Death Valley National Park 2022
January in Death Valley is likely one of the best time’s to visit this land. It is, and will stay one of my favorite “overlanding” trips thus far with an amazing group of people, all part of different walks of life and unique skill sets that all contribute towards a strong team. Although it was only 4 days and 3 nights, we slept in a separate camp site each night. I say it’ll stay one of my favorite trips as it was my first time leading the caravan - it was definitely a great learning and humbling experience to lead the crew. Our group consisted of six vehicles - My TRD Pro Tacoma, Jay’s 4Runner, Christian’s Raptor, Vic’s Raptor, Steven’s LX570, and Collin’s F150 + trailer, all awaiting my instruction for the next destination. Collin with his navigation and Search and Rescue experience gave me a huge leg up in pre-planning routes, campsites, alternative routes, fuel, and miles traveled. I appreciate that everyone in our group was receptive to rushing through some sections due to time constraints - no one wants to feel rushed when exploring the outdoors. But, the number of miles required to get to our campsite each night required us to meet a relatively tight schedule, especially if we didn’t want to scout our campsite at dark. Our campsite at Homestake Dry Camp, right outside of Racetrack Playa, ended up hitting a low of 17 degrees that night. Things like baby wipes, water containers, soap, etc. all were frozen by morning. I’ve slept on blocks of ice, through snowstorms, and pretty shitty weather throughout my years of camping, but this was one of the coldest nights. Cold dry air means your fingers start to split and cling onto all your clothes, your lips blister, and movement significantly slows as a whole being chilled to the bone. Our vehicles held up fairly well, I suffered from a flat due to an old rusty nail, and Vic’s Raptor pumped smoke out of the exhaust due to being low on oil. Quick fixes thanks to Christian, our group mechanic. He previously worked as master tech at Toyota/Lexus, shop foreman at Tesla Motors, and now foreman at the up and coming Rivian Automotive. He helped pick up oil from a small town in Rhyolite, and we used his ARB tire repair kit to plug the nail, both 30 minute fixes that could’ve been much worse, all things considered. Not our first time doing trail fixes, and I’m sure it won’t be our last. Planning, navigating, and cooking, left me with fewer photos than I hoped - I’m happy with what I got regardless. Until next trip.
