Panamint Mountains (long)
08-01-2004, 11:16 PM
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Panamint Mountains (long)
<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/72509/mahog_car_4.jpg"></center><p>Finished an interesting vacation going from SF bay area to Arizona a couple of weeks ago. Tons of fun over Sonora Pass at about 10000'. Turbos behaved as reported - noticable lag but loads of power. Scared the **** out of a guy in a big SUV - I was passing a pickup and apparently the oncoming SUV didn't think there was enough space left for me to get back in my lane (projecting his own sluggish performance, I think...). He seemed to have plenty of time to get his left hand out of the window and flip me off before we passed, though - ha!
First stop was Red's meadow at Devil's Postpile Nat Monument, around 7000', rough but decent road, mostly paved.
Second, stop, really interesting and worthwhile. Mahogany Flat in the Panamint Mountains, directly above Death Valley. Spectacular drive up dry washes alongside Telescope Peak (11,000'). Good paved road, then pretty bad gravel road for a few miles, then two miles of "high clearance fwd" road per park service info. This was the type of road you don't want to exceed a couple of MPH on - full of washouts and potholes, big rocks, etc. The campground is at 8100'. Note the car is parked pointing downhill. If you took the parking brake off and let it roll, you would end up at the bottom of Death Valley, about 1 1/2 miles nearly straight down. That's the bottom of the valley, to the left of the car. Not another soul for 20 miles.
The car performed flawlessly -200 feet below sea level to over 10,000', cool high altitude to 120+ in the low desert.
I'm delighted the car can do all of this - but it made me think that if I was really serious about offroading, I'd want a simple, big a** 4x4, the kind of rig I cuss at on the freeway, something I could rally bang around and not worry about getting home in (i.e. dying in the desert).
The Allroad is a fantastic car, but I woke up about 6:00 AM thinking about my contingency plan if I couldn't drive out - which would mean a 20 mile hike back to the main road...
First stop was Red's meadow at Devil's Postpile Nat Monument, around 7000', rough but decent road, mostly paved.
Second, stop, really interesting and worthwhile. Mahogany Flat in the Panamint Mountains, directly above Death Valley. Spectacular drive up dry washes alongside Telescope Peak (11,000'). Good paved road, then pretty bad gravel road for a few miles, then two miles of "high clearance fwd" road per park service info. This was the type of road you don't want to exceed a couple of MPH on - full of washouts and potholes, big rocks, etc. The campground is at 8100'. Note the car is parked pointing downhill. If you took the parking brake off and let it roll, you would end up at the bottom of Death Valley, about 1 1/2 miles nearly straight down. That's the bottom of the valley, to the left of the car. Not another soul for 20 miles.
The car performed flawlessly -200 feet below sea level to over 10,000', cool high altitude to 120+ in the low desert.
I'm delighted the car can do all of this - but it made me think that if I was really serious about offroading, I'd want a simple, big a** 4x4, the kind of rig I cuss at on the freeway, something I could rally bang around and not worry about getting home in (i.e. dying in the desert).
The Allroad is a fantastic car, but I woke up about 6:00 AM thinking about my contingency plan if I couldn't drive out - which would mean a 20 mile hike back to the main road...
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