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Having read an old article about the wreckage of a plane crash north of Towne Pass. I had planned for a number of years to locate it some day. The article describes the last flight of an Air Force SA-16 Albatross amphibious aircraft which made a crash landing after the craw bailed out over Death Valley in 1952. On a DPS trip, the subject came up and I learned that Ron Jonas had already been to the site and examined a lot of interesting items, including a 50 pound anchor! With additional directions from Ron on how to find the site, fellow DPS'er Jerry Boggs, coworker Andy Tennay, and I decided to examine the crash site. Since this is also an area of proposed wilderness and there is a Bighorn sheep water tank in Dolomite Canyon, we decided on an overnight trip to have more time to check out the area and make a traverse through this remote area. Leaving a vehicle on the Big 4 Mine load about three miles north of SR-190, we then drove up to Town Pass. A quick and easy shuttle which was much sore pleasant than the ones we usually have to arrange for desert traverses. Starting out from Towne Pass there is an immediate gain of 1,000' which puts you on the crest of the Panamint Range. At that point, it only took a short time with binoculars to spot the plane crash on the north side of Dolomite Canyon. The route to reach the crash site was obvious - go over Towne Peak and down the Dolomite Canyon north ridgeline. It was a good route but the canyon extending down from the crash site and back into the bottom of Dolomite Canyon looked formidable - narrow and with several dry waterfalls that were visible end the probability that others existed. We bad two 165' 9mm ropes and equipment for rappel anchors so we decided to go for it. Proceeding north along the crest, it was an enjoyable five mile climb to the top of Towne Peak at 7,252'. There was fairly heavy snow cover on the northern slopes and the afternoon views south to Telescope Peak with the colorful rock formations of Dolomite Canyon in the foreground were impressive. At the two mile mark, we were directly at the end of Dolomite Canyon and could look down and see the water tanks about 2,000' below us. It appeared that the canyon extending down from the wreck would bring us out slightly above the tanks so that we would be able to determine their condition after dropping down into the bottom of the main wash. While checking the area with the binoculars, I noticed some movement about 300' east of the wreck and sew three Bighorn sheep - a ram and two ewes on a small rock outcrop. The Towne Peak register showed two DPS exploratory climbs and about ten climbers per year. To the north, new DPS peaks, Panamint Butte and Canyon Point, were visible with Cottonwood Spring just out of sight of the canyon bottom. There were five notations entered by people enroute to explore the plane crash - certainly a long day to hike in from the pass, drop down the 1,000' to the wreck and then regain that elevation and return the five miles back out to Towne Pass. There were no notations of people heading on north to Panamint Butte or Canyon Point which would require some elevation loss and gain but which looked like an appealing future backpack trip. We dropped down the ridge into a nice saddle several hundred feet above the wreck and camped - enjoying the great sunset views of the Panamints north from |
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