Enjoy my Death Valley Story! Make sure you scroll all the way to the end to see my photo album!
Death Valley National Park is the fifth largest National Park in America. (Only the State of Alaska has four larger National Parks!) Death Valley covers 3.4 million acres and is located mainly in the State of California, with a small portion of the Park located in Nevada. It is also the hottest and driest National Park in America. On July 10, 1913, the Furnace Creek area in Death Valley National Park officially recorded a temperature of 134 degrees. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth! Needless to say, the best time to visit Death Valley National Park is from November through March. I highly recommend that you do not visit this Park during the summer months!!
Death Valley also boasts a 600-foot-deep Volcanic Crater (called “Ubehebe”). If that is not enough for you, it also has sand dunes, trails with slot canyons, large salt flats, a badlands area, an amazing artist drive, beautiful viewpoints, endangered Pupfish, and it once even had a Castle (“Scotty’s Castle”)!
We will always remember Death Valley as a very beautiful and diverse National Park, and honestly, it really surprised us! It also contains the lowest point of elevation in America! A part of this National Park goes from a whopping 282 feet below sea level (at Badwater Basin) to 11,049 feet at Telescope Peak (in the Panamint Mountains).
This National Park also has a lot of wildlife located throughout the entire Park, (Death Valley has nearly 400 species of native wildlife!) even with extreme high temperatures in the summertime! We saw endangered Pupfish, roadrunners and coyotes while we visited the Park. They also have bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, jack rabbits, skinks, rattlesnakes, salamanders, toads, iguanas, invasive burros, lizards and scorpions. Death Valley really does offer the visitor a lot of amazing things to see and do in the Park.
More about the castle below.
Just for your information, we visited Death Valley almost ten years ago! We were a lot younger and heavier back then, and since that time, we have lost a total of 100 pounds! We decided (back then) that if we were going to continue to visit and hike a lot of America’s National Parks, we needed to get into better shape in order to do it! And, thankfully, we did lose the weight! We do not have to continue to hike just the “easy” trails in the national parks anymore. We are now able to hike more Moderate Trails in all the parks! YAY! So, you may notice a BIG difference in our appearance in some of the pictures I posted in this BLOG. However, the images we took in Death Valley National Park are so beautiful that I just had to post them anyway! So, do not look at US in the pictures… look at ONLY the beautiful scenery all around us!! LOL!!
Hottest, Driest, and Lowest National Park
We decided to visit Death Valley in the month of February, (which is not a typical month we usually travel…unless it is to a place like Death Valley National Park). At the time, we were visiting the Las Vegas area and decided to take some time to also visit Death Valley. The temperature was just right; not hot and just a little cool in certain areas we visited in the Park. FYI: Death Valley National Park is only 126 miles from Las Vegas. It is just a 2-hour drive! We stayed a few days at what was once known as the Ranch at Furnace Creek. The old hotel we stayed at was originally built in 1933 and was located near the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center and an RV Park. The Ranch at Furnace Creek was extensively remodeled several years ago and is now known as: The Ranch at Death Valley. There is also The Inn at Death Valley right next door! These two hotels are known as The Oasis in Death Valley, and they now have an 18-hole golf course, very large pool area, sports courts, an ice cream parlor, and some nice places to dine (The Ranch 1849 Restaurant, The Pool Cafe and The Inn Dining Room). If you want a cold one, there is the Wild Rose Tavern and The Last Kind Words Saloon. This whole area has become a beautiful resort-style “Oasis” located right in the middle of a very dry and hot desert terrain. So, do some research (online) regarding “The Oasis at Death Valley” because now it looks like you can stay, in style, when you visit Death Valley National Park!
While you are visiting the National Park, food is available for you to purchase at the following locations: Stovepipe Wells, Panamint Springs, and Furnace Creek. One important note: It is my understanding that this is one of the National Parks in America that does not allow pets into the Park. Sorry, all pet owners!
