Trip Report An Adventure in Death Valley and New Years in NAPA

[Homefryy]

DAY 0

For the 3rd year in a row my wife Norelle and I headed out on our annual camping trip between Christmas and New Years. This is always a special trip for us because we typically only have time to do weekend or long weekend camping trips so we love the opportunity to take a week long one. It has been our tradition to choose an approximate destination and head there with no solid plans and just see where the road takes us. After getting snowed on almost every day of our trip last year this year we decided to head someplace hopefully warmer and picked Death Valley.

We loaded up the XJ with all out gear, grabbed our Benchmark Atlases, downloaded road and topo maps on my phone and hit the road the day after Christmas. We didn't leave until late in the day so we just drove to St. George and slept in the cheapest motel we could find.

This was the first trip where I have anticipated needing extra fuel. I had 2 old jerry cans that were in one of our sheds when we bought our house this spring. I got some new seals and a nozzle for them and they worked awesome.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 1

The next morning we woke up early and finished the drive. I had read that gas could be extremely expensive around the park so we stopped in Pahrump, NV to fill up the gas cans. I read that it recently snowed at higher elevations in the park and saw on a map that some roads required you to have tire chains so I ran into Walmart and grabbed a set. I had been wanting to get some chains anyway and this seemed like a good excuse. Turns out having the chains was a very good idea.

Some horrible gas prices just outside the park in Shoshone.


We entered the park near the south end by the "town" of Shoshone and spent the first day in the more popular area around Badwater Basin (lowest point in the USA at 282 feet below sea level). There were good sized crowds in this area that reminded us why we like to stay out of National Parks most of the time.




We made it to the visitors center right before it closed and went in to talk to the rangers about road closures and places to camp. Death Valley is different from every other National Park I have been to in that you are allowed to camp outside of campgrounds along dirt roads as along as you are 1 mile from a paved road. There are also a bunch of more popular dirt roads that you are not allowed to camp on.

Unfortunately we found out that there were many areas of the park that were inaccessible due to Road closures from the recent snow storm so we wouldn't be able to see everything we had wanted to. With a topped of tank of gas and advice from the Ranger on where to camp we headed out in the opposite direction (Rangers always discourage people from going to the most fun places).

We left behind the warmer weather below sea level and started our drive toward The Racetrack (a playa where rocks move around on their own leaving trails behind that show their path) which is up around 4k feet hoping to find a campsite along the road before we got too high and cold. As the road climbed in elevation we didn't see any spots to camp and were starting to get worried but we eventually found a spot at around 3,600 feet which when we woke up the next morning we saw was just below the snow line.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 2

We woke up and loaded the XJ back up at a leisurely pace. This is vacation and without any real plans we were free to take our time and enjoy the morning.



Once we were all loaded up we continued the drive to The Racetrack. The road had some snow on it but it was packed by other vehicles and caused us no problems.


We passed Teakettle Junction along the way.

As we approached from a distance The Racetrack looked more like a lake but once we were closer we saw that it was just wet and the wet sand reflecting the sun had made it looked like solid water. Unfortunately the wetness made it impossible to walk out on and obscured most of the trails left by the moving rocks.

 

[Homefryy]

...DAY 2 continued

We continued on past the playa and stopped for lunch at the beginning of Lipencott Road that takes you through a pass down into Saline Valley. We had heard of some semi-developed hot springs in Saline Valley that were there before that area was added to the park and operated mostly outside of the influence of the park service and was maintained by volunteers and donations. It seemed like a good destination to camp at that night.

Lipencott Road was mostly steep switchbacks that were a bit rough but nothing a stock 4x4 with a competent driver couldn't handle (the XJ is not stock so driving the road does not prove anything about my competence). The views along the road were amazing and we made multiple stops to enjoy it and take pictures.

 

[ID Bronco]

I love the Cherokee with those wheels and tires.

 

[Homefryy]

I love the Cherokee with those wheels and tires.

Thanks! I love the look also. I was skeptical at first since I really wanted black 15" wheels. When I posted here in RME looking for suggestions on wheels and tires multiple people recommended the Rubicon takes offs. I'm glad I went with them because they saved a lot of money and look awesome.

 

[Homefryy]

...DAY 2 continued again

The views in the valley were just as amazing. We headed north toward the hot springs and passed a salt lake and some mining ruins that we stopped to check out.














