Death Valley National Park
I won’t bore you in the “how to get there” part of the blog, everyone ends up having different itineraries and different needs anywho-so pick what is best for you. I will go over what we did, and wish we didn’t do on our trip to Death Valley. It was not at all how we expected it to be, which I guess is due to my lack of planning.
I was much more focused on Bryce Canyon and Zion, which we did on the same trip. We wanted to check off Death Valley on the same road trip because of where it sat in California. There is no very easy way to get there.
Death Valley is “the hottest, driest and lowest U.S. National Park” according to the National Park Service. The highest temperature recorded was in 1913 when it hit 134 degrees Fahrenheit. Badwater Basin is the lowest elevation point in North America. Death Valley is also an International Night Sky Park, which means it is one of the best places in the world to see the stars.
What we wish we knew before our trip
- Coming into the valley, you can literally see almost everything
- In April it is SO INCREDIBLY WINDY
- The drive into the park is lonely and weird
- Everything is quite far apart
- You can visit in one day and see most everything you want
- Cell service is poor
- Get gas before you enter Death Valley and the surrounding area (it’s expensive)
- There are no showers at the NP campgrounds ( Furnace Creek Resort only)
- Pack your own food/don’t plan on eating out
- Doing just the “can’t miss” things is more than fine here
Can’t Miss Sights
Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes
These sand dunes are a fun stop in the morning before it gets hot. We stopped at sunset and it was beautiful. The sand was still really hot when we got there as the sun was going down. There aren’t any actual trails on the sand dunes, but there are some taller ones in the far distances where you can get your cool looking dune photos.
Zabriskie Point
The Zabriskie Point pull-off makes things easy on you, you don’t have to walk far at all to the viewpoint. Being there at dawn makes the colors stand out that much better.
Artist’s Palette and Drive
A definite can’t miss on your trip. The drive to get there is fun, with amazing views the whole way up. The Artist’s Palette itself is a volcanic deposit, where the coloring comes from the minerals in the soil. I would suggest walking right up into the colorful hills instead of viewing from your car. This is also how you get the really cool photos like you see online.
Badwater Basin
Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level. When you walk out to the flats and turn back towards the parking lot and mountain’s you’ll see a green sign tucked up on one of the mountains. The sign is where sea level is and gives quite the perspective. The salt can get dirty depending on the season and how much rain there has been, so double check what time of year you go.
Natural Bridge
Flash floods caused the rock to erode into a bridge over the canyon. It is a 1-mile hike up a canyon to see the Natural Bridge. There is no official “trail” but there is a parking area and it is pretty obvious where you will need to go. You can always download the map from AllTrails.
Harmony Borax Works
A great historic stop for history buffs. Harmony Borax Works and 20 Mule Team Canyon. A long story short Borax was found and mined in Death Valley for a good while, and it is an important history of the park.
Dante’s View
One of the most phenomenal views of Death Valley is from Dante’s View. It is 45 minutes from Furnace Creek, so it’s not too far off the beaten path.
Devil’s Golf Course
Another stop where you will probably just want to pull over and take some photos. It is essentially just rock salt that has been eroded into sharp bits.
Devil’s Cornfield
The Devil’s Cornfield is more of an attraction, a thing to see than a stop itself. You may want to just pull over the car on the way by and get a few photos. It is a massive spanse of arrowweed in big clumps.
Still amazing, but may not fit in your itinerary:
All of these additional stops were originally on our itinerary, but we had to cancel seeing them due to how far away they were. Most of them are around 3 hours away from the rest of the park. However, they are also some of the coolest sites to see.
Ubehebe Crater:
To visit the crater you can either park, or take the trail along the rim of the crater. Ubehebe crater was created by a maar volcano, and is estimated to be around 2,100 years old.
Race Track Playa:
Race Track Playa is a dry lake bed with “moving rocks”. I always picture the scene from Pirates of the Caribbean when Jack is trapped on the ship. There are new articles that are posted on the National Park’s website that go into detail on how the rocks actually get around. Another reason we axed this stop is because we were in a rented car, and the road is supposedly recommended for 4×4 vehicles only.
Wildrose Charcoal Kilns:
10 Charcoal Kilns built in 1877 for the mines, but were also used during the filming of Star Wars.
Our Experience
We drove into Death Valley from Beatty and Daylight Pass Road. The very first thing we noticed and had not anticipated was that the entire park quite literally sits in a valley where you can see everything. We got there late in the evening with the intention of staying at Stovepipe Wells campground. That was closed and we needed to turn around-everything is far apart in this park. We high-tailed back to Furnace Creek Campground and found it to have a few open spots. We visited in April and it was SO windy. Our camper van shook all night long, we woke up to find the vans next to us had moved in the night because it was so bad.
The next morning we got up super early and set out to see the major sites. It didn’t actually take us that long to maneuver the sites. We didn’t do any of the longer hikes and walks because I developed one heck of a blister at the very beginning of our trip. Our first stop of the morning was Badwater Basin. We walked out about 250 yards before turning around. You can see most of what you’re going to see in that distance. We ended up visiting at the wrong time of year to see the nice white salt flat you think you’d see. Our next stops were the Natural Bridge, Devil’s Golf Course, Artist’s Drive, and Golden Canyon. We finished up with Zabriskie Point. We left Death Valley via 190 to Pahrump.
All in all, I personally put Death Valley at the bottom of my “favorite National Parks” list. Not to say that you shouldn’t visit, because you absolutely should, I just would not plan a whole trip around going just there. The views are fantastic and otherworldly, but to me, it was almost too much. The history of the park and the natural wonders made up for it.