Category: Trips & Events

Panamint 2025 Trip

For the second year in a row a small group of Club members opened the season with a trip to explore Panamint Valley the second weekend of February. 

Fernando, Brent and Jim arrived first to a campsite near Surprise Canyon, and just as we were arriving Brent’s Turtle trailer suffered a catastrophic axle failure!  Bryan and Oliver arrived just in time to help attempt a repair to limp it to the road, but despite Bryan’s best efforts with the Club welder the axle didn’t hold.

We unloaded the trailer and set up camp, with Brent spending the weekend in the group tent brought to stay out of the strong winds expected for the first few nights.  Brad showed up later in his fancy Lexus.  The winds arrived as advertised.

On Friday, while Brent followed his trailer to a shop in Ridgecrest the rest of the group  first stopped in at the Ballarat general store.

After checking out Ballarat the group ran the Fish Canyon/Escape Trail, a historic route where Manly led his expedition out of Death Valley.  This was a new trail for all of us.

By the time we got to Trona to refuel, Brent rejoined the group!  We continued with our day of exploring historic trails by running the Nadeau Trail, admiring the very fine craftsmanship of the Chinese laborers who built the retaining walls almost 150 years ago as the trail went straight down Searles Pass and straight (very straight) up Panamint Valley.

The group explored a side canyon with an old townsite, and eventually were halted by an impassable washout.  It was getting late so we decided to call it a day and head back to camp.

On Saturday we decided to venture into Death Valley via Goler Canyon, a classic route most of the group had never done.  

Brad’s Lexus was stopped by a waterfall near the beginning of the canyon, but a quick pull from Brent got him past the hump and we were on our way, stopping occasionally for a ruin here in there until we reached the turnoff for the Keystone Mine.

The trail to the Keystone mine was a steep shelf road in sometimes dubious condition.

Eventually Fernando, Bryan and Jim made it to the Keystone Mine and decided to explore, going in the  mine until stopped by a cave-in about 100 yards in.  During their exploration they found a new-ish looking box of dynamite (probably from when the mine was restarted in the 1980’s and 90’s) but left it alone.

Entering Death Valley proper, the group continued on Goler Wash Road and reached Mengel Pass for the most difficult part of the trip.  Everyone eventually made it through with the help of some spotting.

We stopped for lunch at Russell Camp.  Fernando spilled tinned trout oil in his cooler.

Then checked out Geologists Cabin, admiring the view of Striped Butte.

Realizing we were running out of daylight and wanting to make sure we crossed Mengel Pass and Goler Canyon in daylight, we decided to head home.  

We decided to take the long way around the Alkali Flat to avoid the washboard of Wingate Road, and drove the last hour or so in the dark, getting to use our trail lights.

Saturday night the wind finally died down and we enjoyed our first and only campfire.

Sunday we all left for home, Brent without his trusty Turtleback, making it back in time for the Super Bowl.  

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Members: As usual, check out the members only section where we have 177 photos and videos contributed by the members on this trip.

 A variety of rigs of the Santa Barbara 4 Wheel Drive Club headed across the West Camino Cielo Ridge trail Saturday morning Dec. 28th. 

Included were eleven vehicles, their drivers, spouses, a few welcomed guests as well as a couple of  mascot doggies, Otis and Benny. 

     

There was a substantial fog layer covering the city which cleared into sunny skies halfway up the 154 San Marcos Pass. Once arriving on the trail-head, we all enjoyed a beautiful morning exploring the Santa Barbara backcountry with fall temperatures. 

We followed the main trail as well as enjoyed a few fun off-shoots to boot.  

   

Thank you Jerry for organizing, Bryan (Swifty) for leading, Mike for taking tail and Danny for bringing homemade Christmas cookies to share. 

We had a great time camping at Stovepipe Wells, and we did three runs:

1.  On Thursday, Brad and I went up Echo Canyon (FT43)

as far as the dry falls obstacle, which is about 12 miles up the road. 

The obstacle is basically three rock ledges, and with more experienced people to help out, we might have tried it, but we turned around them.  We didn’t explore the Inyo mine site, as we were running out of daylight.

2.  On Friday, Dick Hoppe, Matt (from Lompoc) Brutosky, Brad and I went to Chloride City (FT 42), which was a fantastic, not too difficult run to some expansive views of Death Valley (Badwater to Stovepipe Wells and further north). 

Dick is the only one who went up the last steep grade to Chloride Cliff. 

He was happy to be able to finally use 4 Low.  We also explored some mines that were in the area. 

Then we kicked up a bunch of dust going down dirt roads across the desert and ended up in Beatty, where we had excellent BBQ for lunch.  After lunch, we took an old railroad grade from Beatty to Rhyolite.  There’s a ton of trails on the BLM land that’s in this area, and it would fun to explore it on the next trip.

3.  On Saturday, the four of us did the Hunter Mountain Racetrack loop (FT39).  Again, this was a not too difficult run, with the butt-puckering part being the narrow (no room to pass) shelf road descent of Lippincott Grade.  More about that later.  On the Hunter Mountain Road, we witnessed changes in climate zones as we ascended, starting with Joshua Trees, then Junipers, then Pinyon Pines (we think), then no trees at all.  We walked on the Racetrack Playa, and saw the evidence of the rocks moving across the Playa.

Interesting fact;  the Racetrack Playa is one of the flattest places on earth with a 2 inch elevation difference over probably 2-3 miles of length.  Then lunch in a primitive campground a few miles to the south of the Racetrack, then the Lippincott Grade.

The road was rocky and slow going, but not too steep and totally doable.  We were always worried about people coming up, as there is absolutely no room to pass, and a lot of backing up would have been required. 

At one point, we saw a group of 9 vehicles coming up, and we were in the perfect and about only spot to pull over and wait for them to pass.  It would have sucked had we met them further down the trail.  Yay for good luck! 

We ended the day blasting back down the smooth dirt road to the highway, and saw the most amazing cloud formation, lit up by the sunset. 

Members: Check out the Club Members Page for pix and video.  It’s worth a look!

This was a long day.  We left just before the crack of 9am, and got back to camp at 6pm.  Total trip length was about 160 miles.  Well worth it!

If you’re going to Death Valley, and want any more info on these trails or the camping situation, please contact me.

Danny–