.

From there it was back out that most excellent road we came in on. There was one little bump of a jump that we remembered and Charles wanted to get us jumping over it. Mike T carried on to the junction while we took a few minutes to jump. I set up my GoPro on a small tripod and then we each took turns running at it. Charles also got a couple of good stills and then I grabbed his phone and caught him. Guess who had the best form?

We got out to the main road (Saline Valley Road) and headed south towards Panamint Springs. It was still 60 or so miles away.

I ran out of gas right at the junction of Lippencott Pass. I put in my extra gas and carried on. I think everyone else had to stop for gas as well. All in all we made it back to camp with the gas we had been carrying – so it was a WIN!

Along the way we stopped here and there, pausing for great views. We got back to camp, had a beer or two and a burger at the restaurant, fire at our fire pit, slept and then packed it all up and headed home in the morning.

It was yet another great time in Death Valley!

I love this place!