Spangler Hills to Death Valley 1/28/22 through 1/30/22

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After a short stint on tarmac in DV I was back on dirt on the West Side Road.

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The best route to Goler Wash is via West Side Road to Warm Springs Road. However, I explored a short cut to Butte Valley Road, which I picked up off the trail to the Queen of Sheba Mine.

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Shortly after turning onto Butte Valley Road I got a front flat.

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The section of Butte Valley Road from Queen of Sheba Mine to the Warm Springs Canyon Trail is a five mile rock garden. I don’t recommend it – take the long way around on West Valley Road to Warm Springs Canyon Road. The pic does not show the harder parts – rock filled gullies on the trail. Oh well, it was worth a try, ha.

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Here is a pic of an abandoned mine near Gold Hill on Warm Springs Canyon Road.

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The best preserved mining camp is probably at the gold mill near Warm Springs Camp.

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I reached the Geologist’s Cabin pretty quickly. The cabin was built in 1930 and is in great condition. When I got there a family from Utah was setting up to spend the night there. It took them all day to drive from Warm Springs camp to the cabin. I think it took about 45 minutes on the bike? You can see Striped Butte and a couple of wild burros in the photo.

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The view east from the Geologist’s cabin over Butte Valley is fantastic.

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The ride over the summit of Butte Canyon and into Goler Wash was fun and a little technical. I rode through here in 2019 and the trail was noticeably worse than 3 than years ago – probably due to jeep traffic. I wouldn’t recommend going through here on a big bike unless you are an advanced rider. Here is a pic of a sunlit face on the west side of Goler Wash.

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There are many abandoned mining sites along this route. Here is the Keystone Mine Camp:

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The canyon narrows toward the base of Goler Wash. Lots of big boulders appear to be precariously held into gullies in the walls.

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I returned to Spangler Hills via Ballarat, just making it to camp at sundown. I didn’t have time to explore Ballarat, but the roadside plaque indicates it was a pretty big deal back in its day.

Overall, this was a fun ride. I think next winter I might come back here. Next time I’d probably stay in a hotel in Ridgecrest and do more riding in Spangler Hills – the OHV area is only about 20 minutes from town.

I previously posted some GPX files for DV in the Club Rides forum that include the 5 mile rock garden. I’ll update those, removing the bad parts, and re-post them.

Thanks for checking out my RR!

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