As has been our custom of the past several years, we try to get away from the Bay Area for the end of year holidays. This year was no different. Shortly after returning from our camping trip in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park we did end up spending Christmas in San Francisco, but by midweek, we were on the road, heading towards Death Valley National Park.
This was not our first time spending the last month of the year in the “hottest, driest and lowest” national park. We had spent December 31, 2011, there, getting up early-ish to see the first sunrise of 2012 at Zabriskie Point. However, this time, a rare phenomenon resulting from historic flooding due to Hurricane Hilary in August of 2023, brought us: a shallow lake had formed over Badwater Basin creating a mirror-like effect when the conditions were right. I wasn’t unfamiliar with this type of occurrence; the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia perhaps being the most well-known (and on my list to visit), but to be able to see a similar event right here in our home state was quite another matter.
We spent two days in Death Valley National Park, hitting all the highlights, but it felt like we only scratched the surface of what the park had to offer.
Read on or watch a video of the highlights:
To get to Death Valley we decided to take the slightly longer but more scenic route that took us due east of San Francisco, just skirting Lake Tahoe, before turning south on Highway 395.
We paralleled the Sierras, driving past Yosemite and Mammoth Lakes before stopping in Independence for the night. Traffic hadn’t been bad, and our route sure beat the boredom of Interstate 5. While there wasn’t much open – it’s a pretty small town – we found a taco truck, got some food, and relaxed in our quaint cabin at Mt. Williamson Motel and Basecamp.
The next morning we departed bright and early, stopping for breakfast in Lone Pine. From there we turned onto CA-136 which eventually became CA-190, the main road that traverses the park. We left the desert plains behind us and started climbing up the Darwin Plateau, the road twisting and turning as it wound around the canyons. From Father Crowley Vista Point, we peered into Rainbow Canyon where the military used to perform test flights before a fatal accident put an end to that practice.
Dropping down into the valley, we drove towards the Panamint Range. After clearing the mountains, we descended into Death Valley and arrived at Stovepipe Wells Village around noon. Reserving a camping spot is on a first-come, first-served basis this time of year and we had no problems securing one for ourselves. We spent the next hour or so setting up our shelter and tent, while we had daylight hours, before jumping back into Axle and heading towards Ubehebe Crater.
Ubehebe Crater Hike
It’s about 47 miles from the Stovepipe Wells campground to Ubehebe Crater, most of it on Scotty’s Castle Road, which is paved. We had never been to the northern part of the park so this was a new experience for us. Approaching the parking lot next to the crater, we could see the rims of multiple craters dotting the landscape. It was an otherworldly landscape and I couldn’t believe that I had not heard of this place until I started planning for this trip.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking up to Little Hebe Crater and then around and into Ubehebe Crater. From the crater’s rim we had sweeping views of the black cinder fields, not a vista that I had associated with Death Valley.
Inside Ubehebe Crater, at the bottom, we found a dried up mud flat, pinkish-brown in color. Walking in the sand made for a good workout, and while going down had been fun and relatively quick, making our way out of the crater had my heart pumping fast as my feet kept sliding.
I’m glad we did the 1.5 mile loop, plus going into and out of the main crater. The entire experience, including the drive, had only taken a few hours, and by the time we were back at camp, we still had about an hour of daylight to finish setting up camp and begin cooking.
That night we ate dinner while watching the moon rise. Next time we’ll have to remember to time our visit around the new moon, after all, Death Valley is a designated International Dark Sky park. We were in bed by nine with plans to get up early the next day to watch the sunrise over Zabriskie Point.
Zabriskie Point
Sunrise was at 7:00 so we were up at 5:30 to ensure that we had plenty of time to get ready and be at Zabriskie point by 6:30 to snag a parking spot. Armed with coffee, we drove in the darkness, while a few headlights off in the distance made us realize that we were not the only ones up, and likely all headed for the same place. As we pulled into the Zabriskie Point parking lot, well before 6:30, I couldn’t believe it was practically full, but luckily, we managed to snag one of the last spots near the entrance.
Many people were hanging around the lookout, however, we decided to walk to the area just below it so that we’d have an unobstructed view of the valley. The sky was already starting to lighten up and by 6:45, the first rays of sun were painting the wispy clouds a bright orange and casting a yellow tinge over the hills, enhancing their peaks and folds.
As the sun rose higher the first brushes of red touched the tops of the Panamint Range in front of us. By 7:15, the mountains of the Amargosa Range behind us were basking in an orange glow. We stayed until 7:35 to watch the intensifying light interact with the terrain and then left, in an effort to stay ahead of the crowds, for Badwater Basin, the main reason for our visit.
Badwater Basin
Fortunately, most of the cars leaving the sunrise viewing at Zabriskie Point continued north, possibly towards Furnace Creek Inn or the village itself near the Ranch at Death Valley to either go back to sleep or get breakfast. We were one of the few cars that turned south onto 190 towards Badwater.
There was ample parking when we arrived and the few people that were standing at the edge of the water were heading back to their cars. For a brief moment we were the only ones there.
As far as the eye could see, the water, about 2 inches deep, looked like it extended all the way to the Panamint Range in the west and touched the Amargosa Range in the north. I knew the lake wasn’t that large but the water, smooth as glass, seemed to stretch endlessly towards the horizon. Photos taken of the mountains, perfectly reflected in the water’s stillness, made it difficult to tell what was up and what was down. It was absolutely stunning, and I could not believe that we were lucky enough to see it, considering how long ago the rains had fallen.
We walked along the shore of the lake, the salt underneath our feet flattened down by so many others before us that it looked like packed snow. With the help of friendly strangers, we got photos of ourselves standing in the water; it looked like we were poised on a giant pane of glass.
