Down the Waterfall

Story & Photos by Denis & Sandi Inman

Sunday, January 20th, we had a quick Driver’s Meeting at the Horizon Market at 7:50 AM and then our procession of 5 Jeep Wranglers and a Suzuki Samurai headed for Longstreet Inn Casino & RV Resort for a nature break. Moving on, we arrived at Martell Market in Amargosa Valley to air down and for a last facilities stop before entering the wilderness. Participating in our adventure were myself, Jeremy, Steve & Mary (& dogs), Don, Dave, and with Gary & Sherry taking the Tail Gunner’s position.

We didn’t stay long and were soon on the trail heading towards Death Valley National Park. The group stopped at a USGS Seismographic Monitoring Station for a chance to stretch our legs and subsequently moved on. We later came across an old miner’s cabin with a Geocache container that had not been touched since Ed and I were there two years before.

When our caravan arrived at the trail feature our club calls the Waterfall, we found a small group struggling to get up it. We parked in order to provide room for them to get by and walked up to take photos. When they had completed their ascent, we made our way down. After everyone had successfully descended the obstacle, Steve found some fluids dripping from the front of his Jeep. We were pretty certain it was just the radiator overflow and kept an eye on it.

Lunch was at the Inyo Mine. Jeremy and Dave hiked all over the site until we had to call them back in order to continue on. We made another stop at the Needle’s Eye rock formation for photos. After airing up at the highway near Zabriski Point, we headed back to Pahrump arriving at about 3:00 PM. Personally, I can hardly wait until the PV4W makes a run Up the Waterfall. Since everyone made it through with nothing more than some small dents and scratches, I think we can consider this a successful trip.