Last Updated on November 2, 2023 by
For my money, Death Valley National Park may be one of the most underrated parks in the national park system. Although it receives a million visitors a year, those numbers seem small compared to its proximity to major population centers in both Nevada and California. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a long way from anywhere, and feels more remote than any other park we have visited. Possibly due to it’s size, even when it is ‘busy’ it doesn’t feel crowded.
Death Valley is also home to several superlatives, although out of context they may come across as the opposite of super. It is home to the hottest, driest, and lowest place in the Western Hemisphere and also has the distinction of being the hottest place ever recorded at 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
The valley floor is below sea level for over 70 miles, eventually bottoming out in Badwater Basin at an absurd 282 feet below sea level, almost as if the land itself is trying to shrink away from the heat of the sun. It should also come as no surprise the valley receives about 2.5 inches of rain per year, probably because the rest of it evaporates before it ever hits the ground. Science.
By comparison, Seattle gets about 39.5 inches and Boston receives about 44 inches. And although unrelated to this post, you read that right – Boston gets more rain than Seattle.
With all of that heat and lack of water you might think Death Valley is one big, barren desert, but then you’d be like me – wrong. There are over one thousand species of plant, including nearly two dozen that exist no where else on earth. In a curious bit of irony, many places in Death Valley are actually too hot for cactus.
There are also 400 animal species, with Desert Bighorn Sheep and Kangaroo Rats two of the best known. If you are planning a visit to the ghost town of Rhyolite, a trip through Titus Canyon provides one of the best opportunities to spot the sheep.
Death Valley National Park Quick Facts
Fees
Entrance Pass – $30
Operating Hours
FULL PARK CLOSURE
Park is closed until major road damage due to
Hurricane Hillary can be repaired
Closest Towns
Beatty, NV – 44 miles
Pahrump, NV – 60 miles
Las Vegas, NV – 120 miles
Ridgecrest, CA – 120 miles
Bishop, CA – 160 miles
Boston, MA – 2,845 miles
Annual Visitors
Approximately 1.1 million per year
Founded
February 11, 1933 declared a national monument by Herbert Hoover
October 31, 1994 declared a National Park
How long should I stay?
Originally I thought we would spend a single day in the park and see all there was to see. As usual, my grasp of the situation was dwarfed by reality. First of all, Death Valley is massive. It is the largest national park in the lower 48 at almost 3.5 million acres with about 1000 miles of road, paved and unpaved. We would recommend at least two days unless you are an absolute road warrior. Not to mention, experiencing sunrise or sunset in one of several locations is an item for your must-do list.
Our Favorite Experiences
Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point is one of the most iconic spots in the park largely due to Manly Beacon. Named after one of the original 49ers, it is a jutting point in an otherwise unending vista of yellows and browns. It is a very short walk from the parking lot to see the one major landmark for several miles. The viewing platform provides a great photo at any time of day but if you really want to appreciate it, sunrise is what transforms your picture from interesting to iconic. The ordinarily drab colors of mud are temporarily transformed into brilliant oranges, reds, and gold as the sun ascends through the canyon. It’s a bear to get out there for sunrise, but well worth it. For reference, sunrise for our trip was shortly after 6AM. We were staying in Pahrump which is 60 miles away and an little over an hour drive. Factor in some time to hike from the parking lot to the viewing platform and of course some extra time to make sure you are in place before the first rays begin crossing the valley and you’re looking at a 4:15AM departure.
Being the optimists we are, once sunrise was done, we had another 14 hours of daylight to explore the rest of the park.
There are also a few hikes leading from the platform taking you into Gower Gulch, Golden Canyon, and Red Cathedral. The Badlands Loop is just shy of three miles and intersects with both Gower Gulch and Golden Canyon trails. Completing the circuit for all three trails is a little over seven miles, so preparedness is imperative. Despite the illusion of flat terrain, once you drop into the valley, navigation can be surprisingly tricky. Although the trails are well marked, there are many nooks and crannies allowing the unwary traveler to get off-track. Bring plenty of water and always have a map and compass, or your trusty pre-downloaded All trails app. A short excursion off of Golden Canyon trail will lead you to the massive Red Cathedral.
