Death Valley in one long day
I tried my first post a few of hours ago but nothing has come up so I'm posting again. Hopefully this won't be a duplicate.
We were going to go to Death Valley next weekend and spend the night at Stove Pipe Wells but we may have to leave early the next morning to pick up friends in Vegas on our way to Zion so we're thinking about doing Death Valley in one day. We'll be heading out early AM from near Red Rock Canyon and we'll go until dark, eating meals along the way. These are the places that we'd like to go in the order that seems to be the most efficient route.
Dante's View
20 Mule Team Canyon
Zabriskie's Point
Badwater
Devil's Golf Course
Artist's Drive
Golden Canyon Trail
Salt Creek Flats- pupfish
Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes
Mosaic Canyon
Other than Golden and Mosaic Canyons, it sounds like most of these are drives or short stops but I have no idea how long it takes to get from one place to another. If anybody can give me an idea so I will now how we're doing time wise, that would be great.
I read that Zabriskie's Point is best at sunset or early morning but then we'd have to back track to pick up 20 Mule Team Canyon and Dante's View. Is it worth doing that?
I had also planned to finish up at the Sand Dunes near sunset but then I read that the sun sets there 90 min earlier than other places. If that is the case, would we be able to go to Mosaic Canyon after the dunes or does the sun set early in the canyon too?
Do we need to see Golden Canyon and Mosaic Canyon or does seeing one give you a feel for the other? If we have to cut something, any suggestions as to what to cut first?
TIA!
The timeline is a little challenged!
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Originally Posted by
mdod
I tried my first post a few of hours ago but nothing has come up so I'm posting again. Hopefully this won't be a duplicate.
Sorry, you had a problem the first time -- thanks for reposting and Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum!
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We were going to go to Death Valley next weekend and spend the night at Stove Pipe Wells
Where are you starting from?
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but we may have to leave early the next morning to pick up friends in Vegas on our way to Zion so we're thinking about doing Death Valley in one day.
It's a good three hours from Las Vegas to the park and so you are looking at a very long day... but here's my suggestions
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We'll be heading out early AM from near Red Rock Canyon and we'll go until dark, eating meals along the way. These are the places that we'd like to go in the order that seems to be the most efficient route.
Oh, so if I read this correctly -- you are planning to start in Summerlin, drive to Death Valley, drive around Death Valley and still reach Zion that night? If you left at sun-up --it could be done, I guess.
Death Valley is one of my favorite parks in America -- I can easily spend weeks at a time in there -- but given your time-table this is what I suggest:
Take the local's route to Death Valley Junction and follow CA-190 into the park. (I would take a miss on Dante's View this time -- )
Drive the one-way Twenty Mule Canyon -- one of the best drives in the park
Stop at Zabriskie's Point -- Views are incredible.
Go to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center -- pay your fee and get the maps GO TO THE MUSEUM
Drive to Mosiac Canyon (Stove Pipe Wells area)
Re-trace your path to Badwater
As you head north again stop at the Devil's Golf course
Take the Artists Palette Drive (it is great at sunset -- but you don't have this luxury)
Golden Canyon
Go back to Furnace Creek -- Drive up to the Furnace Creek Inn and marvel at the gardens
Head back to Las Vegas - if it's not too late -- you can take the side trip to Dante's View
This will take about 10 hours....
Mark
Death Valley then Zion the next day
Thanks for the comments Mark and UKCraig.
To clarify our plans, we're leaving for Death Valley from a friend's house near Red Rock Canyon early Sunday AM. We are thinking about going back to their house that Sun night instead of staying overnight. We have reservations in Zion Monday night and I was planning on using Mon as a flex day to check out some views of DV at sunrise and catch anything else we wanted to see and head for Zion. Another couple is also going to Zion but they wanted to visit friends in Vegas instead of going to Death Valley. We were going to catch with them in Zion but my husband is pushing to picking them up in Vegas and driving with them so they won't have to get a separate rental car. If we did that we'd have to leave pretty early and still have 5 hours drive to Zion so I figured it might be better to just do DV in a day and get a good night's sleep and then drive the 3 hrs to Zion.
do not miss dantes view!!
Dante's View late in the day
I read that it's a 20-30 min drive out to Dante's View. Sunset is at 7:08. Any idea when we would have to leave Golden Canyon to have enough time to see Dante's View?
Actually, you are missing one of favorite parts
I really like the approach from the west -- One of my favorite places to watch the sunset is from Panamint Springs as the sun's raking light turns the Cottowood Mountains golden and orange. Even if with your tight schedule I would be tempted to suggest that when you leave mosaic canyon that you continue west on CA-190 so you can get the opportunity to drive to the top of Towne Pass and enjoy the winding descent into Panamint Springs. I would keep on going as far as Father Crowley Point -- get out enjoy the views and then turn east again -- Stop at Panamint Springs -- enjoy one of their signature ice teas -- marvel at the Redwood Burl bar and climb the hill again for the rapid descent into the valley.
Mark
Finding the right balance is the challenge
We know we can't see everything. So how long is the drive out to Panamint Springs? It looked like a long way which is why I wasn't planning on going there. There's another issue too. The friends we're staying with in Vegas want to come with us for at least part of the trip. We will not be able to cover as much ground if they stay with us the whole time. Would you still suggest going to Panamint Springs if it meant dropping Golden Canyon Trail?
Trip Report for Death Valley
I posted my entire trip report at Fodor's forums but I wanted to copy the Death Valley section here too since you guys helped me out a lot.
Our plans got turned around when our original flight was cancelled. Then we ended up having to go to an Urgent Care Center to have 25 cc of fluid drained out of my husband's elbow (from bursitis?) when we landed in Vegas so Red Rock was out but we did have a nice dinner with our friends.
