Panamint Valley and Death Valley April 2004
This was a great trip, the weather was perfect, mid to high 60's day
time and low 50's nite, it was a little windy. Panamint Springs was a
good place to camp and do day runs from. The 16th we went up Goler
Canyon, which is a really nice drive, we met up with a guy and his son
from New York State, he had a rented Grand Cherokee, we stopped at the
Barker ranch for lunch and to check it out, it needs some cleaning up
and repairs. We then proceeded over Mengel Pass and into Butte Valley,
stopping at all the cabins along the way. The pass only has a couple
of spots that are fun, there was a little water on the trail thru
Goler but the rest of the trails were dry. We then took Warm Springs
road out to the West side road and back to camp, that was a 173 mile
day, whew I was really tired that nite. The 17th we went to Darwin
Falls and to the top of the pass on the back road into Darwin, then up
to Wildrose and to the top to Mahogony Flats 8133 feet and it was cold
and real windy up there,only a couple of hardy people camped up there. The
18th we drove up the Saline Valley road to the Hunter Mt. road where
we met up with 4 rigs all ham radio guys from the Stocton area and Bay
area. So up Hunter Mt. and down the other side and on to the
Racetrack, that was a real pretty drive. Ate lunch and took photos and
walked around the Playa looking at the rock trails. After that we took
the Lippencott mine road back to Saline Valley. The Lippencott mine
road was fun it was in good shape, darn road sure is steep, there are
only a couple of off camber spots and a few rocks to navigate over. If
I remember you drop like 3000 ft in just a few miles. The 19th we
checked out the area south and east of Panamint Springs, ending up at
the Minnietta Mine cabin, it has been restored by the Death Valley
49'ers. It is in really good shape. It is available on a first come basis for
camping.
We met this older couple mid 80's who were camped at Panamint Springs
they were driving a Ford 3/4 ton Van 4x4 with a pop-up camper thing,
looked like a 5 or 6 inch lift, winch and ETC. He told me they drove
up the Lippencott mine Road. The 20th we had breakfast at the Panamint
resort, then backed up and headed home. The only problem we ran into
was the Jeep developed a cracked exhaust manifold on the trip driving
up, it did not create any further problems other then noise. So we had
a great time and are planning the next trip back to the Panamint Mts.