Three Generations in Death Valley, Day 2

In my initial plans Day 2 was supposed to be the longest day on the move inside the park, but I initially made some alternative stopping points because I knew it could also be the one with the most exploring. As it turned out, we got a very late start leaving the Dunes. My son had been excited to go explore the dunes as soon as we arrived. Being later in the day when we arrived, I made him wait until the next morning. The first dune he tried to climb had him questioning how much he really wanted to explore them. It was only about a 12-15 foot dune, but it was really steep. After several failed attempts to make it up, his Pep-pa grabbed him by the arm and the two of them scrambled up it. This gave him the confidence to continue and looked at me and said “Dad, I want to go all the way to the top”. Now, the Eureka Dunes are one of the highest dune fields in North America (it is also one of only about 40 booming or singing sand dunes in the world), so I had my doubts if he could make it. After the successful assault on that initial dune, he was not going to turn back. Over the next couple of hours we climbed our way to the very top, 656 feet above our campsite.

With the dunes conquered and the camp packed up, we headed south on the Steele Pass trail. The trail around the dune field is very sandy in spots, but nothing to worry about if you are aired down some. Once you get past the sand it turns in to gravel/rock and hard pack. Not long after reaching the canyons, you come to the only real obstacle on this trail, the Steps. They are 3 or 4 rock ledges that you must climb up (when heading south). A couple of them would be pretty good sized steps if they had not been filled in with rocks over the years by vehicles needing some help over them. Had I not been towing the trailer, 4hi in the Jeep would have made short work of them. With the trailer, there was on spot where I had to drop to 4lo and engage the lockers. The Jeep just could not get enough traction in the loose dirt between the rocks to pull its self up the step and the trailer over some rocks at the bottom of it.

The rest of the trail was a mix of hard pack and gravel. One other spot worth mentioning on this trail was a narrow section of road between a switch back. It had eroded some the width of my Jeep was pushing it. My dad and son got out to watch and dad said my passenger side tires were right on the edge. After that it was a rocky hard packed road down to the Saline Valley floor where the road turned into a deep rock wash.

Saline Valley is known for low flying fighter jets and we got our one and only close encounter shortly after passing between Saline Peak and Dry Mountain. It was an F-18 that came in from the north, dropped down over the mountains and sped over the Warm Springs and banked hard to the east before disappearing behind the ridge line. As our planned trek through this region of the park was schedule for a Sunday, I was not sure if we would see any aerial action or not. While not the closest flyby I’ve experienced, it was exciting none the less.

Before making it to the springs, we were stopped by a friendly dirt bike couple who wanted to know the condition of the trail we had just passed over. After a short chat about the trail, the F-18, photography, and RTTs, we took their advice to skip the upper springs and head straight to the lower springs as it was more impressive. He had not made it more than 50 yards before a Ford Raptor and then an FJ Cruiser also asked about the trail conditions. No one we talked to continued on and all headed back to the springs instead.

Not knowing exactly what to expect and with it already getting later in the afternoon, I decided that we would pull into a nice looking camping spot to park while we checked out the springs. There were already a lot of other people setup, so I wanted to make sure we had a spot if we decided to stay the night. As I did the left hand U turn to get into the spot, I heard a slight clicking/popping noise coming from the front end. Poking around under the Jeep reviled power steering fluid dripping off the pitman arm and onto the diff and axle. A busted power steering gearbox. Great. I could not tell if the housing was cracked or if the seal had just let lose. If it was the latter, I might be able to keep it topped off with heavier weight fluid and deal with it later. If it was the latter, at any moment I could lose all steering control. I’m glad I decided to pick a place to setup camp when we pulled in. With my dad taking on the camp setup, I started working out contingency plans. My first order of business was to inform the wife that we were safe, but had a major mechanical issue that would have to be addressed. A close second on the list of things to do was to contact my Jeeping buddy back home and set him to researching what my best options were. This little episode is where the inReach earned its keep with the two-way satellite communications. I was able to tell my friend what my issue was and what my two possible egress routes were. With this info he was able to research the parts I would need and where the closest place to get them would be. While he was off researching that for me, I walked back up to the Upper Springs to talk to the dirt bike couple as they were somewhat local to the area and came here often. They advised me that while it was a little further away, my best bet would be to try and make it out to Big Pine and then on to Bishop if possible. The road out that way was easier and more traveled. The final destinations also had a much better chance of having the things I’d need for making the repair.

With nothing left to do about the Jeep, we took the remainder of the afternoon and evening to check out the springs and relax a little bit.

That evening the wind picked up and was blowing around 20-25mph consistently with gusts well above that. While noisy, the RTTs did a great job in the high winds. We did have to tie down the ladders to help hold the floating floor sections down against the wind though.

The adventure continues on Day 3