One Day In Death Valley National Park
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Death Valley National Park was a weird wilderness that I would highly recommend anyone to go to! We visited and spent about six hours here and that was just the perfect time. We also chose to travel during Winter (late November) so the heat didn’t totally kill us.
Where Is It?
Death Valley National Park is West of Las Vegas and just prior to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It s a two-hour drive from Vegas. Since it is through literal desert wilderness you MUST download the GPS route there and back before getting there. About thirty minutes into your drive you will not have service until you come back to that point later. When you are about a half-hour from the entrance STOP AND GET GAS unless you want to run out or have to pay $3 or more extra at the ONE gas station in the park. You will not make it through the park with less than 3/4 tank.
How To Find It?
The park has multiple entrances, but I recommend entering in at Devil’s Gate and exiting at the entrance below it (through the “town”). There is a pay box at each entrance that accepts cards and gives out maps, if you have a pass you do not need to pay.
Things To Know…
This is a National Park! There are bathrooms, multiple hikes and more. There is a small “town” in two locations in the park, but bringing outside food and water is recommended. Speaking of water this is the HOTTEST place. Even in Winter it was warm. Bring 2-4 liters of water per person and plenty of food. Also, you’ll see signs, but if you have a rental car keep in mind they typically do not have spares and towing can cost around $1k so DO NOT drive offroad if you can help it. We actually took one “backroad” and decided against doing it again.
Must Sees…
We only had the time to spend one day here. So we started at Devil’s Gate. As soon as you enter the park (after driving through what feels like Mars) you’ll seem to get dropped right into the Valley. Stop to pay your entrance fee on the right and turn to the left and you’ll see a crazy view. (This is not the view - this is outside the park. I didn’t want to ruin it for you.)
Next we went to the iconic sand dunes. When I say this is literally a bunch of sand dumped in one spot I’m entirely correct. However it goes on for miles and feels very outerworldly and definetly worth it. It is a decent amount of unsteady ground however that will require a decent amount of walking.
Next we passed Salt Creek and then went on to take a backroad trek to Furnace Creek. This is a real creek that in summer is deeper than winter. This is an ADA approved roundtrip boardwalk above the creek. There is a variety of wildlife that can be seen here.
After we drove down past Devil’s Golf Course and onto Badwater Basin. Once parked we walked out to the middle of Badwater Basin for some photos. It was about a mile walk there and back. This was the highlight of the trip and definetly worth getting up close and personal with.
After, we drove up through the one way road to Artists Point. This was a neat drive with a few spots to pull off at. In the end we took the exit out through the town and made our way back to Vegas. We drive through some scenery that is worth the different exit on the way back to the city - even some horse farm. We even saw more wildlife here than in the park! Although some weird Google reviews rate this park low I thought it was an incredible landscape to see! It was multifaceted and had a lot to offer!