It’s important to stay on the trail here if you want to actually reach the base of the cathedral. While the area may look wide open, there are several crevasses and small ravines that will block your route and force you to retrace if you get off path.
If you choose to take the Golden Canyon portion of the trail, be sure to be on the lookout for Jawa lurking in the many crevices in the canyon walls. As R2-D2 can attest from Star Wars’ “Episode IV: A New Hope”, Jawa are a violent and trixty sort. This is one of several locations in Death Valley used to create the planet of Tatooine throughout the history of the franchise.
Badwater Basin
At 282 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America. It is allegedly named after one of the early surveyors who had a mule who refused to drink from the spring fed pool you will see from the boardwalk. While very salty, it is technically potable, so just a mule being stubborn, but the name stuck.. The basin is the remnant of an ancient lake that slowly evaporated over thousands of years leaving the salt and sediment behind. Today, groundwater continues to push up through the crust, leaving behind more salt and sediment before quickly evaporating. The end result is a massive field of cool geometric salt polygons.
The boardwalk is about a half mile long, but to get a true feel for the area, there is an easy two mile out and back into the salt flats. It’s impossible to get lost, you can see the entirety of the trail in both directions at all times. For us, it was significantly over 100 degrees during an early morning trip the first week of April. There are numerous warning signs recommending against the hike past 10AM during the ‘warmer’ months.
The National Park Service has also placed a placard denoting sea level on the cliff wall next to the parking lot. It’s not very big, and I think we only found it because we were looking for sheep, but maybe that’s what added to the joy of discovery.
Just a short distance away, visible to the west is Telescope Peak in the Panamint mountain range. At over 11,000 feet, Telscope Peak is over two miles above Badwater Basin, representing on of the most drastic changes in elevation in North America.
Artists Palette
Artists Palette lies along the half hour Artist Drive Loop detour along Badwater Road. Volcanic eruptions left behind rich mineral deposits of iron oxides, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, hematite and chlorite, among others, leaving a valley chock full of rainbow hues. Although it is certainly incredible during sunrise and sunset, unlike Zabriskie Point, these colors are present all the time, merely enhanced by the ‘Golden Hour’.
There aren’t any formal hiking paths here, but there are plenty of pullouts, and the main parking lot has a few ‘natural’ routes to follow, likely developed by hundreds of thousands of pairs of sneakers all following the last person who came before. The hike down into the valley is not very strenuous, but does have some rock scramble, and the tiniest bit of climbing if you are willing and able.
The exit out of the valley follows a steep ravine with some pretty tight turns that make me miss my motorcycle. There is more than enough signage indicating vehicles longer than 25 feet CAN NOT make the turns, but based on our observations, enough 26 footers have smashed their tail ends into the canyon wall that the NPS may need to change their sign soon.
Artists Palette is another Star Wars location site. A deep gully along the left side of the parking lot was used to film R2’s capture. Much like the Golden Canyon location, the NPS would never be so gauche as to advertise the location of filming for a major motion picture on their property, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Definitely one of my favorite locations in the park. We walked for hours and covered about a quarter mile. Climbing massive formations of beach sand is every bit as hard as you would imagine, but it was a ton of fun. An early morning hike aimlessly wandering through an ocean of sand made me feel like I might have been the first person to ever step foot in the park.
In a way, we were, the wind constantly moves and reshapes the dunes and we walked across miles of pristine dunes where our footprints were definitively the first to touch the dune that day.
The other really cool thing about the dunes (that we didn’t know at the time), is that you can surf (or sled) them. This video show how incredible the runs can be (full credit to the unknown person actually doing the sledding).
Interestingly, considering Death Valley sits in the Mojave Desert and borders the Great Basin Desert, the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are one of the few places in the park (less than 10%) to have sand dunes.
This is another great location to watch sunrise or sunset, and a completely different experience than either Zabriskie Point or Artists Palette. Here, the magic lies in the shadows and contrast created by the dune fields. And of course, here is perhaps the most easily recognizable Star Wars location. The quintessential introduction to Tatooine via an escape pod crashing into the dunes of Death Valley.
