p.2 #1 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
Vertigo2020 wrote:
If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I'll only say it was a 10 on the Weird Shit-o-meter. Needless to say, I'd never take a child there again.
Go for it. Why *not* describe it? The worst is that you won't be believed, as you fear--but that's no different than nobody even *knowing* what you saw.
p.2 #2 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
Vertigo2020 wrote:
If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I'll only say it was a 10 on the Weird Shit-o-meter. Needless to say, I'd never take a child there again.
Oh, come on. If you don't tell us more than this we certainly won't believe you either...
p.2 #3 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
rent the jeep, the road is not bad at all. i just did the drive up there this past weekend and will post videos on youtube. doing a tour is going to be a waste, with the rented jeep, after the race track you can go other places in it.
i did the drive back in 37 minutes....but don't try it with family in the jeep.
p.2 #4 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
gdanmitchell wrote:
Oh, come on. If you don't tell us more than this we certainly won't believe you either...
Fine. It was fairly late in the afternoon before we got out there. We parked on the west side of the playa and walked out several hundred yards. We noticed a few folks leaving back towards the Grand Stand. The area we were walking only had a few small stones that showed the tracks. As we were walking around I noticed a man approaching towards us from the eastern side of the playa. My daughter looked up and sort of acknowledged him without saying anything since we both assumed it was another person going back to their car. We continued to talk about the moving rocks and what would cause this. When we first saw this man he was about 500-600 yards away. A few minutes later I again noticed him at maybe 300 yards away walking towards us angling a little to the south. I looked in that direction but didn't see any cars that he might have been walking to. I didn't really become worried but just became more aware since the sun was going down and I didn't see anyone else on the playa. I decided to go back to the north west a little just to put some distance between us and the man. He maintained his course and was now about 150 yards away. I stopped to let him pass and watch him go by, just to be safe, in case he came directly to us. I noticed my daughter was now uneasy and held my hand. He didn't seem to even see us and never looked in our direction. I felt kinda relieved and stupid for being paranoid. He was now about 100 yards from us and I looked down at my daughter to speak to her when an instant look of terror came over her face. I quickly looked up to see that this man had just vanished into thin air. All she could say was "I wanna go now", "I wanna go now".
I looked in every direction and this guy was just gone. OK, time to go! We headed back towards my truck in haste. I kept scanning the area for any movement and saw none. After a few minutes I saw him reappear in the same location where we first saw him. He was again moving along the same path as before. We made it back to my truck within a few minutes. My daughter saw him again and freaked. I had no explanation to calm her. I could only get her out of there as fast as possible. As we drove away I slowed and looked back to see he had vanished again in nearly the same spot.
I have no reasonable explanation for what occurred. The whole outing only served to scare the shit out of my child.
p.2 #6 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
That is pretty freaky....
I don't understand why you don't think anyone would believe you. It's not like the story was about an alien abduction or that giant worms burst up through the playa underneath you and you rode them around while your eyes glowed blue....
It's just something that you and your daughter saw but could not explain. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, or that it cannot be explained.
p.2 #8 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
Vertigo, that story is awesome. I don't even need to believe it's true to appreciate the emotional reactions. DV is such a breathtakingly empty place that visions like that, real or imagined, would not surprise me at all. Either way, the actual existence of the man you saw hardly matters.
p.2 #12 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
DiscipleTom wrote:
We drove out there in a Prius a couple of years ago...no problem.
You were very lucky. While that is possible, it is very unwise. Seriously. I'm not one who believes that you necessarily need an "off-road vehicle" to get to the Racetrack, but a Prius?!
(I go to the playa regularly. One of my cars is a Prius. I wouldn't even consider trying to take it out there.)
I hear that someone once did that, got stuck, couldn't get back, and was doomed to eternally walking from one side of the playa to the other, only to disappear, reappear back on the other side of the playa, and walk across again, only to... ;-)
Sunny Sra wrote:
...the road is not bad at all....i did the drive back in 37 minutes...
You drove the 27 miles of this gravel road, parts of which twist through tight terrain, at an average speed of nearly 45 mph!? Given some of the narrow and twisty portions of the road that simply cannot be driven that fast, this implies that you drove parts of it at freeway speeds!
Since some people come to these forums for advice about places like this and then attempt to apply it to their own visits, and because a good number of them have no personal experience with these things and may rely blindly on what they read, or else succumb to a certain foolish sort of machismo when it comes to their driving, I'm going to give a blunt response to this story.
Either:
1. You are exaggerating - and I very much hope this is the case, or...
2. You showed tremendously poor judgement in regards to the risks to your vehicle, your own safety, and the safety of others on this road.
