We only had a loose plan though and picked up a back country roads map at one of the ranger stations. Believe me, all of the above mentioned places were unbelievably gorgeous and worth checking out. But what about the places that are a bit more difficult to get to?
Well, the Eureka Dunes were quite a long haul. Hours and hours on rocky dirt roads. Again though, quite worth it. Did I really leave my kidney belt at home? HAHA! We finally made it there though and damn it was so windy we had to wear goggles for quite some time.
But what about the more difficult shortcuts? Well from the Dunes to the Racetrack there is a choice you make. Go alllll the way north again back down the same the dirt roads you took to get to the dunes, then hit the construction on the highways just to wait for pilot cars, then hit more dirt roads. ORRRRRR....take a new adventure with new crazy, twisty, rocky, beautiful dirt roads you never imagined could be so long, like the Saline Valley Road and then a shortcut up to the Racetrack through LIPPINCOTT PASS!!!
Oh but Lippincott Pass. Nothing could have prepared me for this. Seriously. Well, not in a 2WD Toyota Tacoma Prerunner. Sure, we looked at the back country road map that said you should use a 4WD vehicle and NOW we will trust those thick, double, dashed lines.
We started at the bottom of the pass where there are no warning signs, not even a street sign. Only a giant pile of rocks sort of as a road marker. It's just a long dirt road leading to the bottom of the mountain pass. There were tons of rough wash outs which we figured was the reasoning for the 4WD vehicle warning on the map but I mean, depending on the time of year you attempt to drive it, a truck with great tires can get over those with careful maneuvering. We realized later that it seems like most people tend to drive DOWN the Lippincott Pass rather than up. Wonder why?
As we climbed the mountain and hairpin switchbacks it didn't seem too bad, at first. I even got out of the truck at point in flippies to take a picture with a cool old "Entering Death Valley national Monument" sign off the side of the road.
As soon as we got stuck here for a moment or two though
I quickly switched into my boots. I had visions of crawling out of a truck that had tumbled down the side of the mountain. Call me dramatic. YOU drive up Lippincott Pass in what we did! There were times when the "road" was almost completely washed out. Yes. For example, there is a specific hairpin that is forever burned in my brain. Josh hit the gas to get around it and the rear passenger side tire was NOT on the road but off the side of the mountain just spinning. Most of the rest of the time my side of the truck was about a foot or less away from the ledge of several hundred to thousands of foot drops down into canyons. I will publicly congratulate myself for only gasping ONCE. For the entire 5MPH crawl of, sliding, and the truck slipping out of gear more than once, I kept super calm and quite collected. My co-pilot skills rule. Maybe I shall take up rally? HA! Just kidding, I was pretty much fearing for my life the entire time.
So as you can see we finally made it to the top. Oh and LOOK! A warning sign posted at the top of the pass! It seems a lot more serious when you see it here like this than double dashed lines on a map. We agreed that had we seen this sign, we totally would have avoided this pass altogether. We also sort of wished that it was also posted at the BOTTOM of the pass although, having gone through what we did and making it up alive, the truck still in perfect condition (uhm...minus the tires in which this one we had to immediately switch out), I'd have to say that it felt pretty damn good.
We both literally fled from the truck and ran around like wild banshees, veins bursting with adrenaline. You may not find this hard to imagine but within thirty seconds, the driver of this vehicle and my sweet, sweet man had a cold beer in my hand. Best damn beer I ever had!
Damn, a 2WD Toyota Tacoma Prerunner. Pretty foolish but pretty freakin' awesome!!!
Sure do hope to hear your Lippincott chronicles here, as I never knew this pass existed and I've been obsessed with wanting to hear stories of it since we made it through! I'm a newbie as you can see and so far I love this site! So, thanks for having me and I'm lookin' forward to hearing from you all!
Jamie
