Chloride City Death Valley

Chloride City is located on the northern end of the Funeral Mountains in a remote part of Death Valley. We drove this road on April 20, 2018. This is an interesting drive that takes one to a the site (still a few crumbled ruins about including a “Cousin Jack”, many old mine portals and even a “mysterious” Grave. The town was established in 1905 when the Bullfrog, Nevada, gold discovery brought people into the area. The Death Valley National Park website describes it this way: “It became a ghost town the following year. There are numerous adits and dumps in the area and one grave of a James McKay, of whom nothing is known. In addition, there are remains of 3 stamp mills. It is located off a four wheel drive road 3.5 miles east of Hell’s Gate or off the dirt road 7 miles further east at the Park boundary.”

We accessed this road at the approximate 3.5 mile mark east of Hells gate. Traveling either direction this road is at first not easy to find. We drove right past it the first time traveling east. Turned around and found it “barely” coming back down (west) toward Devils Gate. Heading east (upgrade) the road is located off a curve and turns to the right. Downgrade (west) it leaves the road to the left.

The road is listed in some descriptions as high clearance 2wheel drive. I had my High clearance Jeep so used 4 wheel drive and I would recommend it if you do drive this road, it was much smoother on the loose rock and steep sections. The road condition to the site of Chloride and the grave is not bad as you will see in the video. Just use caution as always. Past the Ghost town the roads are much steeper, have bigger rocks and very steep drop offs (shelf roads). Also, many old mines adits and structures are scattered in the area and the roads to these and untamed as well. I used low range 4x4, and for ease and less slipping the lockers a few times. With that all said, enjoy a trip to Chloride City and area located in Death Valley National Park.