Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is the largest national park in the lower 48 states. It’s a very colorful and interesting place that is best not visited in the heat of summer.
California
2003, 2008, 2012
About The Park
Most people would have a hard time thinking that a place called Death Valley is a place they’d like to visit. People hear of record high temperatures and, for an earlier generation, the image is of a bleached cattle skull baking in the sun and Ronald Reagan hosting the Death Valley Days TV show.
For my wife and I, it is one of our favorite parks. At 5219 square miles is also the largest park in the lower 48 and the hottest place on earth. The record 134° temperature was reached at the aptly named Furnace Creek in 1913. It's probably not a place you want to to visit in the summer where the temperature will consistently be above 110.
With Las Vegas a mere three hours away it's an easy park to get to.
Once you've arrived in the valley you are confronted with an array of places with colorful names like Scotty's Castle, 20 Mule team canyon, Badwater, Eureka Dunes, Zabriskie Point, Titus Canyon, Dante's View, Funeral Mountains, Marble Canyon, Aguereberry Point, Telescope Peak, Teakettle Junction, the Devil’s Golf Course and The Racetrack. There are many abandoned mines, a few ghost towns, a house made entirely of glass bottles, old borax works and some very beautiful and interesting scenery.
There are many hiking trails and, unlike many national parks, lots of back country roads to explore. Down one of these roads, on the western side of the park, is the Barker Ranch made infamous by Charles Manson and his ‘family’. I understand that one can still see the bathroom sink, with the cabinet below it, into which the 5'2" Charles Manson stuffed himself when he tried, unsuccessfully, to hide from the police.
Death Valley is a place of extremes. Hottest, lowest, driest. The first time I was there, during the first week of May, down in the valley my car thermometer read 118°. We drove a back road to a place called Mahogany Flat where, at 8200 feet, there were patches of snow on the ground. The valley lies between two mountain ranges. The Panamint Range is to the West and the Amargosa Range to the east. These two mountain ranges, combined with some other factors, cause heat to be trapped and unable to escape the valley. The result is a very hot place to be from May to October. In the summer of 2013 temperatures reached 129.2° and that resulted in an increase in tourist visits. For whatever reason, people just seemed to want to experience almost 130° -
Wildlife
Death Valley is not a place one goes to see the typical western U.S. National Parks large mammalian wildlife. It is home to desert bighorn sheep, coyotes, tortoises, kangaroo rats, snakes, reptiles and amphibians. Most of this wildlife is nocturnal so, other than an occasional lizard or bird, don’t expect to see much wildlife.
Lodging
Inn at Death Valley
At Furnace Creek there's the historic, four diamond, Inn at Death Valley formerly known as the Furnace Creek Inn. This is a truly beautiful place set into the side of a hill. Fueled by a natural spring, that sends a huge amount of water its way, the grounds look more Hawaiian than Death Valley. Lush, green, with palm trees and ponds that make for an oasis in the desert. The Inn’s halls are lined with pictures of long dead past presidents of the Death Valley 49ers, a Sierra Club type organization, that worked hard to preserve Death Valley. The Inn closes from Mother’s Day to October.
Ranch at Death Valley
Across the road there is the Ranch at Death Valley, formerly the Furnace Creek Ranch, which is more reasonably priced. The rooms are very nice, there’s cabins available, RV hookups and it is close to the local restaurants, a museum and the parks service visitor center.
Less expensive lodging in Death Valley can be found in Stovepipe Wells which is about 50 miles away from Furnace Creek and Panamint Springs about 80 miles from Furnace Creek.
There is also lots of lodging options in Pahrump, Nevada which is about 60 miles from Furnace Creek.
Hiking
Recommended hiking Trails: I have taken these hikes and they are all easy to moderate hikes. The links will give you more information to decide if they are right for you.
Golden Canyon -
Points of Interest
I'll briefly summarize some of these fascinating places. You can follow the link for more information.
Badwater
If you entered the park from the south, passing through the town of Shoshone, you reach Badwater basin a couple of dozen miles up the road. This is the lowest point in elevation in North America at 282 feet below sea level. The actual lowest point is several miles from the road across the salt flats. If you look up on the side of the mountain you can see a sign indicating where sea level is.
The Devil’s Golf Course
A little further up the road past Badwater is the turnoff for the Devils golf course. It's a good graded road that runs about a mile and leads to an area of large salt crystal formations. The name came from an old Death Valley National Monument guide which said “only the devil could play golf” on its surface.
Artists Drive
Just past the Devil’s Golf Course is a one-
Scotty's Castle
This was once the estate of a Chicago insurance magnate, Albert Johnson. He came out here with his wife, for health reasons, and built the house and surrounding buildings. The name, Scotty's Castle, came from a cowboy by the name of Walter Scott, a local character, with a checkered past, and a raft of stories that Johnson loved to hear. It's 53 miles north of Furnace Creek and a worthwhile trip up. The National Park Service gives ranger guided tours.
Dante's View
A few miles east of Furnace Creek there's a road that winds its way up about 6000 feet to a point that overlooks the valley. The views are spectacular and the temperatures cooler then down below. There's a trail that winds along the rim which does have some significant drop offs. It's probably not advisable for young children.
Zabriskie Point
This is located east of Furnace Creek and it is just a short walk from the parking area to the 'point'. It's in the midst of badlands type scenery that is best viewed, being most colorful that is, at sunrise or sunset.
Rhyolite Ghost Town
Just outside of Beatty, Nevada is this ghost town of long abandoned buildings of what was once a significant town a century ago in Death Valley’s mining heyday. It had an opera house and even a stock exchange. There also is a house made almost completely out of glass bottles.
