21 Mar Death Valley National Park

Sunset Campground

This is a national park I have researched for months, Death Valley NP is the second largest in the US. With a park this large, being spontaneous is only an option if time isn’t an issue. We set aside three days here to explore knowing we could have used much more time, but needed to keep driving east. Being in the park requires A LOT of driving, so once you set up camp you will need to be in the car quite a bit to see the popular spots. Plan out your days ahead of time.

Arriving in March we knew the weather would allow us to be comfortable and enjoy the area, unless you really cannot visit another time I would steer clear in the summer. We enjoyed temps in the 70’s and 80’s each day and warm evenings. It’s important to realize that even with low temps it’s dry and you will need to bring plenty of water with you on hikes, there are no places to stop once you leave the campsite area.

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In one afternoon we traveled from the lowest point, Badwater Basin being 282 ft below sea level where it was 80 degrees and then up to Dante’s Ridge for a short hike 5,575 ft above the basin where temps were in the upper 40’s!! The views were incredible and the drive up that long winding road was totally worth it, do not bring your rig though!

The artist’s palette was difficult to capture with a camera, all those colors of the rainbow seemed unreal. I imagine if you were lucky enough to see this area while it was raining it’d be quite the photo. When your driving the loop, make sure you stop to the right and take the artists path, time it around sunset and you will not be sorry!! If we’d had more time seeing the drive to see the “moving rock” at racetrack playa, but it would have been a three hr drive in the wrong direction for us…plan ahead 😉

*Stargazing!! Make sure you plan one night hike, this is one of the BEST activities you can do in a location like this, unfortunately there was a full moon which is not optimal for milky way photos. We enjoyed them from Zabriskie Point, which is one of the more popular viewpoints in the park. You will have it almost all to yourself in the dark!

We stayed at Sunset Campground which is first come first served, truly just a parking lot. When you arrive there is a machine to purchase your spot, and hang the receipt outside your rv.  During our visit it was extremely windy, we’d never experienced wind like this and were very surprised to see so many campers in tents here. For some basic provisions you’ll find a gas station/store across the street.  We actually stopped by The Oasis which was a beautiful hotel located nearby to have an iced coffee, the views were stunning from the large patio.  On our way out we were able to use the new dump station located just behind the campground along the road between Sunset campground and Texas Springs campground. We did not fill water there but it is available.