Death Valley and Bloom Zoom 2024, Day 2

2024-04-08 — Part of Death Valley and Bloom Zoom 2024 — ← prev next → (to be written)

Start of day: Holiday Inn, Ridgecrest, CA
End of day: Homestake Dry Camp, Death Valley
Distance: 238

Trona

The first stop was Trona Pinnacles. I was worried about sand after my experience yesterday. The first few miles were fine, but I decided to stop at the viewpoint and not go all the way around the Pinnacles. I wasn’t very interested in the Pinnacles themselves anyway. So I just paused for a few pictures.

I continued through Trona and the wind picked up. By the time I got through the town and started climbing toward Panamint Valley it was becoming a real sandstorm. I followed another rider on a cruiser down into Panamint Valley. 

Panamint Valley

The Valley itself was full of yellow wildflowers. I didn’t took a few pictures today and there are more on the return trip on Day 5 (link goes here once I write that article).

I had planned on hiking up to Darwin Falls, but the road was washed out. Closed roads from the winter’s rains are a recurring theme on this trip. So instead I zipped up and down the twisty bit of 190, stopping briefly at the Father Crowley Vista, before lunch at Panamint Springs Resort. The server said that an old-timer told her this is the second most flowers he’d seen in the valley for the past 50 years.

Aguereberry Point

After lunch I rode over Towne Pass (chilly at the top!) and then up Emigrant Canyon toward Wildrose Canyon. The south entrance to this area, Trona-Wildrose Road, is closed after spring washouts. That meant this was a very quiet area of the park; I only saw a few other vehicles the whole time. It was cooler at higher elevations. I took the easy gravel road up to Aguereberry Point. The incredible view was worth the ride up.

While I walked the little trail out to the viewpoint, my bike decided it was time for a rest 😴. I had parked with the kickstand on the upwind side and a strong gust blew it over. Lesson learned: keep the kickstand side downwind.

From here I continued north deeper into Death Valley, briefly stopping at Ubehebe Crater, then finally beginning today’s main event: Racetrack Valley Road.

Racetrack Valley

The road is rough, as promised, but not too difficult. A thoroughly washboarded surface of gravel and rock. Some parts were properly rough, some were flat and wide and at 40mph the washboard smoothed out to a buzz. The worst of it is just that the bumps and the washboard and the rocks really never stop. It’s like fighting a gorilla: You don’t stop when you’re tired, you stop when the road is tired.

I didn’t stay long at Racetrack itself—there would be time for that tomorrow (link goes here) and the sun was sinking—and continued on to Homestake Camp at the southern end of the valley. This was a wonderfully quiet place. No one else was there. In fact, since there’s no where else to camp in the valley, I knew that there wasn’t a single human being within 30 miles of me that night. Only my tent, a few birds, and the stars.