We arrived at the hot springs after dark, set up camp and went to sleep looking forward to the morning light to see what sort of place we were in.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 3

We woke up in the morning and this is what we saw. The springs created an oasis where palm trees had been planted. This is the less pretty back side where the caretaker that lives there had a permanent camp set up.


We asked around to find out exactly how far it was from the hot springs to the nearest gas station in Big Pine, evaluated how much gas we had left and decided to camp another night at the hot springs and just take a day trip out of the valley to Eureka Sand Dunes and back. At this point we had driven around 120 miles since our last gas stop. The trip to the sand dunes would be about 60 miles round trip but with the 9 extra gallons we were carrying we should be fine to still get to Big Pine the next day. We were told it was only about 30 miles to Big Pine but it turned out to be closer to 60.

The drive to the sand dunes took us up and over Steel Pass which was another rough road but definitely passable with a stock 4x4. The scenery in the pass was amazing.






Coming down from the pass with the sand dunes in the distance.


We made it to the dunes and hiked around them a bit. These are the tallest dunes in California at 700 feet tall. I climbed one of the shorter ones and it was a serious workout.









We headed back to the hot springs and spent the rest of the night relaxing and soaking. Talking to other people at the springs we learned that many people were a bit stuck. There are not many ways in or out of Saline Valley. There is Lipencott road and Steel Pass that we had already driven but those required 4x4 and made for a very long drive before you got to a gas station. There are 2 ways out of the valley that can be driven in a sedan, the north pass (elevation over 7k feet) and the south pass (elevation over 6k feet) both of which were heavily snowed in. There were many people that drove in before the snow and didn't have a vehicle that could get them out.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 4

We woke up, packed up and filled the XJ from our gas cans.


When we headed out we decided to try to make it out the north pass because we had heard reports that other vehicles had made it out. Being in the XJ and having chains plus 4 traction boards and a shovel I wasn't too worried since other vehicles had made it.
The only info we had on the south pass was that a group in built JK Rubicons had made it into Saline Valley but they had spend a lot of time breaking trail and getting unstuck to do it. One guy in a Tacoma tried to leave through the south pass the day before and ended up having to turn around 500 yards from the top. He said it took over an hour to turn around and required the use of their floor mats to try to get traction.

On the drive out we met a woman on the road in a Rav4 that was trying to leave but wasn't sure if she would be able to make it over the pass. We offered to stick with her and help her if she needed it.


Looking back along the road we were taking out of the valley.


Once the snow got deep and the road got steep the Rav4 started to struggle. We stopped and hooked up my snatch strap to give her a boost when she needed it. I haven't towed somebody with a snatch strap before and I was very happy with how smooth it was since the strap could stretch rather than jerk.


All was going great until we came around a bend in the road and met a 4runner heading down the pass pulling a camper. The road was wide at this point but there was only a single set of tracks and the snow was deep. After some discussion and tossing around ideas I put the chains on and made a passing lane by driving back and forth and packing the snow down.
This was my first time using chains and all I can say is they are awesome in the snow. I felt unstoppable.


Once the passing lane was ready we hooked the Rav4 back up and pulled it off the road so the 4runner and a couple other vehicles could pass.



We continued the rest of the way up the pass with the Rav4 on a strap.




When we stopped to get gas in Big Pine I noticed that one of my tires had a sidewall growth. This explains the vibrations I was noticing on the highway drive from SLC a couple days before.


After all the work in the snow and it being a couple hour drive to lower elevation where it would be warmer to camp we decided to relax and get a hotel in Lone Pine for the night.

 

[I Lean]

That looks awesome. I'm gonna need to get down there sometime.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 5 (New Years Eve)

We woke up and decided that we would head back into Death Valley to check out the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes (these are where the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars were filmed) and then continue east into Nevada to camp for the night and then head back home on New Years Day.

As we headed south we passed a dirt road that went up into the mountains on the western border of the park where there were a bunch of old mines and the mining town of Cerro Gordo. One our goals for the trip was to try to find old mines and ghost towns and we hadn't seen much of either yet so we decided to take a detour.

As the road wound its way up the mountain we passed some structures from tram lines that transported mined materials.




As we got up close to 8k feet we came around a bend and the tire tracks in the snow ended abruptly in a snow drift. I tried to push through it a couple of times but wasn't able to. We were in sight of the town and I didn't feel like putting the chains back on so we got out and hiked the rest of the way.


There were no foot prints anywhere in the snow so it looked like we were the first people up there since it had snowed last.