Off-Road Driving - 4WD Not Required
20 Mule Team Canyon
A few miles east of Furnace Creek is the entrance to 20 Mule team Canyon. This is an easy, one-
Titus Canyon Road
A terrific back-
Aguereberry Point
This is the counterpart to Dante’s view and overlooks the valley from the west in the Panamint Mountains. The road is paved for most of the way. The last couple of miles are on a good graded road that takes you up to a parking area where you can walk over to the edge. It’s a beautiful place to sit and have lunch which is what we did. You can also proceed up the road to the very top but it's not for the faint of heart. It circles up tightly with steep drop offs. You can also walk up it. I drove up it but my two passengers chose to walk down to the parking area ahead of me.
The road passes the Eureka Mine along the way. Abandoned mines can be death traps and you should never enter one. Many of the mines have iron grates over the entrance or other types of barriers to keep people out. Deadly gases can build up, you can fall down unseen shafts in the dark, and dried rodent droppings may contain hantavirus. Mines should never be entered.
West Side Road
This road parallels Badwater Road across the valley passing along the base of a few of the alluvial fans that you see from Badwater Road. It is a good graded road that is about 40 miles long. There are side roads to abandoned mines but these are generally not well-
Echo Canyon Road
This road leads past some abandoned mines to a formation reminiscent of the eye of a needle. It was passable in a rented AWD stock SUV. It was basically flat and is an out and back approximately 20-
Off-Road Driving - 4WD Highly Recommended
The Racetrack
I finally got to this famous place to on my last trip. I had planned to go there on my second trip but a ranger talked me out of by telling me about how it eats tires. Naturally, when I was back at the hotel, an employee told me how his friend drove out there in a Ford Taurus! However, I rented a Jeep and have no regrets about spending the money ($175/day). The trip was 26 miles down a graded road, heavily wash-
Shortly after you get on the graded road to The Racetrack you pass the Ubehebe Crater which is the site of a giant steam explosion at some point in the past. It's an impressive hole in the ground with walls hundreds of feet high.
The Racetrack is a dry lake bed, or playa, where rocks move around leaving their tracks etched into the lake bed and, at the time of my 2012 visit, no one knew exactly how or why. The theories ranged from wind and rain to internal earthly forces and finally to aliens. Ice was also added to the mix. The rangers told me that one lady spent three weeks out there, working on a Ph.D thesis on the moving rocks, but never was able to see them move. As you walk across the lake bed you come across many tracks with some for significantly sized rocks. Some tracks move straight, other times they curve, often they zig-
The most logical theory that I had read (aside from aliens) is that with about a half inch of rainfall, and temperatures just below freezing, a very thin layer of ice can form and make the dry lake bed very slick. The rocks seem to come from a steep hill on one side of the lake bed and their paths kind of track in one general direction away from it. Winds emanating from that direction could conceivably make the rocks move. That was the prevailing theory at the time.
It was recently brought to my attention that, in 2014, scientists were able to capture the movement of the sailing stones using time-
However, a few rocks, as you will see in the photo gallery are rather large. My son is sitting on one that weighs several hundred pounds. I certainly believe what the scientists have come up with but I sure would like to see that rock moving.
Rather than retrace our route back to the main road we headed south at Teakettle Junction towards Hunter Mountain. Teakettle junction is another colorful little spot on the map where the sign has teakettles that people have hung from it. Apparently the park service comes out every now and then and removes a bunch because I have seen pictures of the sign with lots more teakettle's than there were when we were there. The road over Hunter Mountain is definitely a four-
Heading back toward Furnace Creek we stopped at Father Crowley Point, a scenic lookout overlooking a canyon, and we were startled by a roar heading our way. When we looked up we saw nothing and then an instant later what looked like an F-
The reason the picture is in black and white is because I dropped my camera right at the entrance to the road to The Racetrack and cracked the screen. I took pictures without knowing for sure if they would come out and never noticed that it had been jarred into the black and white setting.
From Furnace Creek going to The Racetrack and returning via Hunter Mountain is a 200+ mile loop. I would only recommend this loop if you are going in a two or more car caravan. Any back-
Eureka Dunes
This 650 foot-
Chloride Loop
This road is reached via highway 374 going towards Beatty, Nevada. It is across the road from the Titus Canyon Road. The drive was graded and fairly easy across the desert. There is a switchback up to Chloride Cliff that I had to turn back on because it became uncomfortable in a stock AWD SUV. It became a little bit more rugged continuing the loop back to highway 374. There was the option to retrace the route in but I decided to try it with a retrace in mind should it get dicey. It didn’t but I was not completely sure that I was on the right track and it was a relief when I saw the cars on the highway up ahead.
Death Valley National Park Photo Gallery
Other Resources
Death Valley National Park on the National Parks Service Website -
Death Valley National Park -
Lodging in Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park -
Other National Parks Within a Day’s Drive
Joshua Tree National Park famous for its iconic Joshua Trees and boulder piles is about 310 miles to the south if you take secondary roads across the Mojave National Preserve where you will pass the Kelso Dunes. These dunes, which are up to 650 feet high, are the third highest sand dunes in the United States. Only Great Sand Dunes National Park’s Star Dune at 750 feet and Death Valley National Park’s Eureka Dunes are higher. This is a far more interesting and scenic way to get here than to take the interstate route that Mapquest will point you to.
Kings Canyon National Park is in a valley that is deeper than the Grand Canyon and is about 90 miles to the northwest as the crow flies. Unfortunately the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range lies in between with no easy pass across and the trip is thus a long 375 miles.
Sequoia National Park with the most massive trees on Earth is adjacent to Kings Canyon National Park.
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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM
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