Death Valley 2
February 22nd to 25th
Mike had the Death Velly trip divided into geoups. Group 4 did not like the weather forcast so they delayed the trip until Sunday February 22nd.
In the group were:
Patrick Stirling and Janet Zampieri -Organizer
Jim Rizzi
Jeff Beatrice
Paul Keffer
Reed Bullock
SEAT Death Valley Ride 2, Feb 22-25 2026 Most of my Group 4 and three riders from other groups decided to postpone the Death Valley ride due to the weather – freezing temperatures and storms predicted. And for me at least it was the right choice; we had great weather for the entire ride, lows in the 40s and highs in the low 70s, perfect riding weather!
Six riders and a passenger (my wife) met at the usual spot, the Maverik gas station on Tangerine just off I10 on Sunday Feb 22nd. We took the frontage road up I10 to north of Picacho, much better than the freeway. No routing needed, it merges onto the freeway just south of Eloy. This trip begins and ends with my least favorite part of the routing: I10 and I8 to Gila Bend, just over 100 miles of boredom. Gassed and Coffeed up at the Pilot travel stop, then on up Old Highway 80 and over the historic Gillespie Dam bridge, a lovely old cast iron structure. Oatman is the highlight of Day 1, and this year I wanted to approach it on route 66 from the East, so instead of the more usual route through Salome and Parker we continued north on Vulture Mine Rd up to Wickenburg, scenic with fast sweepers but a 45mph limit. We picked up our seventh rider at the Mobil where Vulture Mine meets highway 93 and continued on up 93 to I40. Gassed up at DW Ranch Rd and took it and Hualapai Mountain Rd over to Kingman, highly recommended! We rode 66 from Kingman to Oatman, a lovely mountainous, twisty road, but not very well maintained these days so you have to pay attention. The road takes you up and over Sitgreaves pass, great views in both directions, then steep hairpins with generous gravel down to Oatman. You can feed the burros here, and grab a drink or bite at the Oatman Saloon, which is thickly wallpapered with dollar bills. From there it’s 30 miles or so to Laughlin. We stayed at the Aquarius instead of the Edgewater, and I must say I prefer the Edgewater! Easier parking and the hotel is more compact. Plus you can take the river walk over to the Outback Steakhouse in the Aquarius. On the other hand, the rooms in the Aquarius have better views; we paid a whole $6 extra for a “panoramic” room, floor to ceiling windows with great views of both the river and mountains. We got to the hotel around 4:30, helped by gaining an hour as it’s in Nevada. We had the traditional SEAT dinner at the Outback Steakhouse (really good steak), and thanks to SEAT for picking up the first round! Daily miles from Tucson 392.
Day 2 we headed to Death Valley via Baker and Shoshone. We avoided I15 and took the more scenic route via Kelso with a stop at the old train depot there. The town existed only for the trains; they kept extra engines there to help the steam locomotives up the steep (for a train) grades nearby. Once more powerful diesel trains came in, the town died. It’s just a few buildings now, including the historic depot itself. We had a bit of an incident just outside Baker, as you approach the freeway there’s a stop sign that appears suddenly after a bend in the road and a cattle guard. I was caught by surprise and couldn’t quite stop in time – there was gravel and my ABS kicked in (or I’d have gone down) and I rolled into the junction. Luckily the car stopped there saw me and waited until I was clear. Phew. However another of us was also caught by surprise and couldn’t quite avoid clipping the rider ahead who had stopped at the sign. The dreaded domino effect caused 3 bikes to tip over. No-one was hurt, but 2 bikes’ panniers were damaged. One of the bikes was an R1300GS with fall detection, and the dash wouldn’t stop flashing “SOS” in huge letters. It eventually stopped, and I discovered afterwards that BMW had contacted us via the bike but we couldn’t hear them as we all had helmets and comms. They figured out what was happening and reset the SOS remotely. After getting the bikes and us back on our feet and tires and calmed down, we continued to Shoshone for gas and lunch at the Crowbar. Good chili! The south entrance into the park on Badwater Rd had been closed due to flooding, but I’d called the visitor center a week ahead of the trip and found they’d just opened it. It’s my favorite way in, a spectacular road, both riding and the scenery. We stopped at Badwater Basin and Artists Palette. I was hoping we could fit in Dante’s View, but time was short so we headed straight up to Beatty and the Exchange Club motel, arriving about 5:30, 315 miles today. We discovered that Beatty is mostly closed on Mondays so it was slim pickings for a night on the town. I grabbed a 12 pack and we toasted ourselves at the motel’s picnic table. The new Tony’s BBQ across from the motel was open, so we had dinner there. Interesting place, a converted auto repair shop. No license so we brought the beer with us.
Day 3 is Death Valley again, we started at the gas station in Beatty, but unfortunately 2 of the group missed the turn off and got separated from us. The rest of us continued to Rhyolite, a ghost town a few miles west of Beatty, noted for the house made of bottles. Apparently this was common in the area as empty bottles are a lot more common than trees! I discovered that Rhyolite had a brief history, just a few boom years before the silver ran out and the town died. From there we headed into the park and I was able to call our missing riders. Which is hard in DV as the cell signal is poor there. Turned out they’d taking a wrong turn and were halfway to Scottie’s Castle before they realized! The reduced group rode to Father Crowley’s overlook, famous as a jet fighter training area. We were treated to a fighter jet flying past low overhead, those things are really loud!! I highly recommend this ride, across two mountain passes with spectacular scenery, fast sweepers and tight twisties. My wife Janet came along for the trip as my passenger (“pillion” as we call it in England), and said this bit was both thrilling and terrifying! I tried to take it easy for her but it’s hard on those roads. On the way back to Stovepipe Wells we crossed paths with our 2 missing riders and the group was whole again. The final stop was Dante’s View; the road up to it is a lot of fun, but watch out for gravel and law enforcement! From there it was mostly uneventful to Boulder City, except for one irate gentleman who thought I’d cut him off and followed me into the gas station to shout at me. Guess I should wait for a bigger gap next time. We lost another rider in the Las Vegas outskirts, he got sucked onto the strip and we didn’t see him again until he showed up at the restaurant for dinner. It’s hard to keep together with lights and traffic, showing the importance of everyone knowing the route. Miles for day 3: 316. As we all know,
Day 4 is just a long slog home. Unless you’re smart enough to add another day and break it up. Two of us did and went to Flagstaff, the rest of us rode the 400 miles back to Tucson. My overall miles were 1420 – I think this is the longest of the SEAT multi-day rides, pretty extreme for me. If I do this ride next year I’ll add a day at the end.
Pat took these photos:
