What Is Death Valley-Jessy Greenland

What Is Death Valley

When you think of a desert, do you think, flat wasteland of hot lifeless death? Do you think of the history it holds or the stories it possesses? It’s probably the last place anyone wants to explore or visit.

Now that we are back from Death Valley, let me tell you how wrong all of these things are. Believe me I’ve seen my share of pictures of Death Valley and I still had a different outlook on it to begin with. Boy, my eyes were opened. Everything I expected or envisioned was totally thrown out of the window! Even pictures and videos did no justice to the amazing things I experienced!

Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest national park with its belowsea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat. Each extreme has the most striking contrast - snowcapped peaks from winter snow, fields of wildflowers from rare rainstorms, magical hidden locations teaming with wildlife and fish. Despite the harsh name there is a great diversity of life. Part of the Mojave Desert in Eastern California and the hottest place on earth, Death Valley was named in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. In 1933 it was proclaimed Death Valley Monument by president Herbert Hoover, placing it under federal protection. In 1994 the monument was redesignated as Death Valley National Park.

Modern Jeeper Adventures first trip to Death Valley was in 2019 and continues to be the prime overlanding destination for Jeepers, and anyone wanting to explore this vast landscape with many features to get lost in. Death Valley is full of stories, history and amazing diversity in nature with geological wonders. You can go from the lowest sea level to the highest point in the US.

For this year’s journey we started in Beatty, Nevada. Beatty is full of

interesting characters and history. In fact, after spending a couple of days there, we quickly realized we could spend our entire three days here exploring the area surrounding this historical place. Because of a renewed interest in mining, Beatty is full of new mining activity. Wild burros lace the town’s interior and exterior. With only a couple of hotels and a handful of places to stay, you can meet a few of the characters in Beatty in a short amount of time, from the Dollar Bill/Motorsports bar to the casino on the far end of town. There is a little something for everyone in Beatty.

The first day of our adventure began with an amazing breakfast at the corner cafe where 12 of us filled up the entire small cafe. With our tummies full and a quick driver meeting, we made our way towards the Mayflower mining district. The wonderment of the forgotten mining areas, jaw-dropping views, scattered dilapidated mining equipment and buildings left behind in a once thriving mining community made for some interesting history and hiking through the remaining structures. We had to remember that we were only a few hours into our first day and we had a lot more to explore.

Rhyolite is a ghost town right outside of Beatty with a lot of unique art, a house made of glass bottles and an old train station. The beauty and eeriness of the statues are something to sit and ponder on while sitting on the mosaic couch. At this point we get ready to go up Titus Canyon Road. This drive is what we call a 5-40. You either go 5 mph or 40 mph;

it’s a very bad wash boarded road that will shake everything loose on your vehicle and make your shocks work overtime. As you come up to the many switchbacks of the red pass, which is the highest point of Titus Canyon Road, it is a spectacular view of colors and a deep scenic canyon overlooking Leadfield mining. There is an interesting story about how Leadfield mining came about, just like a used car salesman pitch, it was far-fetched and people fell for it. Short and simple, you put out a “flyer” for traveling up river to a big old awesome lie, it’s quite fascinating that people did that back then to get money.

On to Titus Canyon, a very deep and narrow canyon at the very end of the road. The middle is open like a river bed of sorts, and I wouldn’t like to be caught in a flash flood down there! The canyon road is beautiful limestone, petroglyphs, native plants and wildlife. Watch out for the bighorn sheep! You feel like you are going to get swallowed up by the very steep canyon walls that are over half a billion years old, and remember to look up! The end of the canyon opens up to the beautiful graben desert floor and giant mountains of Panamint range. Watch out for hikers in this narrow part of the canyon. At the end is a parking lot and bathrooms to air up or take a break after the two-tothree-hour drive through this beautiful popular canyon.

At this point in the long day, we set sights on our camping spot for the evening in Mesquite springs, which is about 22 miles on pavement. As we set up in our spots and make dinner, we relax by the campfire to reflect on the day as well as take pictures of the beautiful sunset and listen to howling coyotes. Time to sleep for the next long day of another long 5-40 road which is called the “racetrack” road.

The sun wakes us up bright and early to the smell of bacon that is cooking over the camp stove. We have a good routine of packing up and heading out for our first stop a few miles down the pavement to the cool cinder cone or the Ubehebe Crater. It was created by a powerful volcanic steam explosion and is 600 ft deep and half a mile across. We get our pictures and take a moment to tell our group about the crater and move on to the racetrack road. Airing down can make it a better ride, but get ready for a long rough driver of winding, tight corners around hills and a field of Joshua trees.

We make our way to the TeaKettle junction to deposit our signed teakettle at the “offering spot” and move on many more miles to the Racetrack Playa. The playa is magical and rocks move on the playa and leave a trail. You will have to check out how all of the tailing comes to be and why the rocks move across the playa. We walk around enjoying the sun and eat our lunch before we head out for another day of adventures! I can make a small book about all the amazing parts of Death Valley but I will end our journey here. Who knows maybe there will be a part 2? Modern Jeeper adventures should be on your lists to explore and share the Jeeping passion!

Jessy Greenland

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www.modernjeeperadventures.com

Photos: Corey Osborue