Death Valley Truck Trip 2022 (1/2)

I celebrated my birthday this year with 2 days of skiing in Mammoth followed by 2 days of driving through Death Valley. I'd never been there before, but have always been curious. The name alone makes it deserving of a visit. Not to mention the hottest recorded temp in the US and the lowest point in the US, 261ft below sea level. Maybe I go once and never go back, maybe its the first of many trips. Only one way to find out. The plan was to meet my friend Ray at 12:30pm at Lone Pine then head into the valley.

395S Just leaving Mammoth

I had left that morning from Mammoth around 9:30 am. And made my way down to Lone Pine. I stopped in Bishop at Mahogany Smoked Meats for some Jerky and Erick Schatz Bakery for pastries (A Cherry Turnover, an Apricot danish and a Raisin Cinnamon Roll muffin thing), cookies(Lemon), and a couple Bacon Chili Cheese Bread loafs and a couple of Sandwhiches. I got the Hot Pastrami (#3) and their Carved Turkey Club Sandwhich (#2) for later. I ate the Pastrami outside right away. It was good! 4/5. I ate the Turkey Club about 5 hours later...... I don't want to give it a rating because of the circumstances, but it was dry and didn't go down well and we'll just leave it at that.

I was supposed to meet Ray at 12:30pm in Lone Pine but he said it might be a little later. It was about Noon and I had 20 minutes to kill when he told me. I had coincidentally been passing right by Manzanar so I stopped for a quick visit. Manzanar is free and if you want to see it all, I'd say plan for about an hour. I only had 20 minutes and just kind of blitzed through the closest section and the museum. It's actually really well done and worth a visit. The views are amazing. It's a serene experience. The chilly wintry air really brings a icy vibe to the atmosphere there; drilling in the sense of cold isolation. And if you didn't know. Manzanar was 1 of 10 Internment Camps for the Japanese-Americas during WW2. About 120,000 Japanese Americans were "housed" in this concentration camp from 1942-1945. Pretty sad. Pretty racist.

I met Ray at McDonalds in Lone Pine just a short 15 minute drive away. He downed some food and I ate some fries and off we went! We headed East on the 136/190 towards Death Valley. Our plan was to head north and come up the south side of the Racetracks by Exiting 190 on "SALINE VALLEY ALTERNATE RD" going UP Lipincott Pass (#14 on the NPS Death Valley Back Country and Wilderness Map) then coming down into the Racetrack.

508-Backcountry-and-Wilderness-Access-map_.pdf

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From where the 395 and the 136 meet, it should be 49.2 miles going east until making a left and heading north on "SALINE VALLEY ALT RD" for 21 miles before making a right and taking Lipincott Road 7 miles up Lipincott Pass. To take this route, on Google Maps - Search for "Homestake Dry Camp" instead of "The Racetrack" as the Racetrack route will take you around a different way instead of up Lipincott Pass. We didn't actually go to Homestake Dry Camp, at the top of Lipincott Pass where the sign is, you can see the "Racetrack" so we just headed for it.

We wanted to go up it for 2 reasons. It aligned better with our trip, and I read here and there that it was less sketchy going up. The trail starts of really dusty, but is lined with beautiful Joshua Trees before it heads through the near by mountains, through the valley and north through the next range of mountains up Lipincott Pass.

Ray

Joshua Trees

Saline Valley

Saline Valley Rd.

Lipincott Road as per the NPS Wilderness Map (#14) "Rough 4WD, Very Steep, exposed, and winding with cliff edge washouts. Uphill traffic has right of way. Lower part has very narrow section that is difficult for wide vehicles. Experienced 4WD drivers only. Incredible views into Saline Valley and historic mining sites."

What a description! Lets goooo! So I'm in a stock 2018 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road, double cab long bed. The "Land Limo" as they call it. I'm a newbie off roader with just a long Baja trip, a few Anza Borrego trips and a trip through some of the enchanted foresty fire roads through Sequoia National Forest. But the truck is a champ! It's handles everything we've thrown at it, so with full confidence we decided to take it on. The truck is more than capable to handle any rocks, or loose terrain. Tractionwise, i'm not afraid. I just get a little scared of getting high centered over something big because the wheelbase is so long in this truck, but so far hasn't been a problem. I do need rock sliders though.

Ray is in 2021 Toyota 4 Runner TRD-Off Road. He's also a baby overlander but I'm glad he decided to join me last minute. We both are like minded in that the trucks, although pretty are meant to be driven and moderately abused. So, no issue there. I've been with other friends that just don't want to keep going because they're afraid they're going to damage their paint or scratch something. No bueno.

There's only one 30 yard section towards the beginning of the ascent up Lippincott Road that required us to both get out, and do a little planning. The terrain was rocks on dirt, with baseball and softball sized loose rocks making up the road in this section. There's a big boulder right in the middle of the road which forces you to go right around the boulder towards the edge of the road, then cut it back hard left, off camber to then get your right front tire over the next boulder and keep you out of the rut. I went first, put the truck in 4L and activated CRAWL CONTROL on medium speed and powered through the section. Ray, then attempted the same but was getting his rear passenger tire stuck in the rut he was parked it. After not being able to power out or crawl out, he reversed out of it and reset. He activated the crawl control and we took the lines as planned. Easy Peasy! but i'm glad we had each other to spot. It wouldve been dicey to do it alone. After that, it was pretty easy going up the remaining 4 miles up Lipincott Road. A few sections got rocky and a bit slippery again, but nothing the trucks couldn't handle! CRAWL CONTROL is legit! Once again... these TRD-offroad trucks in stock form really impress me. Go Toyota!

Coming up Lippincott Rd shortly before it gets fun!

From the Top-ish of Lippincott Rd. Looking back down behind us towards the Saline Valley.

This is from the top looking back down. We came up from behind the sign.

From the top of Lippincott, looking north, you can see the flats that are named "the Racetrack". It's called that because of the mysterious rocks that move across the playa floor. We saw some rocks and their tracks. We admired the turtle shell pattern texture of the cracks in the playa floor. We felt the fierce wind howl and blow as it funneled through the flats. Maybe because it was a cold and dreary day, and there were only a few other people out here, but when you look around you can feel the isolation. We out here!

We hit the road with the intention of finding a place to make camp. Ray wanted to get out of the valley because the wind was howling. We made at wrong turn at Tea Kettle Junction and soon found ourselves in a small canyon. We found a place to make camp, hoping the canyon walls would protect us from the wind. Did they? I'm not sure. It was pretty windy and it actually snowed for a bit. We both immediately started making our beds, Ray had a blow up mattress that took up his whole interior. I had a thermarest and slept on only 1/2 my truck bed. I've got the 6ft bed and can lay in there pretty good! I don't understand why so many taco owners get the 5ft bed. Shorter wheelbase? sure. But you can't sleep in it! *Rant over* Anyways.... Ray made chicken sausages and we had the Bacon Chili Cheese bread from Shatz Bakery. Pretty good, not gonna lie. Good for camping! I wanted to go to bed because I was cold. But stayed up until 9, just pacing and semi dancing in place to keep warm. Ray also had a giant bag of those shakey shakey handwarmers so we each had a bunch going and were constantly shaking our hands, which was also beneficial to keeping warm! But at 9pm, I gave up and turned in. I heated some water and made an instant ramen to eat in my truck so i could be warm and full and ride that into sleep. It kinda worked. I woke up quite a few times due to the howling wind! I wasn't sure if my SoftTopper was going to hold up but it did! What a day!