Our friends know that we pack a lot into our days but they said they wanted to drive with us to Death Valley to see the wildflowers and the Pupfish. I told them we only had a day to see the place so we'd need to leave early if they were driving with us. I would have left at 6 AM but we gave them a break and aimed for 7 AM ;-). We hit the road from the north side of Vegas at 7:15 AM and arrived at Zabriskie's Point at 9:15. What an impressive intro to Death Valley. Next stop was the Furnace Creek Visitor's Center and Museum. There were scattered wildflowers along the road and a rock garden with wildflowers at the visitor’s center. They said this year's display wasn't much but, seeing AN Y flowers in Death Valley is amazing to me. I didn’t get my camera out quickly enough to get a picture of the roadside elevation sign for Furnace Creek (Elevation -190 Feet) and then forgot to take one later. We spent about 20 minutes at the museum and then headed to Salt Creek Flats to walk the boardwalk along the creek and watch the spawning Pupfish. It was entertaining to see the males chase off other males that came into their territory while the females seemed to hide out in groups, probably trying to get some rest from those pesky males.
We’ve seen and climbed big sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, NC so we decided to just admire Devil’s Cornfield and Mesquite Flats Dunes from the car but Mosaic Canyon is definitely worth a hike. We got there around noon and spent 90 minutes wandering around in there. The first part of the trail has a really neat slot canyon with curved, winding, smooth canyon walls. Near the end of the narrow section there is an area of large smooth rocks that you have to climb up in order to continue on. Many people were having trouble with that, including our friends. IMHO, you’ve seen the best part of the trail by then anyway so don’t sweat it if you can’t get past those rocks. Shortly after that, the canyon opens up and you walk along a wide gravel path. We veered off on the footpath that climbs up a small ridge on the right that parallels the trail. The path is narrow with steep scree slopes on both sides. I wasn’t too proud to go back down on my butt! If you look back toward the trailhead from the top of the ridge, you get a great view past the canyon walls and into the main valley. I asked someone who was returning from the end of the trail and they said the trail went another 30 min or so and the canyon narrowed again. We didn’t have time to go on because we had to head back and meet up with our friends that got hung up at the rocks. They had made it past the rocks and were resting in the shade, waiting for us. Just before reaching the narrow canyon section, the guys had to explore a large, flat, slanted rock section leading up the canyon wall on the right. There’s a small footpath that goes up through there too. They said the view was worth it so I followed them up there. From the top we could see the trailhead parking lot below and all the way across the valley to the Panamint Mountains.
By the time we got back to the car, it was time for lunch so we continued down the road to the picnic area at Emigrant. Calling it a picnic area is a stretch. There were bathrooms and a water spigot but there were only two picnic tables there, which were both in use. Fortunately there were campsites across the road with an open picnic table that the campers let us use.
We made it down to Badwater (-282 feet below sea level) at 3:30. When you get out of the car, be sure to look at the sign high up on the mountain behind you that marks sea level. Right near the parking area there was a little pond with patches of salt crystals on the surface. It’s amazing that that is all that’s left of a huge lake. We walked out toward the middle but it’s hot and, other than being able to see the mountains behind the parking area, the salt patches didn’t look any different out there to me. I’d sure like to know where the deep “potholes” on the well-beaten path out into the valley came from though.
As we headed back north, we stopped at Devil’s Golf Course. Nobody else thought it was worth getting out of the car. I got out to take a picture of the prop golf tee and ball there and to listen for the “ping” that the salt crystals supposedly make when they get really hot. I walked around for a few minutes while listening and looking for special crystal formations but apparently it wasn’t hot enough because I didn’t hear anything. We noticed that the valley was starting to get a little hazy. We assumed it must have been dust being kicked up because it obviously isn’t humid there.
We drove Artist’s Drive and hiked out to Artist’s Palette. It wasn’t a long walk but I was under whelmed by the view. I guess I was expecting a lot of colors. There is a big rock there that makes for a good photo-op. There was a pullout on the right, farther down the road that I thought was more interesting. There was a path leading down from the parking area onto what looked kind of like a washed out road winding through a road construction site with mounds of sand of different colors: orange, yellow, purple, etc.
By now the wind had kicked up so much dust that, even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, we couldn’t even see the mountains across the valley. So much for our plans to hit Dante’s View on our way out of Death Valley. But it did give us a little more time to hike Golden Canyon. If I had to choose, I would pick Mosaic Canyon over Golden Canyon. We thought the section out to the Red Cathedral was the best part of the hike. You get views of Zabriskie Point from below and it ends in an enclosed area with sheer red walls but when the trail marker says .25 miles to the Red Cathedral that must be as the crow flies. We were hurrying because we told our friends we’d turn back after 30 min. We had made it to the .25 mile marker pretty quickly so we decided we had plenty of time to make it to the Cathedral. So on and on and on we went. At every turn we kept thinking it had to be just around the corner. At 15 min we had to climb through some boulders that led to the Cathedral. After admiring the view from below, we climbed up the rocks across from the sheer walls for a great view of the horizon from above. Then we hauled butt, making it back 5 minutes late.
We drove through 20 Mule Team Canyon on the way out. There was so much dust that the sun looked like the moon, adding to the surreal feeling of the place. 6:45 PM and we were headed back to Vegas. We didn’t get to see Dante’s View because of the dust but we hit everything else on our wish list.
I think a full day and overnight in Death Valley would have been perfect for us. That way we could be there at night to see the stars (although we wouldn't have seen any that night!) and be there for the sunrise views and a morning walk in the dunes.