Also, not too long ago, Death Valley National Park experienced unprecedented flooding, and some areas of the Park were closed for several months. So, before you visit the Park, please make sure you go online and check with the National Park Service to find out the current conditions in the Park.
Just a little history about Scotty’s Castle and the area around the old castle site:
The “Castle” was built by Albert Mussey Johnson in the early 1900s as a vacation getaway for him and his wife. When we previously visited the Park, this area was a great place to take a break, relax and eat some lunch. There were plenty of picnic tables in the shade around the Castle area for visitors who wanted to relax for a little while. This is also the area in the Park where we saw some Coyotes. They were coming down from the hills above the castle area to beg for some food from the tourists. We, of course, did not feed the coyotes; we only took some great pictures of them. We did, however, see other people give them food. Please remember that it is never a good idea to feed the wildlife you encounter while in the great outdoors!
I understand that “Scotty’s Castle” is no longer standing. The structure was first flooded a few years ago and then eventually destroyed by a fire. Currently, there is fundraising going on to try to help rebuild Scotty’s Castle…I hope they are successful in raising the funds they need to rebuild the Castle! I have included an old picture of what Scotty’s Castle used to look like before it was destroyed by fire.
If you are a big movie fan, some scenes from the following motion pictures were filmed in Death Valley National Park:
Kings Solomon’s Mines, Spartacus, Tarzan, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
And, if you are a Star Wars fan (please tell me who isn’t?), there were plenty of scenes filmed in the Park for Star Wars: A New Hope and Return of the Jedi movies. The area where R2-D2 and C-3PO get lost in the sand dunes was filmed at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes area of the Park.
The sand-crawler station was set up at the Artist’s Palette area of the Park, and if you are a fan of the planet Tatooine, you definitely need to visit this Park!
R2-D2
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Hotel Sidi Driss, used for the Lars homestead scenes
Little Animal Prints in the Sand
Not a Star Wars fan? (I cannot even imagine that!) Then, how about Indiana Jones movies? Surely, you liked some of the “Indy” movies (I loved most of them!)? Scenes from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade were also filmed at this Park. A lot of the scenes where Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. (played by actor Sean Connery) was searching for the Holy Grail with his son, Indy, a/k/a “Junior” (played by Harrison Ford) were filmed at Death Valley National Park! The surreal-looking landscape with dry, desolate canyons and large sand dune areas were ideal for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie settings.
YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS!
If you just want to take some Hikes, Drives, and stop at some Lookout Points:
A really fun hike we took while visiting the Park was the Mosaic Canyon Trail. This is a moderate hiking trail (a 984-foot elevation change over 3.5 miles, roundtrip; it will take approximately 2 hours to hike the trail), and it has very pretty scenery and a “narrows” section that you can hike through. The narrows area is so close in some areas that you can easily reach out and touch the slick, polished canyon walls on each side of you.
(A word of caution: Do not hike any “narrows” type of trail if there is a chance of rain nearby or within the vicinity. Flash floods happen very quickly, and it does not have to be raining in your immediate area to cause flash flooding. So, take some time to look up (online) the “dangers of flash-flooding” in (normally) very dry areas out West. (The information can save your life!) Make sure you are always “weather aware” before you hike any trail (especially a trail that takes you through some “narrows” areas)!
Another great area to visit is the Badwater Basin and the Badwater Salt Flats. If you walk out onto the salt flats for a few minutes and then turn around to walk back, make sure you look up at the mountain in front of you. You will see a sign way up on the mountain that indicates where the actual sea level is located. You are presently standing 282 feet below sea level!! For your information, the salt flats cover almost 200 square miles and are mostly sodium chloride (table salt), along with borax, gypsum and calcite. (We really liked visiting this area of the Park, and we have a great picture of the sign indicating that we were 282 feet below sea level!)
The lowest point in North America is a surreal landscape of vast salt flats.
