I decided to add a little commentary on the above post. For the photos, see above.
They were taken on the blue road track seen on the .kmz file.
Back in March we were in Death Valley in a area called Lee Flat. It’s far enough off the road that the Park Service doesn’t pave it. I think that the unofficial policy is that if the road in is rough enough, that will keep out the casual tourist. Some of these areas are not for everyone. It appeared to be working. It was rough in spots but we didn’t go that far in, about 10 miles. See the yellow road track on the .kmz file.
South west of where I live, close to Joshua Tree National Forest, there is a place called Cima Dome that has one of the densest groves of Joshua Trees in the world. Lee Flat is another grove that is close behind.
You don’t see many regular park visitors on these roads so the roads tend to be quiet. We saw about 3-4 SUV’s loaded up and headed into the
Saline Valley wilderness. The road to Lee Flat is the southern route into
Saline Valley Hot Springs. This is getting into one of the areas of the park that few people go to.
It’s even more quiet than Pinto Valley near home. We were there a couple hours. I was carnuding and got out for a walk on the road in the desert. Nice!
Duane