282 Feet Below The Sea (A Weekend at The Racetrack)

I've been trying to do this bucket list trip for a few years but things like weather and life kept getting in the way. This weekend I headed out to celebrate my birthday with a drive out to The Racetack in Death Valley.

DAY 1: Packing and Driving

This day was a bit uneventful. I packed up the Jeep and we headed out towards Death Valley. It's a bit of a game of Tetris to get everything into the Jeep. This still didn't have my friend's stuff in it yet.



After a long drive that included my Jeep doing it's best impression of "The Little Engine That Could" we made it to camp.



Stay tuned for a more exciting Day 2......

DAY 2: Temperature says what?!?

Started Day 2 with some breakfast potatoes and bacon. I love this Kovea camping stove.



We packed up camp and stopped to hike Ubehebe Crater on the way out to Racetrack Playa Road. As advertised it was a big hole in the ground:





This sign clearly telling us not to break dance over the big hole was pretty helpful. Good advice to live by.



Then it was off to The Racetrack. This trail has a sign saying 4x4 High Clearance Only. There are a lot of warnings about popping a tire. We found out from the camp host that just the day before a car had broken down out on the road. It's a $3000 fee to get towed out of the dirt and onto the pavement.

Turns out it's just a gravel road. Nothing special about it really. If it had a rating I'd give it a 1 out of 10 in difficulty. We saw a few sedans driving down it just fine.



It's 27 miles along this road to the Playa and gains 3700 ft. This is where I failed in my research. We were expecting temps in the high 70s during the day and mid 50s at night like the weather report said BUT that was at sea level. Up at 3700 ft temps were in the mid 50s during the day and low 20s at night. This was unexpected. The mountains had snow on them.



Stopped to take a picture at Teakettle Junction. You are supposed to bring a tea kettle to hang on the sign. I don't drink tea so another fail on my part.



We finally made it to the playa. There was a Jeep at the parking area that had popped a tire and a group was helping them change it. So I guess the rumors of tire popping are true.

View of Racetrack Playa from the top of The Grandstand:



The reverse looking towards The Grandstand. Me for scale:

DAY 2 continued....

Now to the main event and why I drove over 6 hours to get here. The moving rocks:







While hilarious to see people walking around taking pictures of rocks, it was pretty awesome.

Then we headed to camp about 2 miles past the playa.





This is what all of the stuff looks like outside of the Jeep:


I had grabbed an extra blanket at the last minute and am super happy I did. We spent most of the evening commenting on how cold it was outside, how cold we were and how we were looking forward to getting back down to sea level so we wouldn't be so cold.

DAY 3: Under The Sea

We headed back out and decided to stop at Badwater Basin before heading home.

Here are some temperature facts about Death Valley. Notice is says average temperature in March is 80 degrees. No mention of 20 degrees whatsoever.




Here are my Size 7 flip flops for scale:



Then it was time to head back home.

A few things I learned from this trip that I want to fix for next camping trip:

1. Rotopax sucks. I hate Rotopax. I've never gotten gas to come out of that thing without it spilling all over the ground, my Jeep and me. Looks like I'm going to have to buy one of these Wavian mounts and mount it to my RSE EZ Rack on my spare.

2. While I like my 4inch sleeping pad it takes up a lot of space and is a huge pain to roll back up and get into the bag. I'd like to find like a super small Exped Megamat that could fit on a diagonal in the 2door.

3. I have to look for another pop up tent. One of the tie downs just ripped right out of the seam when I tried to stake it down. I don't know what I expected for $40. I'm sure there is something better quality out there somewhere

A bonus picture of my Jeep shower for @roaniecowpony as I think I failed in person to explain to him how this worked.

Looked like you had a blast. Loved the story telling as well.

Spent 2 months in Death Valley (Ft Irwin) back in 98. Not consecutively, Feb, then Aug. I learned that it can be one of the worst bone chilling colds, and the worst heats known to man. Always wanted to see the racetrack.

Death valley in the winter is surprisingly cold. Alabama hills gets even colder. Like dogs water freezing minutes after I poured it in the morning. People don't realize the highest and lowest points in the contiguous US are right there within 100 miles of each other and that cold wind is coming down mount whitney with authority. It still beats being there in the summer.

Awesome trip and amazing pictures!
Not sure if this would help with your fuel tank issue:
https://a.co/d/37rz63M

SadRobot said:

2. While I like my 4inch sleeping pad it takes up a lot of space and is a huge pain to roll back up and get into the bag. I'd like to find like a super small Exped Megamat that could fit on a diagonal in the 2door.

Click to expand...

What pad do you use? We have a 4" foam from REI that you also pump air into to help a bit and my wife got one of those tiny pump and vacuum combos and it helps a lot in shrinking it down.

SadRobot said:

DAY 2: Temperature says what?!?

Started Day 2 with some breakfast potatoes and bacon. I love this Kovea camping stove.

...

Click to expand...

I'm thinkin you are Irish by birth and left on a doorstep in a basket....lined with fried potatoes.

Nice write up. Makes me want to revisit Death Valley. I would like to revisit Death Valley. Odd thing, It has rained on me twice in Death Valley. Not sure if I was lucky or not.

Have to ever taken General Shermans Pass over the mountains from like the California Hot Springs area to the west side of Death Vally? It is all pavement. It is a beautiful drive that we have done on motorcycles and a convertible mustang. It is a a way better drive than the highway.

This is the map. There is a couple of places marked that are for off roading too.


https://maps.app.goo.gl/a1FHrUHf3TD8ec3D6

Happy Birthday! Thanks for sharing the pics and your adventure.

Bulletbill said:

Awesome trip and amazing pictures!
Not sure if this would help with your fuel tank issue:
https://a.co/d/37rz63M

Click to expand...

Thanks I'll look into that. Is there some sort of siphon I could use that doesn't need to be charged?

yokramer said:

What pad do you use? We have a 4" foam from REI that you also pump air into to help a bit and my wife got one of those tiny pump and vacuum combos and it helps a lot in shrinking it down.

Click to expand...

It's this that I've cut into shape to fit in the back with the passenger seat pushed forward. It's kind of an awkward shape and I think a regular mat won't fit in. I hate air mattresses which was why I went all foam. It's very comfortable but a bit unwiedly and takes up a lot of space.