Dante’s View
Dante’s View is a thirty minute drive from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and provides absolutely commanding views of the entire valley and Telescope Peak almost due west. There are short paths heading north and south providing ample opportunity to find your perfect spot for a photo. For the adventurous, you can follow the ridgeline to the north all the way to Mount Perry about four miles away.
Take a moment while you’re up here to decide whether or not you’d like to visit a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than the spaceport of Mos Eisley. The views from this lookout provide the scenery for the infamous Star Wars locale.
Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
Places like this boggle my mind. In the very best case, the nearest water source is seven miles away and the closest actual town (long since abandoned) even farther than that. And yet, here, in the middle of nowhere are ten perfectly formed, identical beehive charcoal kilns.
Ostensibly, the kilns are used to produce charcoal for use in mining operations. Charcoal is necessary to produce sufficient heat to extract iron ore from the rock. These particular kilns do not appear to have seen any significant use and there is no evidence of any settlement in the vicinity.
From here, there is a great hike to Wildrose Peak. It is a little over 8 miles with 2,200 feet of elevation gain.
Rhyolite Ghost Town
There are more ghost towns in Nevada than actual towns, so it is no surprise Death Valley has its very own ghost town in Rhyolite. Just like the charcoal kilns, I can never quite get over the ghost towns. I suppose, considering we move our home every three weeks, I should find some commonality with these people, but our RV is purpose built to be mobile. These folks, when the mine ran dry, would literally deconstruct their log home, pack it up on a wagon, and move on to the next dirt patch hoping it turned into a town.
Rhyolite has a story like so many others in in search of riches through mining. Gold was discovered in 1904 and by 1907 what was once an expanse of sand was a thriving town of almost 5,000. It had electricity, hotels, stores, a school, and even a hospital. By 1910, the mine was operating at a loss and the towns citizenry diminished to less than a 1000. In 1916 electricity was cut and by 1920’s the population would be zero.
Today, there are remnants of a three story bank building, the jail, train depot, and the bottle house. The bottle house was built from about 50,000 beer bottles by miner Tom Kelly. It was restored in 1925 by Paramount Studios for use in a film is still in pretty good shape today.
Adjacent to Rhyolite is the completely random Goldwell Open Air Museum, founded by a couple of wacky Belgians. It is now an artist co-op with a multi-purpose studio and exhibition space although at first glance the area seems just as abandoned as Rhyolite.
Twenty Mule Team Canyon
This is a short 2.5 mile drive similar to Artist Loop Drive although not quite as colorful. It is a complementary piece to visiting the Harmony Borax works. William T. Coleman spent three years building the Harmony plant after borax was found near Furnace Creek Ranch in 1881. The plant began to process ore in late 1883 or early 1884 and ran until 1888. During those five years, Harmony was producing three tons of borax per day and employed upwards of forty men. The innovative wagon design and romanticism of the large mule team endures to this day, and in fact you can pretty easily still find Twenty Mule Team Borax in any grocery store. A trip through the canyon gives you a good idea of the skill of the wagon driver to navigate through the tight turns of the canyon. It is also a testament to how smart the mules were to learn how to effectively turn the wagon. Below is an illustration of the technique courtesy NPS. Pretty genius.
Naturally, the canyon is also the setting for a Star Wars scene. This canyon is the route to Jabba the Huts palace.
Darwin Falls
Darwin Falls was my absolutely favorite spot in the park, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with the location. Mostly, this hike gave me the rare opportunity to poke fun at Angela and secondly, it was the scene of one of those rare epiphanous moments that are practical as well as timely.
The hike to the falls was a pretty flat stretch of lush vegetation in the middle of the desert and it was great to see some green again after days of mud hues (disregarding the incredible sunrises). The valley walls began to close in the closer we got to the falls and that’s where my love of this particular hike really begins. Somewhere along the trail, we began having a conversation about mountain lions and their preferred attack strategy – namely, stalking prey from a high point behind. I really don’t know if we read somewhere in the Death Valley literature there were mountain lions in the area, or if it was just a general conversation, but it was clearly an idea that took hold even though it was the middle of the day. A short time later we heard some significant rustling above us. Was it a mountain lion? Big Foot perhaps? A wild rhino?
