That road between the Kilns and the junction can be tricky. On the last trip up Telescope last fall a car of young people were headed uphill way too fast and nearly nearly front-ended us on one of those dipsy-do curves.
If/when you do Panamint City - it's easy grades of about 3,400' over 5.5 miles. There's a section of narrow, marble canyon in the first 1.5 miles which is wet/slippery in places, and sometimes I just wear some heavy leathers and use the brook for footing. Nothing tricky, just use care. There's a steep, narrow canyon on the left (north) as the top of the last cascade - sometimes bighorns can be see using it as an access path. There are some ancient grasses in this brook also - horse something or other, I think. It's thick, woody and resembles minuiature bamboo.
Panamint City was the site of an active
mine about 135 years ago. About .5 miles from the main mining area you can see the old brick smokestack, and then foundations of old structures. There are some newer buildings/structures built in the 1970's, and the main office is in good repair and was fairly clean as of last week. You wouldn't need a tent to overnight there, and there are other buildings as well. There's potable water from a freeze-proof faucet on the left side of large structure housing the abandoned generator. Apparently a Canadian company sunk some $$$ into operations back in the '70's, but the market fell (some say it was manipulation) and the storms caused serious damage to the road and it was never rebuilt. The TH is on BLM land, and somewhere along the way it crosses into the NP. Keep your eye out for snakes, but it's pretty early up high. The ground was frozen above the last cascade. Because of two major springs, much of the canyon - especially in the first 3 miles - has reverted to dense vegetation.
The burros seem to be out of the canyons and in the valley, so keep an eye out if you're driving at night in Panamint Valley.
