Our general plan for visiting National Parks is to stay a week to ten days for two reasons: We never know if we’ll be able or want to re-visit a particular place, and we’ve found that 7-10 days allows us to explore a location thoroughly enough that we feel satisfied if we are never to return.
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| Site C10 in Sunset (dry) Campground |
We had reservations in the full hookup campground nearby, but we had planned to dry camp for four days prior to that. As it turned out, once we were in this spot and realized we had access to the dump and fresh fill water, we cancelled our reservations, and stayed put. DEVA is one of the more expensive NPs, even if you get a discount, and the decision to stay where we were saved us $18 per day. Incidentally, $18 is also the price for a 6-pack of beer in the park. We stayed dry that way, too.
It’s the largest NP in the lower 48, meaning driving long distances to take it all in is necessary, and while there are two gas stations in the park, the prices are quite high. For those who can afford $18 beer, it is possible to have a very resort-like experience in DEVA, with two inns, several restaurants, pools — the works.
As lovely as it looked, it couldn’t hold a candle to the natural scenery, which is what we were there to see. Many of the place names within the park pay homage to the to fact that this park is a geographic inferno: Desolation, Hell, Dante, Bad, Furnace, Devil. Completely coincidentally, we had 13 hikes, and I will break down the rest of this post accordingly. The pictures tell the best story, so I will let them do just that.
Zabriskie Point
On our first morning, we got up before dawn, filled our go-cups, and drove the short distance to this very popular viewpoint, hoping for a pretty sunrise.
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| The sunrise was a bust, but the air was balmy, and the view was still glorious. |
Desolation Canyon
There was still plenty of time in the day to add in a second outing without driving too far.
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| Scrambler! |
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| Zebra-tailed lizard thinks those rocks on its back make it invisible. |
Sidewinder Canyon
The park newspaper suggests asking for certain hiking maps at the VC, and I can vouch for doing that. While most of the hikes and points of interest are listed in the paper and brochure, there are definitely some that you’ll miss without the extra handouts. We got the map for Sidewinder (and Willow) Canyon plus the one listing the day hikes. Both of these hikes began at the same place, and we decided to tackle them back-to-back.
Sidewinder Canyon itself isn’t much to look at, but the fun lies in the slot canyons that shoot off from the sides of it.
Something was waiting for us at the end of Sidewinder Canyon itself.
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| Baby Chuckwallas scampering on the rocks! |
Willow Canyon
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| Peace, baby, it’s the sign for a two-fer. |
Badwater Salt Flat
After March came in like a roaring lion in the form of a big wind storm, we headed out for one of the iconic hikes in the park when the weather cleared.
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| No one down here but us fishes! |
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| How most folks envision Death Valley |
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| Blown away by the view and the wind. |
Natural Bridge Canyon
On our way back from the flats, we stopped off for a second short hike.
We also took in the 9-mile one-way scenic drive, Artist Point, from which you can view the multichromatic rocks known as Artists Palette.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
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| Is he trying to say we’re going to walk our butts off? |
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| Our goal was the highest dune, the one on the far right. |
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| Lesson learned at White Sands = stay on top of the ridges! |
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| Success! |
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| Down was only marginally easier. |
Mosaic Canyon
After pouring a couple cups of sand out of my boots and changing my socks — TBG faired better tackling the dunes in his bare feet — we headed off for another canyon hike.
Salt Creek Interpretive Loop
On our way back south, we stopped in Stovepipe Wells Village to check it out. We had our swimming gear with us in case we felt like a dip in the pool there, which is half the price of the pool down at Furnace Creek, but it was closed, possibly due to a temporary power outage. Instead we relaxed for a bit in the wooden rocking chairs on the porch. Then we made another quick stop at a developed trail.
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| Salt Lick |
While we were looking at the gazillion pupfish from the boardwalk, we spotted something else in the water.
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| The pool was open for this little chuckwalla! |
Dante’s Ridge
Our intent was to take off from this viewpoint for a sunset hike because the paper’s description had made it sound like it was a rolling trek that followed the ridgeline.
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| It was too edgy, with a sheer climb just around that corner. |
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| We walked out on a much wider, but shorter, path on the opposite ridge instead. |
The sunset never really panned out, though, and we headed back home before the sky lost all its light, watching the Pallid bats flittering overhead, using the sunset to reset their magnetic compasses. That’s a FFF™ I just learned because I noticed that the bats always flew in the same direction every evening and had to know why.
Grotto Canyon
We wanted to do a hike called Little Bridge Canyon, but the directions were a bit unclear, and we ended up here instead, probably one canyon away from the target. The road in was a misery, but I only scraped bottom once. 😐
Harmony Borax Works
Again, we made a quick stop on our way back from hiking to check out the quarter-mile interpretive trail for some ruins of a borax refinery. It was only mildly interesting since all the info and even much of the same preserved equipment can be viewed and learned about at the VCs and museum grounds.
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| TBG went out that evening for some night photography. |
Fall Canyon
Most of the canyon hikes begin with serious paddle-footing through small, loose gravel before they get to the good stuff, and Fall Canyon was no different in that respect. They all generally offer up very good stuff if you stick with it.
Although we’d been delighted already by our first chuckwalla sightings, this canyon was home to much larger adult chuckies.
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| Unbelievable camouflage! |
Golden Canyon
We couldn’t have planned it better than to make this our last hike in the park. Not surprisingly, it’s a very popular one, but we managed to keep away from the crowds by exploring the side canyons and occasionally hanging back or speeding up to create our own hiking “pockets.”
Life and Death in the Valley
A lizard becoming the food of its food, a bighorn sheep that met its demise at the bottom of the waterfall, a tiny lizard femur not much bigger than the grains of sand high up on the dunes, and a coyote’s paw were reminders of the valley’s unrelenting elements.
Small, but brilliant wildflowers were reminders that life goes on.
Keep the faith, everyone.
COMMENTS
We agree that a 7-10 day stay is the minimum for most parks, and Death Valley is especially large and diverse so it deserves a nice long visit. You had time to do so much. I have to say that I am a little surprised you didn’t take advantage of the wilderness option of just traveling anywhere you want…. if anyone could handle that, it would be you two! But you did see several trails that are off the beaten path (or not in the park newspaper, which amounts to the same thing). I’ll bet there were no crowds on those trails. 🙂
You can hike/walk a lot further in Badwater Basin, and we may have kept going if not for the wind that day. The sand dunes were great, and it was so funny to hear an occasional other hiker summiting a crest. The last step up onto a ridge is the hardest (as I’m sure you also recall from your previous dune explorations) and everyone makes an “oof!” sound when they finally stumble onto the ridgeline 😀 There is such a variety of hiking and activities to do there, I know you guys will love it someday!
Seeing your photos of the wildflowers and all of those chuckwallas makes me think we should consider an early spring visit! We were there in December and loved the cool temps for hiking, but I would like to see critters and flowers (no rattlers hiding beneath the sand, though).
TBG has become the master in trail pointing! Good Job.
I think you have a thing with the lizards and chuckwallas, they seem to show off when you are around! But have you seen the biggest lizard on earth? Well, check my Komodo Island post 🙂
Those lizards really do seem to sit up and pose for us. This is why I have to stay away from the Komodo dragons — they would probably like to take a bite out of us!