The buildings in the town looked maintained. I'm guessing you can take tours or something in nicer weather.


A view looking through a window of the hotel.


The building on the left is a bunk house. The one on the right looked like a church.


Some sort of mining equipment.




An old truck.

 

[Homefryy]

...DAY 5 Continued

We had some amazing views of the valley and the Sierra Nevadas as we drove back down the mountain.




A side road that looked like it went up to some mines caught my eye so we headed up to investigate.


We found a mine that was once fenced off but the fencing had been pulled back.


I have no idea what this is but those are charred pieces of wood. I like to think it was some sort old smoker.


I am not sure what type of rock this is but it looks like mulch.






We came back down off the mountain and headed east into the park and saw what I believe was an Earth Cruiser. The people never got out so I wasn't able to talk to them about it.

 

[BlackSheep]

That sounds like a great trip! Thanks for the write up and photos!

 

[Homefryy]

...DAY 5 continued

As we continued east across the park we were halfway up the 5k foot pass between Panamint Valley and Death Valley when the XJ stuttered once and shut off. Luckily it happened right as we passed a pull-off so I pulled over and started trying to figure out what happened.

The engine cranked fine but wouldn't start. My mind immediately went to the common CPS failure on the 4.0's. I had an extra CPS in the glove box but didn't have the ~3 feet of ratchet extensions necessary to get at the CPS bolts on the bell housing.
I also found that I didn't have a spark plug wrench so I couldn't check the condition of those. I did have extra spark plugs so I pulled a couple of wires and plugged them into the extra plugs to see if I was getting good spark. There was spark but something didn't seem right about it. It seemed like they were sparking at somewhat irregular intervals and I was getting a backfire every once in a while. This made me suspect the CPS even more.
I pulled the ignition coil and tested its resistance and it looked good.
I check the valve on the fuel rail and confirmed I had fuel pressure but didn't have a gauge to check and see if it was enough pressure.

The whole time my wife had her phone in airplane mode assuming there was no service. I didn't have service on Verizon but she is on AT&T. After more than an hour she took her phone out of airplane mode and found she had full 4G. That was a relief.

Eventually I gave up and decided to call AAA. They told me we have 100 miles of free towing and it is $10/mile after that. I looked at all the towns on the east side of the park and decided that our best bet was to go back to Pahrump, NV. The NAPA in Pahrump was 106 miles according to Google. I figured $60 to get towed out of Death Valley was easily worth it. I think it was probably some of the most remote 100 miles you could find in the US.

I thought we might have to wait until morning since we were so far out and it was New Years Eve but it only took around 3 hours for the tow tuck to arrive which wasn't bad considering it was a 2 hour and 15 minute drive. We pulled out our stove and cooked some dinner while we waited.

The tow truck driver arrived, hooked us up and off we went. Things got a little scary once we reached the top of the pass and started heading down the other side. The driver was young and didn't seem to really know what he was doing. I started to smell hot brakes and the driver said "are we almost to the bottom?" (we were only about a 1/4 of the way down) "I am using the brakes a lot, do you think I can shift into a lower gear or something to slow us down?" I told him that was probably a good idea and he figured out how to put it into 3rd. He must have still been on the brakes pretty heavily because a I could still smell them and a short while later the driver yelled "Oh shit!" and pulled over. He saw sparks in his mirror and assumed a chain was dragging. He got out and inspected but nothing was dragging. I guess he got the brakes hot enough they started to throw sparks. He got back in the truck and pulled out a fire extinguisher from behind the seat handing it to me saying "hold onto this just in case". After that he slowed down and there wasn't much eventful for the rest of the ride.

We celebrated New Years in the tow truck and he dropped us of in the NAPA parking lot around 12:30 or 1am. We made ourselves as comfortable as we could and slept the rest of the night in the Jeep.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 6 (New Years Day)

I woke up the next morning when NAPA opened and continued trying to troubleshoot. I had drained the battery the night before so took that into NAPA to charge. While I waited I bought spark plug socket and started checking those but didn't find anything abnormal.

Norelle spent the day pulling everything out of the XJ and reorganizing to pass the time.


Saphira spend the day getting some much needed rest.




I changed the fuel filter and bought some starting fluid to see if I could get it to run on that. It was at this point I learned a very valuable lesson. It is not a good idea to spray a bunch of starter fluid into your air box then try to start the engine. This is what I did and when the engine backfired it blew the top off the airbox breaking the portion with the metal clips that hold it together and caught on fire. Luckily I keep a fire extinguisher next to the drivers seat and I was able to grab that and put it out before anything but the intake got ruined.


