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(Date Posted:03/24/2008 5:50 PM)
 Sunday, March 23rd, a fellow I've met in the past visited from Oregon. Cliff V., has contacted me in the past and asked that I guide him through sections of Death Valley that he's always wanted to visit but too nervous to get out and do it alone. In 2001 I guided him over Goler Canyon, Mengel Pass and on to Furnace Creek. My webpage on that trip is found at:
http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/escort.htm
Cliff was back in town. Instead of a Toyota 4-Runner he now has a Toyota Highlander. So I needed to scale back the trails to suit his more modest ride. So I chose two trails north out of Eureka Valley to make a loop trip: the Eureka-Gilbert Summit trail and the Horsethief Canyon trail.
I have pages on both of these trails:
Eureka-Gilbert:
http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/4x4/eureka2gilbert.html
Horsethief Canyon:
http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/4x4/horsethief.html
The Eureka-Gilbert trail starts just before the end of the pavement on the Big Pine-Death Valley road in western Eureka Valley and runs to Gilbert Summit between Deep Springs Valley and Fish Lake Valley on CA168. Horsethief Canyon runs from a point on the Eureka-Gilbert trail about a half mile north of the Big Pine-Death Valley road and runs northeast out to the North Eureka road in the southern portion of Fish Lake Valley.
We ran out to Eureka Valley, drove north on the Eureka-Gilbert trail, drove east on CA168 to where it enters Fish Lake Valley, then took the dirt road east to connect with North Eureka Road (called Oasis Road in Fish Lake Valley) and south to just before the road plunges into Willow Wash to drop it into Eureka Valley again. There the Horsethief Canyon trail takes off and runs back down into Eureka Valley via the narrow canyon.
I've rated both of these trails easy enough for a cross-over SUV if driven with care, but that hunch was based upon speculation on my part, not actually trying it in something like my Honda CR-V. However, Cliff drove his Highlander over both without problems, though he did smack the bottom a few times on the Eureka-Gilbert, which had eroded considerably since my last trip over the trail. Horsethief Canyon was anticlimactic as it was still in fine shape.
So now that Cliff was my guinea pig for the actuality of a crossover SUV tackling these trails, I now rate them with authority that they can be done. But I still advise skill and caution if driving a low slung cross-over, and having another vehicle along.
After we drove those trails, Cliff wanted to camp at the sand dunes in Eureka Valley. So I followed him to his camp spot he selected on the east side of the dunes. It was nearly 6PM, but he hopped in and I took him up DeDeckera Canyon to Steele Pass then over the short distance to Marble Bath.
The road to the sand dunes was in the best shape I've ever seen it. Two graders were parked near the campgrounds, and had graded the road to a point about a mile north of there. They were in the process of working the last mile when the Easter holiday weekend hit and the road was soft and very dusty. The last few hundred yards to the campground were the typical washboard road generally found.
The approach trail to DeDeckera Canyon was normal, 4x4 high range. The narrows of DeDeckera, with its 4-step dry falls, had been tackled by someone with either limited experience or a vehicle that eventaully made it but had difficulty trying. The second step was badly dug out at the bottom of the rock face by wheel spin, presenting a 2.5 foot high vertical face for your tires. Some erosion had been at work on the other falls. However, in my stock '02 Toyota Tacoma TRD and the rear differential locked, I crawled up without spotting or problems.
The rest of the road up and over Steele Pass was normal.
Someone has stolen the vast majority of blue marbles out of Marble Bath. Only a few were found mixed in the dirt in the tub bottom.
It was dark on the exit from Steele Pass. We got back to Cliff's Highlander about 8:30 PM. I aired up my tires and Cliff shared a cold beer with me from his ice chest. With the flashlights turned off, the stars were so brilliant they looked artificial. There were quite a few campers spread out over the valley, and some hearty souls obviously hiked up one of the canyons in the Last Chance Range to the east about half way and had a campfire going that was visible from the valley floor.
I left Cliff about 9:00 PM. Knowing my wife was probably worried sick about me, and against my usual practice I sped out at speeds up to 70mph over the newly bladed roads, my super bright Hella off road lights lighting up the night in hopes of being able to miss any deer, rabbits, foxes, coyotes or badgers (yes, I saw all of these on the way home). I was successful. And I was also able to make it from a mile east of the sand dunes campground to home in one hour flat, it usually takes 1.5 hours at my usual desert speeds.
I took over 400 photos yesterday and I'll be soon updating my photos of the two Eureka Valley trails and making a Escort of Cliff V. Part 2 page in the future.
(Message edited by David_A_Wright on
03/24/2008 5:54 PM)
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David A. Wright
Reconnoitering in the Eastern Sierra & The Great Basin by 4x4
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