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The best Yotatech run for me yet. We went to Death Valley from 26-29 March 2005. Teresa and I stayed over in Ridgecrest on Friday night and went through to Stovepipe Wells(SPW) early Saturday morning to meet up with everybody. Most people camped in Death Valley Friday night. The following people went:

• Scottiac (Scott, Molly and Bonnie)
• Expat (Mark, Christine and kids)
• Bulldog (Myself, Teresa and Bliksem)
• BOB_98SR5 (Bob and “ Loverboy” Lance aka Good Times)
• RBLACAUSA (Pierre)
• Chiefiji (Henry)
• Hkollie (Kevin and father, unfortunately we only briefly met Sunday morning with them)

We met at the gas pump at SPW on Saturday. We tried contacting Kevin, but he was out of cellphone or CB range. We unfortunately never hooked up with him and his father apart from a brief meeting Sunday morning. It turned out he already did the Sunday run, so they did a separate run. We left around 10 am as it was along day planned. The pace was relatively rapid as we had a lot of ground to cover and I wanted to get back by sunlight for people looking for camping. We too the 190 to Saline Valley rd start were we aired down, then we took Saline Valley rd to Lippencott rd. Going up it to the Racetrack and then following Racetrack to Ubehebe Crater and then circle back to SPW. See GPS track below. Along the way we herded some cattle, inspected little caves, waited for incoming traffic and so forth. By the time we were done with lunch we were somewhat behind schedule and it was getting late. That and the fact that washboard roads are best driven at speed with slightly aired down tires, I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Mark was following closely and we were radioing the incoming traffic back. It seems this drive from Racetrack back to Ubehebe crater will now be known as the Death Valley 500, since Mark and I left the other guys behind in a trail of dust. We waited for quite some time at the crater junction for them to catch up. We took some group pics at the crater, aired up and then went on a frantic search for campsites for the guys who tried booking too late. Teresa and I split of at SPW to check in at the motel there. Good thing we booked well ahead of time, as it was all booked even the campsites were overflowing. This is what happens with the best rains ever in Death Valley and all the flowers, all the civilized areas were overflowing with lines at gas stations and stores. We all later met up at Scott’s Furnace Creek campsite for a group BBQ. See pics below. (unfortunately some pics just didn’t work out).

Saturday’s track and pictures:

Sunday morning we met up pretty early at Furnace Creek gas station. Kevin was able to meet up with us briefly, as well as Bob and Lance before they departed. Unfortunately they had to leave and Kevin stated he already did the route the day before, so we were a smaller group for the day. We did West Side Rd and the shot of to Butte Valley rd, Mengel Pass, Goler Wash and then finally Ballarat working our way back to Furnace Creek via WIldrose and Emmigrant Canyon. Goler Wash was really something to see, and we shot a short video of it  VIDEO

Originally the planned start of Butte Valley Rd was closed. Scott took West Side down to explore a little bit and found the real entrance point a few miles south. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the flowers were much better on the southern entrance of Butte Valley rd than anywhere else we saw previously. Henry and Pierre left the group once we hit the 176 to go home.

Map and pictures below:

Monday was planned to be a more relaxing day after the long drives the days before. SUnday night at dinner we all agreed to only meet up at lunch and everybody doing there own thing in the morning. Teresa and I went up to Scotty’s Castle. Unfortunately they only do guided tours and we didn’t have the time to do one with the tourist waiting lines. SO we took a couple of pictures and went down on the road to Furnace Creek to get some good sunny shots of the flower fields. A rain storm kept following us along the way, but we managed to get our pictures. We filled up in Furnace Creek and on our way to meet up in SPW we drove through the rain storm. It reminded me of a good Highveld rain pour and at some places it had streams going over the road. We met up with Mark and Scott at SPW. Mark definitely looked worse for wear. They had to endure a sandstorm the night before. So they decided to head back home to get some rest. Scott and I decided to do Cottonwood and Marble Canyon, and then make a quick stop by Badwater to go to the lowest spot in the western hemisphere.

On our way to Cottonwood Canyon Scott was leading and passed a Honda Accord on the gravel road. The guy driving did the sensible thing and pulled over for him. As I was coming up to pass he decided to start driving again. He then saw me and tried to move out of the way and stop. Subsequently he got stuck in a bit of loose gravel. It was very obvious he was in way over his vehicle and driving abilities on this road. The pickup truck that was part of his convoy left him behind for some reason (Young woman was driving it). SO he was stranded a bit with his girlfriend on the road. We quickly took out a tow strap and towed him out.

 Below are the pics: