What a Trip 2024 V2R. Pit 5 in Goldfield, Nv. 200+ dirt miles after back home

[WW_RANGER_X]

It all started a few months ago when a couple of my Raptor buddies asked if I wanted to volunteer with them for BITD to work this year’s Vegas to Reno race, then hit 200+ dirt miles on our way back home after the race. I tried as hard as I could financially to make this happen and I’m so glad I did. Bucket list trip for me!

Let’s start with getting to the race and the race itself.

Us 3 gen1 raptor guys met up in Bakersfield on Thursday morning. The plan started with heading to Ridgecrest for some tacos at a really good taco trailer where another friend was going to meet and tag along with us in his Jeep JK.



After some great tacos we pressed on to the Trona Pinnacles. End goal for this day was arriving in Goldfield NV by the end of the night, with a few cool desert stops along the way.








After the Pinnacles we passed through the town of Trona and made our way to Ballarat ghost town.

















From there we hit dirt for about 10 miles where we met back up with Trona road again heading to the 190 towards Death Valley.





Check that temp.





I’ll continue to update this. I’m doing this from my phone and I don’t want to lose what I’ve already started for any reason.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

From the 190 through Death Valley National Park we hit Daylight Pass road (highway 374) crossing state line into Nevada to the ghost town of Rhyolite.















They gave that girl a dump truck lol.







From there we headed into Beatty NV and had some amazing BBQ at Smokin’ J’s



We pressed on to our pit location in Goldfield, NV

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Arrived in Goldfield around 8pm to get ready for a very busy next day (race day).







Race day!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

I wasn’t able to get much pics/video during the race since my job for the day was to write down every race vehicle number and time they passed through our pit. I logged 203 race vehicles from 9am to 8pm.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Saturday morning came and the race is over. Now it’s time to hit dirt and have some more fun!

First stop on our way back to CA was the International Car Forest.















To be continued…

 

[Klever]

Heck yeah! I was going to ask if it was hot as balls....then I saw your rearview mirror 115 LOL

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

From the car forest we hit highway 95 south and jumped on dirt shortly after that to cut out a chuck of pavement that led us to the 266 west bound. Super fun and fast road. Long rollers, big sweeping turns. Average speed was 70-80 mph.







After some road miles we finally made it to highway 168 and crossed back into California. We hit dirt south which dropped us deep into Death Valley. We found a sulfur mine along the way.













Next stop was Crankshaft Crossing. Not much to see here to be honest lol.




Headed south down Death Valley road and stopped at Ubehebe Crater. It was so fucking windy everyone was getting sand blasted so that stop was short lived.



Tourists doing tourists things



We pressed on to Teakettle Junction. The road was a fast but rough road. I was glad to see the teakettle sign in the distance because I was rattled to death lol.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

This next section was the funnest (for me). We headed south east up and over Hunter Mountain. Smooth road yet tight and a little technical. Got us up into the trees at I believe 7000 feet in elevation. Dropped back down to Saline Valley Rd.















Next stop was Box Car Cabin. It’s funny, I felt a little at home here knowing we were just here a few months ago on our Lonely Pinos trip. Was cool to see my son’s art he left.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Heck yeah! I was going to ask if it was hot as balls....then I saw your rearview mirror 115 LOL

At our pit it in Goldfield it was in the mid 90s. It was actually not that bad. That 115 was climbing highway 190 in Death Valley. That climb is no joke. Truck was getting pretty hot.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

After Box Car Cabin we hit highway 190 then climbed our way up to Cerro Gordo. When we passed through in April “tours” were closed. I was glad to see it open this time. I believe we went up the wrong direction (same as we did in April). Tons of on coming traffic and people giving us dirty looks. I do know there is another route up there. There are spots where it would be impossible to pass. I’m so glad we had all our oncoming traffic towards the bottom of the hill. It’s really steep and narrow towards the top.



















We were all getting a pretty hungry so we B lined down the hill and into Lone Pine where we had Pizza. After dinner a couple of the guys split which left us with 4 trucks total. Last spot of the trip before camp was Reward Mine. This place was insane. It was such a long day I chickened out on driving through the whole thing. So I backed in to get some pics like a poser lol. Still cool. If someone doesn’t know about this place, it’s an old mine that you can drive about a quarter of a mile into the mountain. There is room to turn around at the very end. Looking back, I kick my self in the ass for not going all the way down but I promise I’ll do it next time. I know my son would get a kick out of it. The climb up was a little tough. 4wd would be recommended if you ask me. You may be able to do it in 2wd with a locker.

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

At this point in the day we were at 260 miles. I would say 60 of those miles were highway. I was beat. Last stop was camp in Alabama hills. I’ll say I was glad to be there lol. Total round trip for me was 966 miles and 78 gallons of fuel. I know other guys were way over 1k depending on where they lived. It was a very eventful 4 days. Now it’s time to clean, fix and prep for the next one!

















Good times!

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Cool drone shots that @Dezertnut got of the trucks at the Trona Pinnacles.

 

[SByota]

Looks like an awesome time and trip!

 

[exp24]

Cool trip write up!

 

[dontcallitredraptor]

We were happy you were able to make the trip! Thank you for taking so many great pictures and for making sure us Gen 1 guys had good functioning shocks hahaha. For anyone reading this, we volunteer to work this race every year. Anyone with a cool attitude and a vehicle that can make the trip is welcome!

 

[desert_steve]

Looked like a rad trip, thanks for the write-up!

(also, a locked 2wd can make it up to the reward mine. My 2wd shitbox has done it lots of times haha)

 

[dontcallitredraptor]

I’ve done it in an open diff 2wd Ranger a few times but to be fair it was NEVER as bad as it is now. I think the rains have really washed out that road. There are a lot of big rocks to navigate now. Still something I’m sure a 2wd can get done, but it’s definitely not as easy as it used to be.

 

[Raceranger97]

Looks like a blast!

 

[HarrisConcepts]

Very cool! Nice write up!

 

[dwphoto]