Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

There is an area within Death Valley NP called The Racetrack. It’s an old lake bed, long ago dried up, that has large rocks scattered around its surface. A phenomenon occurs there where the rocks slide in various directions around the mud, leaving a groove behind them (no one has ever seen it actually happen – the prevailing theory is that rains wet the dried mud and then strong winds move the rocks). Many people have seen pictures of this area without knowing its name. Click here for a good example by Phil Kember who runs Death Valley Photo (I took a workshop from Phil 4 years ago that was excellent). It’s called the Racetrack as a small joke because sometimes it looks like the rocks are “racing” each other.

I didn’t get a chance to photograph the Racetrack last time I was here because it’s away from the commonly visited part of the park and takes a long time to get to on a really bad road that’s 27 miles long. Meredith and I had originally planned to spend only two nights in Death Valley but we added a third to allow time to be at the Racetrack by sunset one day.

There’s plenty to read about the road to the Racetrack. Horror stories about the rutted, washboarded roads with rocks so sharp they slice the sidewalls of your tires. People getting stranded out there without enough water to last the night and trying to walk back in the heat. Some people have died trying to drive a regular 2-wheel-drive sedan out there. And so on. I decided to take the democratic approach so I stopped into 3 different ranger stations to get their respective opinions on the road conditions and whether I should attempt it in our rental SUV. One said I’d be ok but to be careful and allow 3 hours of driving each way. The second tried to talk me out of it as much as she could. At this point though, I was pretty convinced I was going to attempt it in spite of the warnings. We had tons of provisions and I was comfortable with the driving. I just wasn’t sure if our car was up to it. The third ranger was the most helpful with advice. She said I’d have no problem if I went really slowly but since the odds were good that I might get a flat, I should first make sure that I had a full-size spare – not one of those doughnut spares many cars have. Fair enough. I decided that would be the deciding factor. If we had a doughnut spare, we wouldn’t go.

We drove to the parking lot closest to the start of the road to the Racetrack. As we parked, we noticed a car up on jacks with a wheel missing. There was a guy on a lawn chair sitting in the car’s shadow. I wandered over and asked if everything was ok. He said he was fine and that he was waiting for his friend. Long story short: he and a friend drove back from the Racetrack that morning and he got two flats along the way. His friend was off in another car getting those tires repaired. Hmmm, this did not bode well at all.

I went back to our SUV and looked underneath to see what size spare we had. It was a doughnut spare. We turned around and left. Next time, I’ll rent a Hummer.

The guy in the parking lot waiting for his friend to return. Notice the missing front right tire and the doughnut spare on the right rear.

– Dave