Panamint Valley Rd
- Tim Mayhew
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
Headed for Death Valley next.
It’s one of our all-time favorite places to ride, yet it’s always a little hard to explain the draw of Death Valley to new riders. Why would any motorcyclist want to ride into a sun-baked wasteland just to turn around and ride back out? After all, it’s a desert.
But for those who know, Death Valley is an amazing place—a "must-ride" destination on any bucket list. Just not in July- ride this region in winter or early-spring. It’s a landscape of extremes, where the silence is heavy, the night sky glows with stars, and the sheer scale makes you feel small. Colors are everywhere.
Take this shot of my Z1000 in Panamint Valley: We rolled up to this spot with my Pashnit Motorcycle Tour group in tow only to find... no road. Well, sort of. What used to be a ribbon of bone-straight black asphalt had been replaced by miles of deep sand and hardpack. To reach the other side of Panamint Valley, we had to navigate the wash, all while waiting to be buzzed by low-flying fighter planes.
It’s one of the great ironies of the desert: this is one of the driest places on Earth, yet it’s the water that defines it. Every year is different. Those "crazy" winter storms flow into the valley with such force that they simply tear up and remove the pavement entirely.
The Park Service has a never-ending job out here; replacing Panamint Valley Road after it gets swept away by flash floods. You can ride this route three years in a row and have a completely different experience each time. One year it’s a high-speed desert floor sweep; the next, it’s a technical scramble over what used to be a highway.
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