Death Valley Adventure 2024
Death Valley: Mining History, Geology & Thrilling Places
November 14-17, 2024 was a time when some of us met at Death Valley to explore mining history, geology, and thrilling places.
Basecamp located at Fiddler’s Campground was a perfect location – close to toilets with a washing station, nearby to a pool and showers. At The Ranch at Death Valley there’s a grocery store, saloon, and restaurant. If you don’t want to cook your own meal, there are plenty of opportunities to use the provided places.
Run Members
- Aga & Dariusz Smigiel
- Marianne & Fred Feldman
- Jessica & Guy Giuffre
- Mike Wiechmann
- Jeff Holmes
- Lee Basilotta
- Mike Reale
- Jim
Everyone but Guy and Jessica stayed at Fiddler’s Campground. The Giuffre family decided to avoid a steep climb over the Panamint Range and stayed at Panamint Springs RV.
Wednesday, 11/13 – Pre-run Day: Racetrack Playa
In a group of 3 rigs (Smigiel, Feldman, Giuffre) we decided to go to the Racetrack Playa. After about 60 miles on pavement, we shortly stopped at Ubehebe Crater, dated approximately 7,000 years old. Then we continued to Racetrack Playa – about 27 miles off pavement. The road is graded, very smooth, with signs saying 25 mph… Of course, you can go faster. What could go wrong? (foreshadowing!)
Racetrack Playa is well known for its “sailing stones”. On the flat surface of the lakebed, there are visible tracks of stones which move their position. About 10 years ago it was finally revealed what causes this phenomenon.
On our way back to camp, we decided to go over Hunter Mountain pass which added a bit of challenge to the trip after a rather smooth beginning of the day.
Thursday, 11/14 – Echo Canyon & Inyo Mine
On the second day the initial group was joined by Mikes, Jeff, Lee, and Jim. We postponed the start of our Echo Canyon run until noon.
Shortly before leaving camp, Dariusz noticed that one side of his steering dampener wasn’t attached anymore to a collar on a drag link. The bolt broke off, leaving the Jeep without support. A couple minutes of working with wrenches, and the dampener was removed. What could go wrong? (2nd foreshadowing!)
The group went on a pleasant drive up Echo Canyon, where we stopped by “The Eye in the Needle” rock to snap a few pictures, and later continued toward Inyo Mine. This mine was one of the best places for digging up gold! We had time to explore its open shaft – some of us went pretty deep into it!
Because we still had time, we continued toward Echo Pass to tackle the only obstacle on the road: “dry falls”. For an experienced driver it wasn’t challenging, but it was a nice and short articulation exercise.
Friday–Saturday, 11/15-16 – Overnight at Barker Ranch
Last two days we went for an overnight run to Barker Ranch – about 80 miles of driving (approx. 60 miles on pavement).
On our way there we stopped by Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, while the highest point in the contiguous US (Mount Whitney) is only 85 miles to the northwest. The basin is a great place to see how deep “under sea level” it is – nearby rocks have a sign marking “sea level”.
We continued toward Warm Springs Rd, to a talc mine and Warm Springs Camp. Louise Grantham spent her entire life here until her death in 1969, operating the most successful talc mine in the region.
Later, we drove toward Butte Valley passing burros and checking amazing views of Death Valley at 4,000 ft. The road took us to Geologist’s Cabin – one of 3 cabins in the area that can be used for camping. After a quick check of the cabin (and due to the late time of day), we pressed forward toward our final location: Barker Ranch.
After a nice and smooth ride, we finally got to more challenging parts of the trail. Last 3-4 miles took us about 1 hour.
Finally, we made it! The infamous Charles Manson hideout! Even though it was late Friday afternoon, we were lucky – no one else was camping there, so we had all the space for ourselves.
After sunset, the temperature started dropping very quickly. Around 6pm it was already cold, so some of us decided to hide in their tents and go to sleep. Others stayed until 8pm! Night was chilly – we got some rain which froze in the morning.
Saturday started with nice weather. We started a very warm fire and stayed a few hours before embarking for more adventures!
The plan for Saturday: go down Goler Wash, drive to Ballarat, visit charcoal kilns, go to a Death Valley lookout, and visit another mine. Simple as that!
Unfortunately, after we hit a gravel road, Smigiel’s car started misbehaving really bad – death wobbling after getting to 10-15 mph. Driving to Ballarat should be about 0.5h; it took almost triple that. Quick change of plans, and everyone decided to go back to basecamp.
About 0.5h into driving on pavement, it became obvious that Smigiel’s car wouldn’t make it without a dampener (which was left back at basecamp).
We split into 3 groups: Fred and Marianne went to Ridgecrest to buy bolts (to re-assemble dampener), Jeff, Lee, and Jim went back to basecamp to bring back the dampener. Aga & Dariusz with Mikes stayed with the car.
Around 4pm, it started getting dark, so we decided to gather some wood for fire. Fortunately, Fred was already back and Jeff brought a dampener with his trailer. Instead of working in the dark, we packed it up on the trailer and went back to basecamp.
At camp, Dariusz tried to re-install the dampener… when he noticed that the entire track bar bracket wasn’t attached to the axle anymore! Somewhere, sometime it broke welds, leaving the car inoperable.
Quick decision later: the car stayed on the trailer and Jeff towed it back to Santa Cruz. Jeff lent his Jeep to the Smigiels to hook up their travel trailer and take it back.
Sunday, 11/17 – Heading Home
We left 7:30am and around 5pm got back to Santa Cruz. Everyone was safe! No other incidents.
A big thank you to Jeff Holmes for the rescue and trailer assist, and to the whole group for an unforgettable adventure – even with the mechanical drama!