By now almost an hour had passed and more people were showing up; it was our cue to leave. The parking lot was full, and cars were circling around waiting for our spot.
Before returning to Furnace Creek, we stopped at Devils Golf Course, located on the northern tip of Badwater Basin, to do a photo shoot with Axle, Jr. scaling the jagged outcroppings of salt. He definitely turned a few heads. It was as much fun taking pictures of him as it had been to build him.
Golden Canyon
After an early lunch of sandwiches purchased from the General Store in Furnace Creek, we were rested and refueled for our hike in the Golden Canyon. We had done this one before as a short out-and-back. Today we’d be doing a longer loop that included Gower Gulch. I was hoping the trailhead would be less busy; it was noon when we arrived and I thought everyone would be having lunch, however, that was not case. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for a spot in the parking lot.
The first mile of the flat and wide trail through the canyon was quite busy. When we reached the junction with the half-mile spur leading to the Red Cathedral most people turned back and almost no one continued farther into the canyons.
We made the detour to the Red Cathedral, the reddish rock formation which is visible from the main trail, but didn’t scale the last section to stand on a prominence that offered a close up look of them. Ironically, we felt that the Red Cathedral was better admired from afar. The closer we got, the less red it looked.
Back at the junction, we continued on the trail, which ascended through a narrow canyon before we found ourselves on a flat area with uninterrupted views of the Red Cathedral and Manly Beacon. The trail continued steeply along the base of Manly Beacon, before cresting and dropping us into the midst of the golden badlands. We hiked to the top of one hill and could see Zabriskie Point in the distance.
It’s actually possible to continue on this hike to Zabriskie Point, but since we had already been there that morning, we turned left towards Gower Gulch to loop back to the parking lot. Most of the trail through Gower Gulch was easy but not particularly picturesque or fun. My shoes kept sinking into the deep gravel. However, as we approached the last mile, we came to a slot canyon with colorful rocks, did a little bit of scrambling and popped out into the open. The rest of the way was a long, flat walk back to the car.
Artists Palette
We had one more site to see: Artists Palette. Like Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon, we had been here before but some places are worth re-visiting, and this was one of them.
It was around 3:30 P.M. when we entered Artist Drive. We had intentionally planned on doing this towards the end of the day, when the light from the setting sun would really intensify the colors splashed across the hills. While the highlight of the drive is Artists Palette, an area where the colors are particularly vibrant and concentrated across a small section of hills, the whole loop is beautiful.
Many cars were already parked alongside the road leading to the Artist Palette parking lot so we grabbed the first spot we saw. Rather than take the trail, which leads into the canyon, we walked up the hills on the right and explored the different views from our distant vantage point. It really did look as if a painter had taken a giant brush and painted the hills varying shades of green, purple, pink, red and orange. As we walked farther south, some of the lower lying foothills, their tops dotted with colors, came into view.
The sun was starting to drop behind the larger mountains to the west so we decided to continue our drive while it was still light out. The road twisted through the colorful canyons and the tops of the larger hills turned bright orange as they caught the last of the sun’s rays. We exited Artist Drive and turned north to head back to camp. In our rear view mirror, we could see the sky, a crimson red.
We pulled into our tent site around 5:00 P.M. It had been a long day, but filled with so much adventure that it didn’t register we’d been on the go for over 12 hours. As the stars came out, we ate dinner around our camp fire, reflecting on the many things we had seen and done that day. Tomorrow would bring another early start; we had one final activity planned on top of needing to drive all the way to Carlsbad to spend New Year’s Eve with friends.
Mosaic Canyon
Saturday morning we rose again at 5:30 to break down camp and pack up the car. While we started in darkness, it wasn’t until sunrise before we finished. By the time we left and headed for Mosaic Canyon, it was already 8:00. We could see the parking lot from the campground and there were only a few other cars at the trailhead by the time we arrived.
We entered the canyon and quickly found ourselves walking through a narrow channel flanked by white rock, smooth like alabaster, that curved with the trail. Eventually we exited the canyon and came out into wide wash, striated hills soaring up on either side of us.
The trail ascended to another section, called the boulder jam, with more scrambling before heading up a steep, sandy hill.
On the other side, we followed the trail through the last set of narrows before it abruptly ended in front of a sheer wall of rock, or dryfall. It seemed a bit anti-climatic to end the hike like this, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was on the other side, if there was possibly some amazing view that we were missing out on. No doubt people with more climbing experience than us have found a way to scale the dryfall, but not being one of them, I contemplated it for a second, and then we turned back.
Clouds were rolling in as we returned to the car. By the time we reached the other side of Death Valley, the first raindrops began to fall. As we turned onto Panamint Valley Road, the rain fell harder and I couldn’t help but think how lucky we were for the second time that day.
Coda
Death Valley is an amazing national park with a variety of activities that perhaps one doesn’t immediately associate with it. It’s not just a desert, with an endless expanse of sand (although there is plenty of that). Funnily enough, on this trip the two of us experienced Death Valley as if it was the first time. Since visiting in 2011, we had completely forgotten everything we had done back then except for watching the sunrise over Zabriskie Point and exploring Devil’s Golf Course. When we looked at old photos we were surprised to learn that we had done pretty much the exact the same things again. We both got a good laugh out of that discovery.
One thing that was noticeably absent from our visit was a walk out to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. It wasn’t entirely an oversight. We prefer the Kelso Sand Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve to the south. They are much bigger and typically far less crowded. Every time we drove past the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, the parking lot was packed with cars and we could see throngs of people clambering over the dunes. It wasn’t something we felt like we needed to be a part of.