It's coincidental that just yesterday I finished reading California Desert Trails (1919), written by Joseph Smeaton Chase, and in the Appendix he provides some "Hints on Desert Travelling", primarily:
"With some persons, however, the faculty of getting lost amounts to genius. They are able to accomplish it wherever they are. The only suitable advice for them is to keep out of the desert. There are safer places in which to exercise their talent."
Michael E. Gordon
http://www.michael-gordon.com
Jim have you checked out the southern portion of the park? I live just south of Jubilee Road about 8 miles from the southern entrance. I rarely see anyone in that area of the park. Last spring I made many trips there and counted one tourist. The Confidence Hills, west of Harry Wade Road, are similar to Zabriskie, and further south are Ibex Dunes which has low visitation. These places are well worth a visit, particularly if you want to get away from the crowds.Originally Posted by Jim Galli
Fortunately there are true Wilderness areas that don't have cell phone towers, nor roads. You can't get your vehicle stuck in a Wilderness, because you can't have a vehicle. You walk in, you walk out, you better know what you are doing.
I wish more of the great areas in the Southwest had become designated Wilderness, like Ed Abby and Aldo Leopold wanted, instead of the drive up windows they've become. You walk in for 6 or 8 hours, you usually don't encounter anyone, much less anyone with a working cell phone. Of course, LF photography in such places is a pain.
Garrett
flickr galleries
Damndest thing is you can be standing at a high point and have several bars signal strength on your cell phone, twenty-five miles from a tower, yet not be able to connect due to distance/ping timing restrictions on the 3G/CDMA protocol.
So the sense that a cell phone offers any reliable or addtional security in the backcountry is pretty much a fiction, ever since the networks have gone 2nd generation digital.
Paul, evidently you are not familiar with Tread Lightly. Nor are you aware that off-roading groups only use legal roads and are against driving on or across areas that are not designated a legal roads.
I have never widened a trail because I could not get past an obstacle nor have I ever driven where a trail did not exist. I'll bet you have hiked of a trail and destroyed crytobiotic soil while hiking with the Sierra Club.
Steve
Nothing beats a great piece of glass!
I leave the digital work for the urologists and proctologists.
Roads being legal or not has nothing to do with it. Like goamules said:
Irresponsibility is wrong whether it is driving off designated trails or walking/hiking on crytobiotic soil. Both cases are examples of being where one is not supposed to be.
Nothing beats a great piece of glass!
I leave the digital work for the urologists and proctologists.
Paul,
The problems with cell phones is rooted in a different landscape, a social and experiential one.
Why shouldn't/wouldn't/couldn't the principle of wilderness be applied in that sense too?
A lack of cell coverage in Death Valley does not limit anyone's physical access to Death Valley, it's only a social limit.
You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~ Mark Twain
Just paint em in Earth Tones and stop bellyaching about them, all these treehuggers waste so much energy yakking about a non-issue, they just want their own private elite wilderness experience no matter how many people die. That seems more immoral to me.
Just like all those poor loggers put out of work because of a freaking owl. Ridiculous. Maybe their families can eat owls before they have to go on Food Stamps.
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