Three Generations in Death Valley, Day 1

We rolled into a dispersed camping spot just south of Beatty NV around 2100 the evening before. It was already dark and there were several other rigs setup, so I just found a level spot near the road. We setup the two RTTs and had a quick sandwich for dinner and were off to bed. We awoke around 0600 the next morning to the sounds of coyotes yipping in the nearby hills. It was a nice change from the semi-trucks we herd pretty much all night. We quickly packed the RTTs up and headed into town to gas up and to get one last full breakfast before heading into the backcountry.

The first stop on the list was the Goldwell open air museum. It is a quirky little place that I could have spent about 10-15 minutes in, but my dad and son were having fun and we spent about 45 minutes exploring the little area.

My dad and the little guy decided to walk up the road to the ghost town of Rhyolite while I did some adjusting to the things packed in the Jeep. I then drove up to meet and explore with them. Rhyolite was founded in 1904 and by 1907-1908 had a population somewhere around ~3500-5000 people. It even had an opera house and stock exchange. But by around 1911, the mine was playing out and the population dropped to around 1000. By 1920 it was uninhabited.

It was already very late in the morning when we made it to the Titus Canyon trail head. The road leading in looked pretty tame so we headed straight in after stopping at the info sign briefly. I was not sure if I wanted to air down for Titus Canyon or not since we would be getting right back on payment for a decent stretch of road once finishing the trail. After about 50 yards I decided to air down just for comfort on the washboards. I had a total of 15lbs of CO2 with me to air back up with, so I decided we could spare the air to enjoy this trail a little more.

Out of all of the trails/roads we drove in DV, Titus Canyon was my favorite. It starts out with nice desert mountain views, transitions into some shelf road switchbacks climbing over the mountains and then drops you down in to the valley before entering the canyon. Lots of great views and trail changes to keep you looking forward to the next section.

My original plan was to exit Titus Canyon and head north directly to Eureka Dunes. However, when I called the Park on Wednesday before we left, they said we would have to drive into Stove Pipe Wells to get the entry permit (even though the map showed a ranger station near Scotty’s Castle). So we aired back up and made the 30 mile paved drive to SPW. The rangers there were really nice, but I knew the backcountry rules better than they did (researched them online). Since this was a 60 mile round trip excursion I had not planned on, we decided to top the gas tank off at SPW for $3.99 a gallon. Not cheap by any means, but not outrageous either. After getting the permit and gas we made our way back up north, passing the northern ranger station with a big sign out front saying Fee Permits. Doh! Could have saved lots of time and gas if I would have just used my own research and not called the park for the “latest information”.

From the turn off for Scotty’s Castle, Death Valley Rd becomes a mix of mild washboard and smooth dirt and packed gravel. That part of the road is very wide and that late in the afternoon there was no one traveling it but us, we were able to make some good time in this section. Once we hit the mountains at the top of Death Valley Rd. the conditions changed to a nice dirt/gravel road up the mountain side. At the top is the mines and the road down the backside has been paved for the large trucks. Being aired down again, we took the paved section at a slow pace. Just about out of the mountains with the turn off to Eureka Dunes just down the next slope, we passed a large group of 10-12 Jeeps heading up. Sorry, I did not get any pictures of this portion of the route.

After roughly 7.5 hours of exploring and driving, we could see our first campsite in the park, Eureka Dunes.

In about 20 minutes we had are campsite setup for the evening and were enjoying the surroundings.

The adventure continues on Day 2