When we visited the Park, the endangered Salt Creek Pupfish were only found in the central part of Death Valley National Park at the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail. (Check with the Park Rangers to make sure that they are still happily swimming around at this location.) If so, you can take an easy hike on some raised wooden boardwalks so you can view the little Pupfish swimming in the waters on each side of the boardwalk trail. It is amazing that Pupfish continue to survive in such a harsh environment with very little water available to them.
Pupfish
A great scenic drive is the Artists Drive/Artists Palette. This one-way drive is nine (9) miles long, and it is where you can see beautiful colors of volcanic rock hillsides that formed millions of years ago. Erosion in the Park exposed red, pink, yellow, green, and purple colors all along the hillsides, and it can all be seen right from your car. You do not have to hike at all!
Some more scenic areas you should not miss while visiting the Park:
Ubehebe Volcanic Crater: We drove 30 miles from the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes to Ubehebe Volcanic Crater and experienced a 30-degree drop in the temperature (the weather got cold and windy, very quickly), so make sure you bring a jacket with you to Death Valley National Park)! The Crater is 600 feet deep and half a mile across. It is a Maar Volcano and it was created by steam and gas, which eventually exploded 2,100 years ago. It is a really amazing crater to see and the landscape around the crater area looks very surreal. You can actually take a hike on the rim trail around the top edge of the Crater. Just be very careful not to fall into the Crater, especially on windy days! When we visited Ubehebe, it was much too cold and windy to risk a hike around the top edge of the crater rim!
There is also a Natural Bridge Trail, which is an easy one-mile hike, and (in the Stovepipe Wells Village area), there is an easy two-mile hike to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Sand dunes are always fun areas to visit. If you are lucky, you can sometimes see footprints left in the sand by some animals that have recently visited the dunes before you arrived.
Dante’s View Valley Overlook: This area of Death Valley National Park is one of the best views in the Park! It looks out at the Panamint Mountain Range in the distance and over the Badwater Basin/Salt Flats area. (Which are incredible to see from the top of this 5,575 ft. overlook on the ridge of the Black Mountains.) It is a 45-minute drive from the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center to this area, and it is well worth the drive. When we visited the area, it was chilly and very windy, so make sure you also take your jacket with you to this overlook area.
Zabriskie Point Overlook: This area of the Park is also very scenic and is one of the most photographed areas in the entire Park. It is an easy (paved) .4 mile roundtrip trail with only a 52-foot elevation change. The viewpoint looks over the Badlands, the Salt Flats, and the Panamint Mountains. It is also a great place to be during a sunrise and a sunset in the Park.
The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes area has pretty views of the very large sand dune fields that are also located in this incredible Park. We have seen and hiked on many sand dunes and we always enjoy our time visiting the dune fields.
If you are interested, Harmony Borax Works is a .4-mile trail in the Park that takes you to an old borax processing area. We did not hike this trail when we were at the Park because we ran out of time!
Another interesting thing to see (if you have time) is the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns. Ten (10) beehive-sharpened structures were built in the 1800s to produce charcoal.
Death Valley is also another International Dark Sky Park and is open 24 hours a day. The best areas to view the night skies at Death Valley are at: Zabriskie Point, Mesquite Salt Flat Sand Dunes, Badwater Basin, Ubehebe Crater, and Harmony Borax Works.
We really enjoyed our time visiting and hiking in Death Valley National Park. It was a lot of fun, and we were very surprised at all the different types of landscapes throughout the Park. We went from sand dunes to a crater area that was 30 degrees colder (in just 30 minutes). We went from 282 feet below sea level to Dante’s View, overlooking the large salt flats. We saw endangered Pupfish and hungry coyotes! “Diverse” is the correct word to use when you describe this beautiful National Park in America. So, go see Death Valley National Park for yourself…Just do not visit the Park during the summer months! I am sure you will also be totally amazed and might even recognize some of the locations used in the scenes of some of your favorite movies of all time! And, most importantly, when you visit any of America’s National Parks - ”May The Force (Of Nature) Be With You…ALWAYS”!
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