Why
taking the road less traveled is worth it
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| Visibility Measured in Feet |
On September 21st J and L decided to head
north out of the small town of Trona after visiting the Trona Pinnacles and
drive to Panamint Springs on the way to Highway 395. Little did we know that
the Trona-Wildrose Road was closed about fifteen miles north of the town due to
massive flooding on July 22nd and July 28th respectively.
Coming upon a road closure sign post with large dirt berms blockading the
roadway showed the county of Inyo meant business on keeping the 150 to 200
vehicles which used the road each day.
Being researchers and explorers we simply slipped
the Toyota FJ into four-wheel drive and pulled into the sandy desert bypassing
the blockades. We were on a mission to get to Panamint Springs through the
Panamint Valley and weren’t about to backtrack to Trona just because of some
supposed washed out highway. The team does caution others to perhaps not follow our lead but with years of experience in the desert we try to be prepared for any conditions which we may encounter. Those preparations have paid off time and again as we leave the comfort of the pavement and head into the hinterlands.
What J and L quickly
saw ahead of them was a Hollywood version of a highway caught right after an
end of the world film.
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| Where's the shoulder? |
Hunks of asphalt missing, road cave-ins on either
side of the roadway, buckled surfaces threatening the very existence of our
powerful war horse, and the strangest sensation was there were no other
vehicles to be seen. For nearly twenty miles we drove through this land of
devastation without seeing another human or any sign of life for that matter.
To even deepen the feeling of traveling through an apocalyptic period was the
miles wide and thousand foot high sand storm directly to our east. The twirling
and blowing dark sand seemed to follow us menacingly as we drove carefully and
very slowly northward. But, again, being who we are we finally turned the FJ
into the very desert that gave existence to the sandstorm so we could get
better photographs.
The wind and fine sand were pounding us as we exited
the vehicle and started snapping and filming.
It was awesome.
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| View from the Top |
After a few minutes of being sandblasted it was time
to retake our position inside the vehicle and finish the journey we had started
an hour earlier. With visibility nearly zero at times we finally drove around
the north barriers and entered onto State Route 190 and turned west toward
Panamint Springs.
A cold beer for J and a Coke for L at the Panamint
Springs Resort was the perfect ending for an adventurous and exciting, though
sometimes worrisome, travel through Panamint Valley.
Tourists at the resort were busy snapping photographs of the tall
blowing sandstorms to the east and making comments like: “They look so
dangerous.” “Look how they tower above the landscape for miles and miles.” “You
would not catch me out there in the midst of it.”
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| Haboob - Arabic for blasting/drafting - first named in the Sudan |
Oh, what they had missed by not traveling the road less traveled.
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| Looking east from Panamint Springs toward Death Valley |
On a side note – according to the Inyo Register the
cost to prepare the Trona-Wildrose road will be in the millions and the time to
prepare it is undetermined due to the severity of the thunderstorms which
wreaked havoc through-out many of the roads in Death Valley and surroundings
desert locales.
As always, stay careful and be prepared for the
unexpected.
