Having grown up in the desert, the idea of taking a trip to Death Valley National Park did not excite me. I have seen lots of badlands and deserts from the Chihuahuan, to the Sonoran to the Mojave.
What I was not prepared for was how surprised I was by the park’s uniqueness. If you have never visited Death Valley, I highly recommend it. It is worth the effort to get there.
We flew into Las Vegas and stayed in Pahrump Nevada, one of the closest towns to the Park’s southern entrance. It is about an hour’s drive from Pahrump to the park entrance and then another forty-five minutes to the visitor’s center.
Be Sure To Stop At Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point is an absolute must see on the way into the park. Zabriskie was the vice-president of Pacific Coast Borax Mining. That company owned and operated large scale borax operations in what is now Death Valley National Park.
This is further proof of my long held theory that most National Parks are created only after private industry has gotten every dollar it can take out of the land. Once companies create an environmental disaster, it is time to turn things over to the government for a national park. Same thing happened with Big Bend and the Guadalupe Mountains.
Death Valley still has a lot of contaminated areas as a result of mining in the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries. The park was not created until mining played out in the 1930s.
But Zabriskie’s Point is still amazing. It is made up of the sediments from an ancient lake that dried up more than 5 million years ago, before Death Valley was formed.
Natural Bridge Trail
From there we traveled to the Furnace Creek visitors center and turned south to Badwater Basin, stopping to hike the Natural Bridge Trail. It took a good 20-30 minutes driving over a rough desert road after tuning off the paved park road to reach the trail head.
The Salt Flats of Badwater Basin
I have visited the Texas Salt Flats out by Dell City, but the salt flats of Death Valley dwarf those in size. We dropped down to 200-feet below sea level. The temperature rose 5-10 degrees as we descended. I was glad we were visiting on a cold day in March.
One of the Rangers said many people come in summer to experience the extreme heat. It can get up to 130 degrees at Badwater Basin in the summer. I will take their word for it. March or April are a great time to visit.
On our way back from Badwater Basin we took in the Artists Pallette. It takes its name from the different colors and hues produced by minerals in the mountains.
Ubehebe Crater
Next we drove another hour north to see and hike Ubehebe Crater. It is a a large volcanic crater 600-feet deep and a half-mile across. The craters is relatively young as far as Death Valley goes. It was created by a huge volcanic explosion a mere 2,100 years ago.
It is hard to imagine the forces that could create such a crater, and spew out the large cinder field of lava and rock that surrounds the site. The damage done to the surrounding area is still visible to this day.
If you only have time for one day at Death Valley, like we did, these are just a few of the highlights you can choose from. But as the largest National Park in the lower 48 states there is no way you could exhaust it even if you had a week or more.
Death Valley feels sort of like a fantasy world, or something out of a movie. Indeed, George Lucas shot several scenes from Star Wars in the Park. There is even a tour you can take to visit those locatoins.
It is not easy to get to Death Valley. There are limited accommodations in the Park. Plan to take everything you are going to need, especially food and water.
If you want to stay in the Park plan early. Everything was full when we tried to book months in advance. Because of the distances, staying in the Park will allow you to maximize your time there.
I highly recommend it.