I feel awkward writing these words, since I know that you are a good and intelligent person, Sunny. However, it is very important to not give people a false and dangerous idea of what is normal when doing this kind of driving.
p.2 #13 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
Here's a shot of the road from when I drove it in a Subaru Outback AWD this past summer. Luckily I made it in and out without any flats. AWD/4WD probably isn't mandatory, but driving something with good clearance and a good suspension definitely helps. It is a pretty bumpy ride and you do have to be vigilant the entire time for large/sharp stones that are in the road. Driving around them was the best thing to do and keeping my speed down was really important.
Oh, make sure you fuel up before you go too. You gotta make it in and back out.
The rangers said they actually make the drive every day to check for stranded motorists. They also bring plenty of water because it's pretty common for things to happen. Again, bring at least one spare, know how to change it, and make sure it's full before you go.
p.2 #14 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
Vertigo2020 wrote:
Fine. It was fairly late in the afternoon before we got out there. We parked on the west side of the playa and walked out several hundred yards. We noticed a few folks leaving back towards the Grand Stand. The area we were walking only had a few small stones that showed the tracks. As we were walking around I noticed a man approaching towards us from the eastern side of the playa. My daughter looked up and sort of acknowledged him without saying anything since we both assumed it was another person going back to their car. We continued to talk about the moving rocks and what would cause this. When we first saw this man he was about 500-600 yards away. A few minutes later I again noticed him at maybe 300 yards away walking towards us angling a little to the south. I looked in that direction but didn't see any cars that he might have been walking to. I didn't really become worried but just became more aware since the sun was going down and I didn't see anyone else on the playa. I decided to go back to the north west a little just to put some distance between us and the man. He maintained his course and was now about 150 yards away. I stopped to let him pass and watch him go by, just to be safe, in case he came directly to us. I noticed my daughter was now uneasy and held my hand. He didn't seem to even see us and never looked in our direction. I felt kinda relieved and stupid for being paranoid. He was now about 100 yards from us and I looked down at my daughter to speak to her when an instant look of terror came over her face. I quickly looked up to see that this man had just vanished into thin air. All she could say was "I wanna go now", "I wanna go now".
I looked in every direction and this guy was just gone. OK, time to go! We headed back towards my truck in haste. I kept scanning the area for any movement and saw none. After a few minutes I saw him reappear in the same location where we first saw him. He was again moving along the same path as before. We made it back to my truck within a few minutes. My daughter saw him again and freaked. I had no explanation to calm her. I could only get her out of there as fast as possible. As we drove away I slowed and looked back to see he had vanished again in nearly the same spot.
I have no reasonable explanation for what occurred. The whole outing only served to scare the shit out of my child. ...Show more →
Mystery solved- He's the dude that moves the rocks
Seriously though, that sounds like a creepy experience.
p.2 #16 · Death Valley Racetrack in April - How to get there?
Great story.. Having been out there numerous times over the last decade or more, I may have a passable explanation for what you saw..
The racetrack playa is almost perfectly flat along it's entire bed - very few natural areas are so perfectly flat it's entire distance as a playa. I think Racetrack over is longest distance (over 2 1/2 miles) varies less than an inch it's entire length.
I think what you saw may have been a rare optical refraction similar to looming, where objects appear closer and bigger than they are - very much like the mirage effect portrayed in movies and such, where a distant oasis appears close, but then vanishes as you get closer to it.
The perfectly flat surface of the playa is idea for creating these type of effects as it's surface is heated or cooled along with the air above it. My guess is you really did see somebody walking out there - only they were really farther out across the playa and due to the looming effect appeared much much closer. Given the perfectly flat surface, it could have been an almost perfect image with little to no wavering. When they vanished, they or you moved out of the refraction area... and then back into it... cause them to appear and disappear. In reality they are much further away from you behind the optical refraction. By the time you got back you your vehicle, the real person walking may have reached the area that you first saw the projected image.. and yes, out there it's not uncommon for people to be doing strange things like walking across the entire playa.
I'm not saying that's what happened, but I've seen very similar effects out there at different times of the year. I've had the grandstand appear to be 1/2 the distance closer. Even if I were to take a picture of it, you could not tell it was an effect, as the picture would look just like you were 1/2 closer since the playa is so featureless and smooth, and there is nothing to reference distance between.. I didn't even realize the effect until later, when it went away and suddenly the grandstands were twice the distance they had been before when I noticed them, yet I was in the same area.
Otherwise, I like the idea that it's the guy moving the rocks...
Oh yeah, as further proof that strange things happen out there... sometimes you get bored out there under a full moon in freezing temperatures...