At this point we had no air box but I thought maybe I could duct tape it together enough to drive if I was able to get the Jeep running. I bought some more ratchet extensions and a new CPS and tried to swap that out when I dropped one of the bolts into the bell housing.

At this point I had enough and decided to call it. I called my brother that lives in SLC and he was willing to rent a trailer and drive the 7+ hours to get us and bring us home. I figured maybe I could ask for 2 smaller favors instead of one big one and gave @kmboren a call. He was amazing and rearranged his schedule so he could leave right away and come get us and take us back to his house in Hurricane which was roughly half way back to SLC from where we were.

We cooked some dinner while we waited for Kevin to arrive and watched the sunset.

 

[Homefryy]

DAY 7

We spend the day relaxing at Kevin's waiting for my brother who had to work in the morning before he could leave to come get us. With everything arranged to get us home I had no desire to try to continue troubleshooting the XJ.

Saphire and Copper spent the day playing.




My brother arrived and we moved the XJ from Kevin's trailer to the Uhaul one and started our journey home. I was really impressed with how his GX470 towed although the smallish gas tank and horrible gas mileage meant multiple fuel stops were needed.


Finally we made it home and pushed the XJ off the trailer and into my garage.

 

[Homefryy]

Epilogue

With the XJ at home in the garage I continued my troubleshooting work.
I got a fuel pressure gauge and confirmed I had good fuel pressure.
I checked the compression and all cylinders were within spec.
I fished the CPS bolt our of the bell housing and got the new CPS installed.

Finally the one thing I should have checked right at the beginning but never thought to. I opened up the distributor and this is what I found.
The contacts on the rotor were busted off and the rotor was partially melted. One of the contacts in the distributor cap looked like it got a little extra metal welded to it.




I got a new rotor and distributor cap and the XJ fired right up.
After doing some research it seems that a failing coil can put out too much voltage and cause this to happen. I have a new coil ordered and on its way.

I am a bit annoyed that I trailered the XJ 7 hours home for a bad distributor but thanks to @kmboren and my brother's generosity it wasn't too bad of an experience. The trip to Death Valley far exceeded my expectations and I'm not going to let the issues at the end taint the memory.

Another positive is I had to head to the junkyard to get a new air box and found an OEM transfer case skid plate while I was there. I also found a rubber floor mat for the rear cargo area that I grabbed.

 

[Chicken Corners]

What a adventure, thanks for sharing. Lots of great pictures, but the dog sleeping in the back seat is the best.

 

[jackjoh]

DAY 3

We woke up in the morning and this is what we saw. The springs created an oasis where palm trees had been planted. This is the less pretty back side where the caretaker that lives there had a permanent camp set up.
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We asked around to find out exactly how far it was from the hot springs to the nearest gas station in Big Pine, evaluated how much gas we had left and decided to camp another night at the hot springs and just take a day trip out of the valley to Eureka Sand Dunes and back. At this point we had driven around 120 miles since our last gas stop. The trip to the sand dunes would be about 60 miles round trip but with the 9 extra gallons we were carrying we should be fine to still get to Big Pine the next day. We were told it was only about 30 miles to Big Pine but it turned out to be closer to 60.

The drive to the sand dunes took us up and over Steel Pass which was another rough road but definitely passable with a stock 4x4. The scenery in the pass was amazing.
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Coming down from the pass with the sand dunes in the distance.
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We made it to the dunes and hiked around them a bit. These are the tallest dunes in California at 700 feet tall. I climbed one of the shorter ones and it was a serious workout.

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We headed back to the hot springs and spent the rest of the night relaxing and soaking. Talking to other people at the springs we learned that many people were a bit stuck. There are not many ways in or out of Saline Valley. There is Lipencott road and Steel Pass that we had already driven but those required 4x4 and made for a very long drive before you got to a gas station. There are 2 ways out of the valley that can be driven in a sedan, the north pass (elevation over 7k feet) and the south pass (elevation over 6k feet) both of which were heavily snowed in. There were many people that drove in before the snow and didn't have a vehicle that could get them out.

This is the hot springs where we saw the Manson Family bathing nude. I am surprised you got as far as you did in the snow at Cerro Gordo mine and the hotel was also the cat house.

 

[Homefryy]

This is the hot springs where we saw the Manson Family bathing nude.

You gotta give us more info than that!