Highest Drivable Elevations in California?

[smlobx]

I don't have anything substantial to add other than to say this is a great topic!
I hope to make it out to CA and check these roads out one day...

Maybe we can do a similar thread on each of the major western states as well??


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[ntsqd]

Occurs to me that one could "bag" both the high and the low if you did it on the right day. Start in DV at Badwater and drive to Barcroft Station on one of their open house days. Might be kind of fun to do that some day, just because. Then you'd get about 12,670' of total elevation change....

 

[ETAV8R]

Occurs to me that one could "bag" both the high and the low if you did it on the right day. Start in DV at Badwater and drive to Barcroft Station on one of their open house days. Might be kind of fun to do that some day, just because. Then you'd get about 12,670' of total elevation change....

That's gonna be a long day. Definitely doable but long.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

One December I hiked down from the summit of Mount Whitney to my pickup at the Portal and then drove to Badwater, where I slept in the parking lot. Of course, this was cheating, because I gotten to the summit of Whitney without a car. But at least I can say I have been at the highest and lowest spots in continental US in the same day.

The 14k roads to the top of Pike's and Evans are both paved, but quite narrow near the summit of Evans. On Evans once, while descending in my my F150 and ATC, I had to nudge auto drivers out of my inside lane and over to the cliff-top lane. They all had funny expressions on their faces!

 

[ntsqd]

That's gonna be a long day. Definitely doable but long.

The ever correct, eternally vigilant google maps says 4 hrs 10 mins to 5 hrs. 40 mins depending on the route chosen. It must be true, I read it on the internet.....

 

[Jeep_Engineer_Beer_Snob]

Thanks man.

I work at Chrysler and do transmission calibration on the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango. I'm looking to put together a test trip that includes some new routes, especially off-road. We usually go to Colorado and do Pikes Peak, Mt. Evans, Loveland Pass, etc.

 

[craig333]

So do you have a spare turbo encabulator?

 

[K6ON]

Craig, You mean one of these??

 

[craig333]

Yes, yes I do. I'm trying to figure how to integrate one with a flux capacitor.

 

[ntsqd]

Occurs to me that one could "bag" both the high and the low if you did it on the right day. Start in DV at Badwater and drive to Barcroft Station on one of their open house days. Might be kind of fun to do that some day, just because. Then you'd get about 12,670' of total elevation change....

Three of us did this last Sunday. Different type of trip for all of us, hard to keep moving but with unknown roads and a 7:30pm deadline to make it thru the Barcroft gate we had to. Used as much dirt roads as was reasonable without venturing into Saline Valley. Badwater was only 97° at 9:45 am. Turns out that even though you can see Badwater from Mahogany Flat Cmpgrd, it's still roughly a 2 hr drive to get there. Barcroft Station at just short of 5pm was about 40° with the wind chill factored in. No idea what the overnight low was up there, but at 6:45am Monday it was 24° Turned out to be 12, 674' elevation delta; and a 73° temperature delta.