Thanks to Cesar Chavez and a beautiful sunny day I found myself rolling out of Victorville on a Thursday at the end of March with my buddy Joe riding his Buell Ulysses. I'd been planning on riding through Death Valley for years but it just never materialized. I pictured miles and miles of boring desert but this was not the case, between the wild burros, the sand dunes, the salt flats and the natural rock sculptures Death Valley is constantly entertaining.

Out of Victorville heading north on CA-395 in light traffic until Red Mountain where we took Trona rd toward Trona.  I wasn't expecting much at this point of our Journey and was just blown away by all of the yellow flowers that covered the desert floor and the beautiful desert vistas that unfolded at the crest of each hill.  Trona rd. merged with CA-178 and continued to surprise me as it cut through a canyon with some fun sweepers.  We rolled into Trona a little ahead of schedule to find the only open gas station in town was out of gas, this forced us to back track to Ridgecrest to fuel up.  After topping the tank we rolled back through Trona this time behind schedule.

Following CA-178 toward Death Valley it wasn't long before the ride started to get fun again as we climbed over a small mountain twisted our way down the other side on a red road covered in loose rocks.  Shortly after reaching the valley floor we came upon a small herd of wild burros grazing by the side of the road. Continuing through the desert on Wildrose rd to the foot of the mountains which is where the ride really got fun, the road deteriorated with huge pot holes and vanished into gravel altogether at a few spots as it twisted it's way up into the mountains. It was a very serene ride with trees overhead and water crossings that ended all to soon as we pulled into a campground and the road once again became well maintained.

After a quick break at an unidentified campground we continued on Wildrose rd which now entertained us with some excellent twisties, the fun was somewhat dampened by the gravel which seemed strategically strewn at the apex of each corner. Any feeling of isolation quickly disappeared at this point as we began seeing more and more fellow bikers and tourists locked in there cages.  Wildrose rd continued on with excellent scenery of impossible rock formations and views that went on forever.

All good things must come to an end and Wildrose ended at CA-190 a very well maintained road that takes you through Stovepipe wells past some interesting landmarks like sand dunes and the devils something or other. We stopped at the old Borax Mill before rolling into Furnace Creek and eating overpriced food with the rest of the tourists and there were a lot of them by the way.  If you're heading to Death Valley to get away from people I'd avoid CA-190 altogether.  The temperature hit the highest as we descended below sea level and the shiver reported 96 degrees.

Following our lunch we headed down Badwater rd, riding along the edge of some ancient lake now just a glaring white flat.  The further south we went the more fun Badwater road became, sweeper after sweeper as it hugged the foothills. We came upon a lone coyote standing in the road, he looked expectantly at me as I took his picture.  We left the lake edge and headed back up into the mountains, watch out for some surprisingly tight corners here. Through Jubilee pass and we stopped by the Welcome to Death Valley signed and chatted with a rather calm lunatic who'd ridden his bike from Pahrump and was on his way to die slowly in the desert from what I gathered.

A short ride to Shoshone for fuel and the ride was really over at this point, from here to Baker it was a rather bland ride past Dumont dunes. We fueled up for the last time in Baker and blasted down I-15 to Victorville.  All in all a great ride. The longest ride I've done distance wise at 473.5 miles, but not the longest time wise at an average of 63 MPH we only had 7 hours of saddle time.