All routes require a high elevation pass, so snow is likely in winter months Nov-May. Wilderness routes road conditions can change often, seasonally with winter snows, mud and summer thunderstorms. The most popular access are the main routes both long dirt roads, subject to snow and closure at any time — the North Pass Big Pine and the South Pass Panamint. Detailed directions on those further below.
Death Valley National Park has released its final plan for managing its remote hot springs and the naked regulars who like to soak in them. Nudity will still be allowed at Saline Valley Warm Springs, but non-native palm trees and burros will be phased out under the final management plan released Friday by the National Park Service. The park service also plans to remove all palm trees and other non-native plants from around Upper Spring, while the existing palm trees around Lower Spring and Palm Spring will be left to live out their lives and be replaced by native plants after they die. Saline Valley has served as an off-the-grid, clothing-optional, counterculture gathering place since the s. Dedicated visitors have installed concrete soaking pools, support facilities, outdoor art and even a lawn at the desert oasis 35 miles from the nearest paved road. The area was under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management until , when it was folded into the national park as part of the California Desert Protection Act. After largely ignoring the place for years, the park service started work on a first-ever management plan for Saline Valley in
The Saline Valley Warm Springs are just like any other attraction you might find inside a national park. Now officials at Death Valley National Park are trying to get a handle on issues they have largely ignored for more than two decades at the remote hot spring oasis in the California desert, miles northwest of Las Vegas. Park planners have completed work on a long-awaited management plan that could mean significant changes for the off-the-grid, clothing-optional, counterculture gathering place. The rest of the area — including the existing soaking pools, the communal fire pit, the dishwashing station, the makeshift library and the public nudity — would be kept pretty much as it is now, said park spokeswoman Abby Wines. Officials began accepting public input on the draft plan Friday.
But that always makes for the funnest adventures…no? I read about it in some New York Times online article, and knew I had to go. Well, I sort of glanced at my truck, assumed I had a spare under the truck bed, threw in a couple 2-gallon jugs of water and some firewood and stuff, and took off.