Death Valley Snow & Road Report 2012/2013

[dirty adventurer]

I'll be heading out for the next couple of days (maybe a week) looking for snow on my xr400.

Cerro Gordo is on my llist.

I'll report back......if I make it.

[2on2off]

Originally Posted by dirty adventurer

I'll be heading out for the next couple of days (maybe a week) looking for snow on my xr400.

Cerro Gordo is on my llist.

I'll report back......if I make it.

There is a 30% chance of rain at Panamint Springs Tuesday and a 30% chance of snow there on Wednesday this week.

Panamint Springs is at 1,900 ft elevation and the surrounding mountains go up to 10,000 ft. Cerro Gordo is over 8,000 ft so if you are looking for snow this week, you will probably find it.

Send pics.

[traveltoad]

Per NOAA, I am not seeing the snow at PSR... but South Pass/Hunter Mtn is expecting snow.

I'll let you know when I get back.

[2on2off]

My wife had a great time riding with me to Death Valley. The weather was perfect.

For any of you heading to DV from Central California this time of year, I would recommend highway 178. The road is in excellent condition and the west side has some great twisties right next to the Kern River.

We took highway 65 coming from Reedley to avoid freeways. It takes longer but is much more scenic.

To complete this ride on some very nice two lane, take highway 180 from the Fresno area to highway 245 and head south to Woodlake and then connect to highway 65 as you cross highway 198. Then connect to highway 178 in Bakersfield and head east to highway 14 near Ridgecrest.

This was my first "All Street" ride to Death Valley so it turned out to be a very different and very good experience. It was really a scouting trip to find out what my wife liked and didn't like as we plan to take two or three other couples we know to Death Valley in April.

HIghlights for my wife were:
1. Rhyolite near Beatty
2. Artists Drive near Bad Water late in the day brought our all the colors
3. Furnace Creek
4. Panamint Springs Resort
5. Highway 178
6. Highway 190
7. Quality Inn, Ridgecrest

[2on2off]

We had a great time for my wife's first trip to Death Valley. The whole trip was about 800 miles and that is the longest trip she has ever taken with me on a bike. We rode 350 miles the last day and I have to say we were both very comfortable on the Goldwing. I just wish Honda could make their controls more like BMW's.

[2on2off]

Originally Posted by traveltoad

Per NOAA, I am not seeing the snow at PSR... but South Pass/Hunter Mtn is expecting snow.

I'll let you know when I get back.

That forecast for snow at PSR was from weather.com

NOAA is probably better.

[2on2off]

It rained very hard yesterday in Reedley and that is 60 miles due west of Mt. Whitney and Lone Pine.

I'm guessing the Saline Valley Mountains, South/North Pass, Hunter Mtn and Cerro Gordo potentially saw some heavy snow.

I will be good to hear from Dirty Adventurer and Traveltoad about the conditions.

[northleftcoast]

Snow last night to 4000' in the White Mts and Panamints. Windy today in the Owens and valleys to the east. It was sprinkling at PSR this morning when we left. 2-3" of snow at the southern end of Saline Valley Road and Hwy 190, looks like more up on Hunter Mtn. Sunday we were sweating at south pass and lippencott in long sleeve shirts. Glad we timed it when we did.

Pleasant Cyn and South Park Cyn were free of snow on Monday except a 30' section of ice at the top of South Park. A few days of warm weather will probably brim it back into shape.

[traveltoad]

We will be trying to get through South Pass on Friday...

[Lost Rider]

Originally Posted by northleftcoast

Snow last night to 4000' in the White Mts and Panamints. Windy today in the Owens and valleys to the east. It was sprinkling at PSR this morning when we left. 2-3" of snow at the southern end of Saline Valley Road and Hwy 190, looks like more up on Hunter Mtn. Sunday we were sweating at south pass and lippencott in long sleeve shirts. Glad we timed it when we did.

Pleasant Cyn and South Park Cyn were free of snow on Monday except a 30' section of ice at the top of South Park. A few days of warm weather will probably brim it back into shape.

Thanks for the report, I'm heading out tomorrow to DV and will see what the storms brought. Was snowing heavily on the trails @2500' late yesterday afternoon outside of Ojai so the snow level was indeed low with this storm.

[Lost Rider]

Originally Posted by traveltoad

We will be trying to get through South Pass on Friday...

Maybe we'll see you there Aaron, will be on a white 650GS and CRF250L...

[traveltoad]

Originally Posted by Lost Rider

Maybe we'll see you there Aaron, will be on a white 650GS and CRF250L...

Sweet... we will be on 2 x Super Enduros... Yamaha 450 Rallye... KTM 660 Rallye... KTM 640 Adventure... KTM 640 ... Honda XR650.... DRZ400 ... and a couple more.

[christian]

Was there this weekend, came out through North pass at around 11am 02/19/2013
was cold!!! this info is before yesterday's snow/rain.

Road in general were in worse condition than 2 years ago.

Goler Wash - was Ok.
Mangel pass - OK

Echo Canyon Eastbound - huge step 1/2 through, we got a 950SE through, and that was a pain - 640E was not too bad.
Titus Canyon - easy

Steelpass Westbound to the spring - Sand close to Eureka Dunes was super soft - might be better now with the moisture.
downhill to the spring in the washes was much worse than 2 years ago - nothing too difficult, just tons of rock.

Lippencott Eastbound (up) same story, way more rocks.

Hunter mtns was no problem Monday - no sure today then.

South pass to the spring - was fine on motorcycle, all the major wash-out have been fixed, we could see the loader's tracks and they filled with gravel. the rock on the bottom close to lippencott turnout and valley floor are bad - car can go through but it'll be a slow process.

north pass - valley floor has more rocks/wash out than usual but stock Subaru's and such were at the spring, just slow process again.

I'll post a few pics later.

[Lost Rider]

Originally Posted by traveltoad

Sweet... we will be on 2 x Super Enduros... Yamaha 450 Rallye... KTM 660 Rallye... KTM 640 Adventure... KTM 640 ... Honda XR650.... DRZ400 ... and a couple more.

With that new lighting you got I'll be able to see you from across the valley!

Have a great trip, hopefully we'll see you guys out there.

[2on2off]

Anyone ridden near Gold Point N/W of Scotties Castle? It is near 6,000 ft and was wondering if the dirt road between highway 267 and Gold Point has any snow or ice.

That is a fun dirt road that goes past the Hard Luck Mine Castle. Want to ride it the next trip out.