Our next stop from Joshua Tree was to one of my all time favorite places in the world, Death Valley. People always ask me for recommendations and near the top of my list is always Death Valley. The standard reaction is surprise or just a blank look, it would seem this park is often overlooked in favor of the more well known name.
For this trip we drove from Joshua Tree to Death Valley, a rather fun four hour drive through the Mojave Desert. Going to Death Valley in winter (February for us) is really a must. The late fall and early spring can also be a nice time to be there. However, at least for me, you want to avoid the summer. Death Valley is one of the hottest, driest places on earth. The highest temperature recorded at Death Valley was 134 F at Furnace Creek. This stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded on the surface of the Earth.
Death Valley’s Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in North America, at 282 feet below sea level. It is 84.6 miles east-southeast of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of 14,505 feet
The park is massive at 3,422,024 acres with nearly 1,000 miles of paved (and more unpaved) roads its the largest park in the United States outside of Alaska. There are very few developed areas. For hotels you only have a few choices inside the park. You can stay at the Oasis or Furnace Creek (same general area) or at Stovepipe Wells. There are a number of camping options all throughout the park as well. We chose to stay right outside the park. There are a number of very small towns and places to stay off US-95 in Nevada.
There are really only two developed areas in the entire park and they are rather close together. The Furnace Creek area and Stovepipe Wells. There you can find food, gas, hotels etc. Keep in mind that you’ll want to book hotels well in advance. Most of the year it books out months ahead of time.
It is worth to mention that The Oasis at Death Valley (in the Furnace Creek area) is a very high end hotel that also boasts a great restaurant. We would go there after hiking for sunrise and eat a great meal.
Cami and I spent four days exploring this amazing park. Despite it’s name and what many people might think about it there is a lot to see and do within the park. Cami had a great time learning about the derisive history of the park. From the first 49ers to get to the park to the Borax mining and the Twenty Mule Team wagons. This place has a very unique history.
There is a great interactive talk on the History of the Harmony Borax Works. Cami was able to join in a Ranger led talk where she got to read one of the roles.
We were able to explore (and photograph) many of the great locations inside the park. We hiked out on Badwater Basin (the lowest point in North America) and explored the devils Golf Course. We where able to see an amazing sunset from Zabriski Point and explore the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. We took the long drive out to the Ubehebe Crater and hiked around the rim.
We saw Artists Palette, explored the Keane Wonder Mine, and even some ghost towns just outside the park. We spent a good deal of time hiking and exploring lessor known areas of the park too.
Unfortunately there were a number of areas of the park that we could not see for a variety of reasons. Scotty’s Castle suffered an awful flood that did a large amount of damage to both the structure and the road. That will be closed off until at least 2021. The road leading to Telescope Peak also suffered damage and was closed while we were there.
We lacked a true off-road car while in the park. So while we could drive on some of the dirt roads we could not get to things like the Racetrack Playa or to some of the other more remote sites.
Death Valley is a special place, there is nothing quite like it anywhere in the world. It can be very challenging to photograph. You have to get very lucky with the weather to get something interesting. You have to take time and explore. While there are many well known locations, the park is so massive that you can find many wonderful spots that are lesser or unknown.
