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Warm Springs Road - Death Valley

5/5 (6 reviews)
Furnace Creek, California (Inyo County)
Last Updated: 10/21/2022

Trail Information

Highlights

When thinking overland, there is nothing more exciting and scary sounding than the words, "Death Valley." This is only a couple of the reasons Warm Springs Road makes many different top 5 or top 10 offroad / overland trails lists. That is, Death Valley National Park might just be one of the best overland and 4x4 trips in all of California and possibly the United States. This unique off-road trip takes you down the historic and scenic backcountry of what might be one of the worlds most famous locations. Along this offroad trail, you will come across many abandoned mines, abandoned cabins, trickling streams, and even water crossings. Did we mention an abandoned swimming pool? Yes, that is right, a swimming pool in Death Valley. Warm Springs trail itself is rather tame and easy to navigate for even the newest of offroad drivers. The trail is perfect for stock Toyota 4Runners, Tacoma's, Jeep Wranglers, and pickup trucks. But if you would like to make this trip into an exciting camping and overland trip, many offroad enthusiasts take this Jeep Trail all the way through the mountain range to Panamint Valley. To do this you take Warm Springs, to Butte Valley, then continue through Mengal Pass, to Goler Wash stopping at the Barker Ranch aka Manson Ranch, and dropping to Panamint Valley. Please note, the trail through Mengal Pass is much more difficult then Warm Springs Road. Stock vehicles are still capable of completing Mengel Pass but might need spotting or rock stacking to complete the trail. More equipped vehicles like the Jeep Rubicon, Toyota's TRD platform and P/U's like the Colorado ZR2 will be better suited for that section of the adventure. If you plan on this extended overland trip, plan this over a weekend because this trip takes about 2 days with all the scenic and historic stops along the trail. There is ample dispersed camping along the route and which the abandon cabins make for an awesome night of camping. Thus, when planning your next epic off-road vacation, think nothing less then Warm Springs Road / Canyon because this 4wd enthusiast overland trip is something everyone should experience at least once in their life.

Trail Difficulty and Assessment

Trail Navigation

Trail Reviews

5/5 (6 reviews)
Official Crew
106150
Partially Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 11/15/2022
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

The trail is partially open meaning you can enter or possibly exit from the west side.
1200
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 05/21/2021
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Great trail it was alot of fun and had great views. Saw lots of burros, and very little trail traffic.
700
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 01/14/2021

Beautiful trail, needs to take it slow and enjoy the view. 5000ft elevation gain from the bottom of the death valley to the Striped Butte. The road gets very rocky/bumpy in between Warm Spring Camp to the Butte, air down and rugged at/mt tires are a must. Any stock height 4x4 with Lo and proper at/mt tires should be able to finish the trail with no problem, awd crossovers need heavy modification for this trail.
2200
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 12/07/2020
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

This trail is a great trail, but the real prize is stopping and/or camping at the warm springs resort, the warm spring itself, and the Talc Mine... we lucked out and the mine was open for us to explore!! Awesome!! The video below has the 2nd half of the trail and the morning after w/ the exploration of the mine. The video before that one was the 1st half of the trail and the hot spring which was amazingly awesome. Check it out: https://youtu.be/FdXhvWzr5PE
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 02/25/2020

What a great trail. You could easily spend all day exploring everything it has to offer. We came down the trail in the morning after camping in Butte valley. I'd say if West Side Road is rated 1-2 and Echo Canyon 3-4, this should be somewhere in the middle. Easily done with a stock high clearance vehicle. Nothing challenging but enough wash outs, ruts and rocks that I wouldn't take an AWD vehicle on it.

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