Death Valley Ride Report
Oh man, I stopped checking in here as other matters came up and I was doing some last minute planning and sorry I missed anyone who wanted to join us. We left on the 14th in a three rider group, all riding Harleys from Sacramento and meeting the third rider in Tehachapi on the first layover night. A couple months prior to the ride I was obsessed with the weather forecasting because as anyone knows you have to go over a mountain range during winter to get to the nice desert conditions. We also know the mountain conditions can change quickly so I didn't put to much into what the weather people were saying that far out, but as we got closer I became a little more paranoid and that was due to the fact when I planned this last year we were rained out and had to cancel. But luck was with us this time and a couple weeks prior the weather patterns became increasingly better and more importantly, consistent. No rain, partly cloudy sometimes, but it turned out to be beautiful with clear skies in the valley in the low 70s both days we were riding. You couldn't ask for better riding conditions and strangely enough, the valley was void of a lot of people as I have seen travel videos and it was typical to see a lot of people and a fair share of cars parked alongside the valley roads. We had none of that and I can only speculate it was because we left on Valentine's Day so maybe people are in a different mood that day so if you are planning a Death Valley trip, go on Valentine's Day!
One of my biggest motivators for going was to ride out from Beatty, Nv and find a place to take some 15-second images of the Milky Way. As I said, not only did we have clear skies, but I planned this trip to fall on a new moon, no moon to ruin the glory and brightness of the Milky Way. However, we kind of got started late heading to Beatty from the Valley and our tour guide took a wrong turn and consequently we got stuck riding at night and that is when we experienced how fast the temperature drops in the desert. I could only put up with so much of this so I hammered the throttle to take over the lead in order to find a place to pull over and change to cold weather gear, but if any of you have tried to do this on those roads, there aren't many opportunities to pull over because of a sloping away gravel shoulder. After what seemed like forever we ran into a small development and put on all the cold weather stuff and continued on to Beatty.
By the time we got to the "Atomic Inn", I'll just say don't stay there, it's a dump, but cheap. We had dinner at the VFW and that was fantastic, so eat there. We were fortunate to have in the group one of my retired LEO friends who early in his career worked as a Police Officer in Bear Valley Springs, Tehachapi PD and then Kern County SO. He served well as our tour guide and I'm so glad he knew the area well and took us on some more scenic alternate routes. I had hammered into my head some proposed routes, but when you start riding around down there the scale of bigness can be confusing and I'm sure we would have taken more wrong turns, but that's part of the fun exploring new places, right?
We hit some of the iconic stops like Artist Trail, Bad Water, Dunes and other places, but looking back we were somewhat hampered from doing some trail walking by our riding gear and the fact we didn't want to leave our bikes unattended, especially me with my photo equipment on board. I did have some opportunities to take pictures, they were simply auto mode, nothing special because in a group motorcycle ride you are more in a rush state of mind dictated by the other riders so if I were to go there with the purpose of taking more interesting photos and to explore some trails, I would go in a car. You have to allow for constantly removing and putting on gear at more frequent rest stops, but all of that is manageable and nothing like riding around those valley roads on a bike, you have to do that at least once, maybe twice. What Scott and others are planning is another level of adventure and if I had a dual sports bike I wouldn't hesitate, I would go.
I think what I got the most out of Death Valley besides its fascinating history, but the geology is mind-blowing. For the soul, the solitude and vastness was a welcome respite from everyday living in chaos in terms of population, thrashy developments, noise, and traffic congestion. If anyone wanted to get away from all this Death Valley is the destination point for all of the above and certainly can be said to be a vehicle to connect you with the natural world. Some might just say it's just a desert without one tree for a hundred miles, but once there some new emotions overcome you by what you bring in through your senses. If none of this excites you, then you need to try again sometime in the far future.
That is unless what we see of our National Parks and monuments today aren't stripped and gutted like no time in the history of our country by political forces driven by greed and power. 25 of these natural places are currently under unprecedented consideration for change despite the vast majority of citizens wanting them left untouched. Already our rabid congressman carpet bagger from my district is planting seeds about "modernizing" Yosemite Valley, code talk for commercialization and privatization. We must resist these forces anywhere we can. With all this going on I know our dear President Teddy Roosevelt is probably rolling over in his grave as many of the National Parks were instituted by him. Despite what a group of ulterior motive politicians say, the National Park System brings in a lot of revenue and by the recent unjustified raising entrance fees too high levels is merely a plan to reduce visitation, so down the road they will come back with the scam the parks are dying and they have no choice but to turn over operations to private entities who will engineer methods to increase revenue. The same storyline they are using to gut Social Security and Medicare, "the deficit is so big now we have no choice but to reduce entitlement spending, especially after funding the Wall and infrastructure (states are bearing the burden)".
I absolutely saw no need to do anything to Death Valley National Park. It is in the most natural state with nice roads to accommodate those who want to visit and share experiences with friends and family. Leave it the fuck alone.
I'll certainly return, but after the riding experience, next time I want to ride in atop a Honda Goldwing or something comparable and not a Harley Road King. It tolerated the ride OK, could be much better, but it is what it is, a day tripper and weekend casual ride with a nice sounding exhaust. One of my buddies was worst off on a Softail, he thought he was beaten to death by wind blast, vibration and lack of things to make the long portions more tolerable. In the beginning of the ride he said he was going to trade it in for a Road King, at the end of the ride and days afterward that notion has now changed to looking at GoldWings. I never thought I would ever consider one, but at one time I never thought I would consider a Harley, never say never. BTW, someone here mentioned he was on a Goldwing group ride and we did stop at Stovepipe Wells and there was a group of Goldwings and riders there parked next to the gas pump parking area. We admired the bikes and noted one pulling a bullet looking trailer. This overlooked an RV and camping spot, Scott, looks like where you guys will be staying next month? Stovepipe Wells resort is noted for being dark sky friendly, hosting some astronomy events and cooperating with dark sky friendly lighting. Despite the higher cost to stay there, I'm going to book a room for a night or two anyway in the future just to have a decent place to set-up for some dark sky imaging. When we were riding at night to Beatty,Nv I had the opportunity to look up in a few places and couldn't believe my eyes, the Milky Way was ablaze overhead, but by the time we got to our motel I was in no mood to go out alone and find a spot somewhere when the temps were getting down into the 30s. I figured even before the trip I would have to ride out north on 95 about twenty miles to escape the light pollution from Beatty, didn't think that would be a big deal, but it turned out it was. If I were in a car no problem.
Sorry for injecting politics into this ride report, but there are things looming that will affect our freedom to explore our public lands and National Parks, it must be stopped and not handed over to the power elite. I'll post some pictures I took later.
