# Dante's View Death Valley



## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

Last week I rode the Furnace Creek>Dante's View road in Death Valley. Till now, the weather or time has kept me from this great ride. Everything worked this time as I passed through that area on my way from the desert SW to near Portland, Or, so here's the report.

I drove into DV from the Nevada side very late at night. There was a storm coming onshore north of San Francisco as I started north, so I chose to come up the 95hwy. It was really windy, with a wild and stormy sky around midnight as I 'wandered around' on some smaller back roads without a navigator or a GPS. The day before, I'd ridden over Mt. Palomar, so I'd been tired behind the wheel for hours, hoping to beat the storm. I took a few wrong turns but finally got to Furnace Cr. campground and crawled into my bed, listening to the wind gust.

About 5:30, I woke to stillness and silence. The sky was getting lighter and the wind was now...fitful.. I decided to go for it and lit the coffee pot right from my sleeping bag. I could see stars.

I layered on lots of clothes, even though the pre-dawn temp at -220' elevation was not too cold, I knew I'd want them later, coming back down. I got on the bike at the Furnace Cr. picnic area early and began climbing right away. Back up hwy 190, somewhat surprised at the gradient, which I had totally 'missed' as I came down it the night before.. It was really spectacular, seeing everything around for the first time, from the saddle, as the sun came up. 

I guess about half way out, the road splits south. You are passing mine tailings and very colorful mineral deposits, little vehicle traffic. The climbing is pretty steady and I had a nice tailwind...North to south, in front of that approaching storm. 

At about 18-19mi, you catch another fork and turn right. The climbing gets more serious here, it's been about maybe 5-6% so far but it goes to 8-10%, sustained, and there are some 18% pitches coming. The last ~mile is hard! Wheelies and stuff.

I was on a compact with a 25 rear cog. There were a few switchbacks near the summit that had me seriously wondering if I was about to do a "Laugh-In" and tip right over! The View? Wow!


I tucked in behind a parked car at the overlook and put on everything I'd shed on the way up, wishing I'd worn even more. There was snow in the shade and a wicked cold North wind. 

Going back down I had to be careful on the steep switchbacks at the top to not go over the bars, braking. It was that steep. I passed a gal who was still climbing...she was on tri-bars with shorts and a sleeve-less Tri jersey...no extra clothing that I could see...I hope she had a car coming to take her down, because it was quite cold in that north wind at 5700'

I bucked the headwind coming down, but without any resentment. I was glad to be pedaling, trying to get some heat back into my bod. 

I got back to my van about 10:30 to find people sitting around in shorts. 

an excellent and challenging ride. shortish at 50 mi round trip, but 5700' of climbing and the Death Valley scenery is unique, for sure.


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## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

*Couple of captions and a ride profile*

For the long scenic shots.

Telescope Peak across Death Valley. the Panamint Range. 3368m elevation. You can see the snow level is about equal to Dante's, where the pic was taken from

The pic without the highway you can see Furnace Creek as a small dark 'dash' in the distance.

The highway to Badwater is very small from this height.


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## Special Eyes (Feb 2, 2011)

What an impressive accomplishment! That road, especially the last mile, to Dante's is incredibly steep, and I'm sure I'd would have to walk it. I did ride FC to Stovepipe and then to Badwater and back about two weeks ago. DeathValley is such a fine place to ride, as long as you do it in winter or before mid march.


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## frpax (Feb 13, 2010)

Wow, that is completely awesome!


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## Gnarly 928 (Nov 19, 2005)

frpax said:


> Wow, that is completely awesome!


What? The gas prices?

Yeah, good thing I was driving a VW Van and arrived with a half tank of gas.. (grin)


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## 200miler (May 7, 2008)

It's my favorite ride out of FC. There is no better view of the valley that you can get to on a bike. As a local I try to do it at least once a month, at least until the temps start into the 100-and-stupids! The really impressive part, if you don't suffer from vertigo, is to get "near" the edge and look down into Badwater basin, 5757' straight DOWN! That's a sight that will stay with you for a while.

Gas was still ± $4.85/gal, as of last Saturday anyway.....
YMMV
-dg


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## Don Duende (Sep 13, 2007)

Tough ride. Congrats.


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## jd3 (Oct 8, 2004)

Absolutely spectacular!


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## rkj__ (Mar 21, 2007)

Awesome.


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## TWD (Feb 9, 2004)

Awesome report and pics. I did the same ride about 2.5 weeks ago. The first 10-12 miles to the turn off from the main highway read a constant 4% on my Garmin, but it topped out at like 16-17% on the last couple swithbacks IIRC. 

I met my family up top, so I skipped the ride back down (yeah....I skipped a 25 mile continuous descent with a tailwind). 

Beautiful place to ride, though Dante's is far from the only good riding there. 

The road out to Scotty's Castle is newly repaved and smooth a baby's bottom (sooo much better than before). I rode that on a day when a wind storm came in the afternoon with 30+mph sustained winds with gusts to 50mph. With 3,000 ft of elevation drop and one hell of a tailwind, I won't even bother to post my avg speed on the return trip to FC. 

The ride past Badwater and over Jubilee pass to Shoshone is nice (depending on the wind). 

The short loop around Artists Drive (~27 mi round trip from Furnace Creek), is spectacular and a nice ride in that it's 1-way and traffic is slow (and very light if you go in the AM).

I also rode from FC out to Stovepipe Wells, up the first half of Towne Pass and took the cutoff up Wild Rose Rd out to the Wild Rose campground. That's another 25+ mile sustained climb. Originally I wanted to drop over into the Panamint Valley on the old road and come back over Towne Pass, but had a head wind most of the climb, and I wasn't sure I had tires tough enough to make it over the gravel section down into Panamint Valley.

Excellent riding if you hit the weather right.


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## Velo Vol (Mar 9, 2005)

That basin is something.


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## Ridgetop (Mar 1, 2005)

I love that ride. We got rained out this year and no riding was done. My timing was really bad. Those last few switchbacks definitely are a killer. I think the whole last 3 miles just about broke me when we rode it last.


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