Death Valley National Park

We left Sawtooth Canyon and headed for Sunset Campground in Death Valley National Park on Monday, February 24th. We arrived in the mid afternoon to warm weather and clear blue skies. We setup our RV to have our door facing the door of Jim & Corinne’s RV. Once we settled in and started to look at the things we wanted to do, we knew this was going to be an epic stay.

Zabriskie Point

First order of business was to check out Zabriskie Point for sunset on the first evening of our stay in the park. This overlook is located a few miles back up the road that we came in on, so we all jumped into the Jeep and headed there to get some pictures along with a few dozen other folks. The colors in the hills and rocks were fascinating!

Badwater Basin, Artist Drive and a Hike

On our first full day in the park, we planned our itinerary carefully. We headed south to Badwater Basin for our first stop of the day. This low point in Death Valley is also the lowest point in the United States at 279 feet below sea level. The walk out into the bright white salt flat had the eerie feeling of walking along a snow covered path in the 70 degree weather. We were glad it wasn’t, though.

After spending some time on the low salt flats we back tracked up Badwater Rd and took the one way scenic loop known as the Artist Drive. Along this route is several scenic overlooks with the star attraction being the Artists Palette where several different minerals cause the rocks to take on a variety of colors. Amy commented that this palette of colors appears to be where home decorators of the 80’s got their ideas from.

Next stop after the Artist Drive was the trail head for the Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail. From here, Jim joined us for a hike over to Zabriskie Point where we watched sunset the night before. This hike was a 3.5 mile hike with about a 1,000 ft of elevation gain. Corinne met us at Zabriskie Point two hours later. The hike was fabulous! We were walking amongst some of the formations we saw the night before and enjoyed many awesome views along the way. Who knew the scenery of Death Valley was so diverse!

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are best visited in the morning as the sun is rising, particularly if you are interested in photographing the dunes. We got up early the next morning, our second morning in the park, to get to the dunes before sunrise. Before retirement, Dan threatened Amy that every day would involve a pre dawn photo excursion to get sunrise pictures. This trip to the dunes was only our fourth such excursion since hitting the road and two of them were back to back as we tried to get good sunrise pictures in Bryce last spring.

It was very interesting to watch the landscape and lighting change as the sun came up over the distant mountains and the dunes cast long shadows. We stuck primarily to the edges of the dunes on this trip and Dan quickly realized that he really wanted to trek out to the big dunes in the distance. The sign at the parking lot warned visitors that the big dunes are over a mile away so trekking out there this particular morning wasn’t going to happen.

When we returned to the RV and talked with Jim, he expressed an interest in checking out the dunes. Dan immediately volunteered to take Jim back to the dune on a different morning. Jim was more than willing to make the long hike across the sand dunes to get to the tallest dunes in the area. This second trip occurred on Sunday and the footprints from Saturday’s visitors were far more prevalent than those seen on Wednesday morning. Once we got out to the tall dunes, the density of footprints diminished and we were able to get some photos of dunes with very little sign of human trespassing.

Dante’s View, The Devil’s Golf Course and a Hike

Thursday was another day of site seeing and hiking. Death Valley is a huge National Park; in fact, it is the largest park in the lower 48. Needless to say, in order to see many of the attractions one must do some driving. Dante’s View is about a 30 mile ride from Furnace Creek and the Sunset Campground we were staying at. We have since learned that on a clear day you can see both the lowest point in the lower 48 (easy, its straight down) and the highest point. After some research, we think the tip of Mt. Whitney is visible in the pictures of the valley below and the mountains across. The views from Dante’s View are breathtaking and if you are ever in Death Valley, a trip up to the overlook is highly recommended.

Next on our sight seeing tour for the day was The Devil’s Golf Course. This area got its name from the rough and jagged salt formations that make up the floor of Death Valley. There is a drive out into the formations where you can walk among them. One would think these would be fragile and easily broken but quite the opposite is true. You can walk on top of these formations (carefully) and hardly leave a footprint. There are so many unique experiences, like this, in Death Valley that make this park a must visit location.

Last on the day’s agenda was a couple hikes. First was a short hike up to the Natural Bridge. The trail is a short 0.5 mile up to the large stone arch that was formed by the river that flowed down the canyon thousands of years ago. When we all completed this hike, next was a much longer hike on the Desolation Canyon Trail. The trailhead for this hike was relatively close to our campground, so Corrine dropped the rest of us off and went back to the campground to get a start on dinner. This hike was the least interesting of all the things we did in Death Valley but it did culminate in another gorgeous view of the valley once we reached the trail’s terminus.

Other Interesting Sites in Death Valley

Right across the street from the Sunset Campground is a free outdoor museum with relics from the borax mining that took place in Death Valley. The Twenty Mule Team Borax Company mined borax in the area for a few years in the late 1800’s. This museum and the Harmony Borax Works display a couple miles down the road offer a glimpse into the process of mining and processing the borax. Both locations are a worthwhile walk from the campgrounds in Furnace Creek, particularly if you are interested in the history of the area.

A little further north out of Furnace Creek is the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail. This short hike along a boardwalk takes you over and along a small spring that provides water to the area. What makes this a very unique experience is the presence of rare Salt Creek Pupfish, an endangered species of pupfish found only in Death Valley.

Our original planned departure from Death Valley was for Friday the 29th but we decided to add a couple days so we could see more of the beautiful and interesting sites the park has to offer. Once our new departure date of Monday came, the winds had picked up significantly and we decided that breaking camp and driving in high winds wasn’t worth it so we added yet another day and departed on Tuesday for a total stay of 8 nights in Death Valley. While we were there we did make a couple of day trips out of the park that we’ll cover in a separate post.

Dan took a lot of pictures while we were in Death Valley. Below is a gallery of the pictures that are not shown in the body of the post. As always, you can click on any of the pictures to see a larger version and page through the gallery of images while viewing the larger images.

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