Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego
Panamint City
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Brian Posts: 221
3/28/2024
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Not Anza Borrego, but I thought this trip report would still fit here.
I did a quick trip to Panamint City (Death Valley National Park) last week. Managed to get a weather window where the bottom of the hike was low 80s and the top was 60s in the day / 40s at night. Just a couple days later on the weekend, the forecast was for lows in the 20s. Glad I wasn't around for that.
This was my first time doing this hike after thinking about it for years. All of the challenges which I anticipated were there but not as bad as I feared. The road to the trailhead did have some spots that were marginal for a Subaru, but I still made it to the end. The parts where you have to walk in the stream and climb wet waterfalls were manageable. There is 3600' of gain, but that was also manageable. There was some minor bushwhacking.
The part I didn't expect - and my least favorite part of the hike - was that the last few miles which I anticipated would be on the former road often ended up in a dry rocky creek bed instead. That made for slow going and foot pain.
This used to be a road until it was washed out in 1983
Some trucks didn't make it out before the road turned into a waterfall
One of the better sections of the dry portion of the hike, after the initial 3 miles of jungly conditions
A couple views of the iconic smelter
the "Panamint Hilton"
leftover equipment from the mining days
my accommodation for the night and town overview
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+3
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surfponto Administrator Posts: 1362
21 days ago
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Really nice pictures, looks like a great trip 👍
Love the picture of the old diesel motor but I am a bit biased since we drive two diesels 😉
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https://www.anzaborrego.net/
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
16 days ago
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Nice trip, Brian! A quote from the NPS site: "Panamint City was called the toughest, rawest, most hard-boiled little hellhole that ever passed for a civilized town. Its founders were outlaws..." 
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+1
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deborah Posts: 115
11 days ago
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Great trip report! Love the pictures. I've only done a little exploring in Death Valley, and that was a long time ago. On one trip I did a really pleasant hike up to Telescope Peak. It was blazing hot on the desert floor, but the temps on the hike were great because of the elevation. This is a good reminder for me to get back out there. So much I haven't seen yet. Thanks for sharing!
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+1
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