Snowcation: Death Valley Floor to Mammoth Mountains

OverlanderJK

OverlanderJK

Resident Smartass
Took a little weekend getaway this weekend. Decided to go from Death Valley and work our way over Hunter Mountain at almost 8,000 feet and back down to valley floor and head north toward bishop and into Mammoth. Recent rains from the past week left some trails muddy and others covered in snow.

Starting out in Lone Pine on a cool morning.

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Working our way out of town the roads were pretty empty.

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Pulling off the Highway and onto dirt.

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Working our way up the mountain.

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As we got a little closer to 8,000 feet we found quite a bit of mud from the recent rains.

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After working our way through about 3 miles of that goop above we finally hit some solid ground again as we started down the other side.

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Little bit of mud

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First stop of the day was at Goldbelt Spring. Founded in the early 1900’s. Not much left out here now besides some ruins.

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View from the truck looking back

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From there we headed toward Quackenbush Mine to see what else was left over there. Besides a couple shafts there was much left.

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Heading out from Quackenbush we hit some stretches of open desert roads finally and left be much behind. Next stop was at the Lost Burro Mine

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Some of the structures around the the mine camp

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Inside the main house

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View looking out of the cabin through the holes

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Back on the road and heading north we came to a junction in the road

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Continuing on we made a stop at the Racetrack

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These rocks are moving quick

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Back on the road,

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After reaching the bottom of Lippencott we cruised along the Valley floor for a long while until we started to climb back up again. Quick stop at Waucoba Mine

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Mine shaft was pretty deep

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From there we headed back toward pavement through Whipperwill and Marble Canyons.

Before hitting the car wash in town.

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Next morning we headed north toward mammoth and made a quick stop at Convict Lake

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Little chilly

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Continuing on we hit dirt and started back into the mud again

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Made a stop at the hot springs

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Spring creek pretty full from snow runoff.

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After leaving there we headed up in elevation again and hit a little snow this time

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Continuing on

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Hitting the snow

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And to where nobody else has been, finally

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After working our way forward for a bit and making slow work at it the snow was getting deeper and deeper and we still had a ways to go. We got turned around and headed up back toward the highway.

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Made a stop at Mammoth brewery for a drink

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From there we went to the end of the trail that we were trying to work toward earlier. Good thing we turned around

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On the way back to the hotel we made a quick stop at some other hot springs

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And that’s it. Fun trip overall with a little more than 150 miles of dirt, mud and snow and elevation changes of about 6,000 feet.


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Looks like a great trip! I was just telling my wife tonight how we need to plan a trip to the Sierra's soon... Great Pics. :beer:
 
Looks like we both need new tires.

Seriously though, nice pictures and cool trip. Love the eastern sierras.
 
BamBamDeer said:
Looks like a great way to spend a weekend. The scenery your way is so much different that what i am use to. Tnx for sharing.

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The West sure has it all.

TrailHunter said:
Looks like a great trip! I was just telling my wife tonight how we need to plan a trip to the Sierra's soon... Great Pics. :beer:
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It’s a muddy mess right now. That rainstorm from Thursday did a number on things. It was still raining when we were pulling into town on Thursday night.

fiend said:
Looks like we both need new tires.

Seriously though, nice pictures and cool trip. Love the eastern sierras.
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I have a set of trail grapplers in the garage. Just don’t know if I want to install them or not.


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JeepFan said:
Nice trip report! I question whether or not your Jeep was filthy when you started the trip. Lol
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It was dusty, not muddy. It has seen a power washer twice in two days though. [emoji15]

black pearl said:
I love that area! Thank you for sharing.
I'm pretty sure I see our tea kettle, that we left last trip hanging in your photo at the junction.


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I looked for any names that I might recognize but didn’t see any that stuck out. I love that area.

Bear_JKU said:
Looks like a great trip! Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!


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Thanks, it was fun!



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Way too cool - no pun intended!! In some ways, I think I would have preferred to do what you were doing. Thanks for posting this up :thumb:
 
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