Angela quickly decided to go into attack mode and began to withdraw her hunting knife from her backpack straps. Within seconds, she had cut her hand and let out a yelp of pain. Quick to respond to the imminent threat of meat eating savages I went into defense mode and administered first aid. No. Instead Mr. Empathy immediately said – “Maybe you should have learned how to use that before a crisis situation”. Threat still present, Angela handled the first aid on her own and we faced the threat anew. After several hours of tense anticipation, or thirty seconds, we finally saw the source of our angst – a six inch lizard aggressively working his way through the dead leaves. Crisis averted, we soldiered on into the unknown toward the waterfall. Not to worry, I already knew this story would be ready in my back pocket for years to come.
The waterfall is nice, if unspectacular. At less than fifty feet or so and only a few feet wide, it barely gets honorable mention among waterfalls, but it is so incongruous among the surrounding desert, it’s really a great spot.
After an unremarkable hike back to the car, we packed up and headed out completely unaware of my upcoming moment of enlightenment. About a half mile down the road and after several checks in the rear view mirror, I couldn’t figure out why the back window remained so clean on this dirt road. I finally realized the hatchback had opened (or never closed) and pulled over to close it. At the same time, a young couple happened by the other way and pulled up next to us. They were a twenty something couple with the boyfriend wearing a somewhat pained expression and the girlfriend beaming her best and brightest smile. She asked if we had come from the waterfall, and how was it. I said “Um, OK” and the crestfallen look on her face was horrifying and priceless at the same time. Meanwhile, the boyfriends face transformed from pained into a look of vindication for the endless hassle he had given her for dragging him three hours from anywhere for a four mile hike. Angela quickly tried to recover for the both of us by saying how pretty and green it was and the hike was totally worth it. I don’t know if it was a complete save, but at least they continued on in the direction of the hike and didn’t turn around.
It was at this time epiphany struck. We’re old. Not in a bad way, simply a stated fact. Because we are old and reasonably well travelled, we are running out of firsts. Conversely, it is entirely possible this young couple had never seen a waterfall in person. Perspective matters. Certainly, there are degrees of firsts, but I am talking about those life events that have no other lived experience to compare. As we continue on this journey, nearly all of our experiences can be compared to something else. It was that specific thought that allowed me to completely change my perspective on the way I view things. Having been to Niagara, and seen many other waterfalls, we could simply have decided to stay home because nothing here was going to top Niagara (and to be fair, you don’t come to Death Valley to see Niagara – and that was the whole crux of the epiphany). Instead, we got out for a beautiful day, a nice hike to a pleasant waterfall, and I now had two great stories to accompany my day. But to the point – when I look back on answering that girls question, THAT is what I should have said, not “Um, OK”, because it was a great day, and it didn’t need to compete with Niagara.
Did You Know?
The name Death Valley stems from a group of 49’ers who became lost trying to reach San Francisco during the gold rush. A common theme for the period, people were in a hurry to stake a claim and strike it rich without regard to the perils of crossing the country, particularly through the Sierra Nevada’s. Coming on the heels of the Donner Party tragedy, a group of prospectors decided to try a southern route led by Captain Jefferson Hunt. Disagreements about the route and the time it was taking broke out among the party and several factions broke off to forge their own way. One faction, the Bennett-Arcan party attempted to pass through the Panamint Range via Warm Springs Canyon, but failed. They failed on an even grander scale because they thought they were at the base of the Sierra Nevada Range. Out of options, they sent two men forward and hunkered down to wait for help. Fully one month later, the two men returned with horses and supplies to rescue what remained of the party. It turns out many of the party had already departed to find their own way out. Someone from the two families who had patiently waited for help allegedly said “Goodbye, Death Valley”, and the name stuck. Even though only one confirmed death occurred for the party, they were all convinced it would be their final resting place.
