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Author Topic: Death Valley conditions now  (Read 2332 times)

Wayne Fox

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Death Valley conditions now
« on: April 05, 2011, 06:56:25 pm »

Anyone at or been to DV in the past week or two?  Headed there for a few days, and wondering if the wildflowers are decent at all, and heard the weather has been pretty iffy.  Also thinking of heading to the racetrack, curious as to the current condition of the road if anyone has happened to try it.  I know PODAS is there right now, not seeing any wildflowers on the PODAS blog, so maybe too late or just not a good year for them.
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Paul Sumi

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Re: Death Valley conditions now
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2011, 08:48:45 pm »

Wayne,

I was in Death Valley a couple of weeks ago, during the big storms we had in southern California.  Wildflowers at the time were sparse, even by DV standards.

The Racetrack road was in fairly good condition at the time.  The usual caveats apply about high clearance vehicle, good tires with spares, and common sense driving speed.

Current information can be found here (click on the Morning Report link):

http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm

Current weather is here:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=92328

There's a chance of snow at higher elevations.  If you are coming from Las Vegas, should be no problem.  However, if it snows and you are coming in from the west (Ridgecrest, Olancha or Lone Pine), Townes Pass (5,000 ft) may have snow and need chains.  The NPS link above has phone numbers to call to check road conditions.

HTH,

Paul
« Last Edit: April 05, 2011, 08:50:25 pm by Paul Sumi »
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acktdi

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Re: Death Valley conditions now
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2011, 11:09:24 am »

I was there 2 weeks ago, 25-26th, the wildflowers haven't started blooming in high numbers yet. 

This site has good up to date information - http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/ca_dv.html

Marlyn

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Re: Death Valley conditions now
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2011, 02:34:19 am »

Wayne,

I was there 3 weeks ago for several days.

1.  Road to racetrack was fine.  Was slow in the 'van' we had, any kind of real 4WD would be fine. Looked recently graded to me.

2.  No wildflowers to be seen at all.  (At least we didn't see a single one that I recall)

3.  Badwater had zero 'pattern's out on the salt. (none of the expected ridges).  We walked out prob a good mile, didn't find anything.

4. Easy access up and around both Dante's and Aguerberry points. Can get right out to the end no problem.

5. Telescope peak still had snow then,  no clue if still does sorry.

We had good cloud for the whole week, which was nice,  sometimes too much in fact !  (didnt' get side light on the dunes when we were out on them for one morning).

Hope that helps !


Regards
Mark.
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