Death Valley National Park

Mark and I are on a mission to explore all the national parks. It'll be easier once he's retired, but for now we try to visit one or two parks a year. I started looking into Death Valley a couple years ago, and have been super excited to go there ever since. 2024 was our year! We knew that in August of 2023 the park had suffered devastation from a hurricane, and a lot of the park has been closed ever since. Flooding washed out much of the back country areas. I did some research and realized we could still see the majority of the park, so we went ahead and planned our trip. The hurricane also caused a lake to form in the Badwater Basin, and I really wanted to get there before that dried up. Flights were booked, truck rented, and hotel found! The week of our trip, a crazy storm ravaged much of CA, and Death Valley was right in its path. We watched carefully, and it didn't take long to realize that our trip might not happen. The park got hit with major flooding, and storm damage, and everything was closed (even the main road through the park). I wanted to cry! Our reservations were nonrefundable, so two days before we flew out, I was on the internet trying to see what else we could do in that area. The results were the same everywhere in the area; major flooding and storm damage. Even a couple of the state parks we've been wanting to visit were mostly shut down. The day before we left, the main park road reopened, so we decided to go and make the most of it. We'd just do the things we could get to. Slowly a few more things opened up, and with a few exceptions, our plan was back on. I was frustrated and kept saying, "Why can't they just get a tractor, and clear the debris off the road?" Once we got there and saw the damage, my question was answered; some areas didn't even have roads anymore! They were totally gone, and huge river washes were now in their place. It was nuts! The power of Mother Nature is crazy!

We ended up having the BEST weekend, and Death Valley was AMAZING! It's one of my favorite parks we've visited so far! We were in awe the whole time, and already want to plan a return trip to do the few things we didn't have time for, or that were still closed. If you're like me and have major wanderlust, and love to explore, you need to plan a trip to Death Valley!

Day 1:

We got an early start because we wanted to be at Zabriskie Point for the sunrise. We explored all day, and left the park after dark.

Zabriskie Point: 

This was the perfect way to start our weekend. We were there for a beautiful sunrise, and did an 8 mile run/hike in the most amazing landscape. We left Zabriskie Point and did the Golden Canyon-Glower Gulch loop, with detours up Manly Beacon and Red Cathedral. We loved every step! This put us on a high for the rest of the trip.

Waiting for the sun to rise at Zabriskie Point.

Once the sun started peeking up, we took off into the canyon for our run.

The sun was starting to come up.

Such a cool place to run!

When the sun hit the mountains, everything turned red!

I think this was our detour up Manly Beacon. This gave us our first glimpse of the Badwater Basin off in the distance.

Golden Canyon was amazing! The pictures don't do it justice. All the mountains in this one section really were golden. Mark's GoPro video picked up the colors a lot better than my phone did.

This was my favorite park of this run!

There was something amazing to look at anywhere you turned.

Desolation Canyon:

Our second stop was Desolation Canyon. We took an amazing 4 mile hike to the end of a canyon, and then climbed a mountain for a great view of the park. We could see the Artist Palette area, which was still closed, so it was nice to get a bird's eye view of it.

Going up the canyon.

We thought this was the end point, because we had already gone all the way through the canyon. Then I looked up and saw that the trail continued up a big climb.

I saw this trail and where it was leading, and pointed it out to Mark. He asked if we were gonna go up there. Heck yes we are! We may never come back, so we certainly can't pass up the opportunity to see what's at the top! 😄

You can see the Badwater Basin way behind me. It looks like snow in the valley. We soon found out that it wasn't snow, but salt! 

Climbing to the top!

It was totally worth it!

It was really windy at the top!

We loved hiking up the canyons, and then running back down them.

Devil's Golf Course:

The road leading to Devil's Golf Course was still closed, so we just ran down it. I was too curious about the name to skip it. 😆 It did not disappoint!

Here's what we thought was snow, but was actually salt! Don't worry, I tasted it to make sure. It was everywhere!

Devil's Golf Course got it's name because of the big piles of salt that covered this part of the basin. It really was fascinating! Big, hard, piles of salt for miles!

There really are fascinating places in this country, and I'm glad I have the desire and opportunity to see so many of them.

Natural Bridge:

This area was very reminiscent of southern Utah. We hiked up a canyon to a natural bridge, just like the name suggests. Most people turn around there to head back. I had read a couple blogs that said to keep going and you'll see a big, dried up waterfall, and if you go a bit beyond that, you can actually climb up a dried up waterfall. Of course we kept going, and that was the best part of the hike!

From this trailhead, we got our first real glimpse of the lake in the Badwater Basin that isn't really supposed to be there. So cool! It was a lot bigger than I was expecting!

The bridge.

The first dried up waterfall.

This was the start of the second waterfall. We climbed up it and kept following the canyon.

There's me way up the waterfall.

Badwater Basin:

I was so excited to be here! I had just completed my Badwater 267 Virtual Challenge, so I had been reading about all of these places. I also knew we were witnessing history by getting to see a lake in the Badwater Basin. The ground would normally look similar to the Devil's Golf Course area, with salt everywhere, but once all the rain and flooding happened, and the lake formed, the salt dissolved. Anything that touched the water was crusted white with salt.

The lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

We walked out until the water got to our knees, and we weren't even close to being half way out. After the last storm, I don't think the lake is going to dry up anytime soon.

So cool!

Everything was a salty mess!

Sidewinder Canyon:

Some of the main touristy places we wanted to see were still closed, so I had some back up hikes. This was one of those, and it ended up being one of our very favorites! We hiked up Sidewinder Canyon, and since I had done some reading about it, I knew there were 3-4 slot canyons within the main canyon. The slots were amazing to explore! We seriously loved it!

This is what it looked like entering one of the first slots. You can see why most people have no idea they are even there!

It was a little unnerving at first to walk into these places.

We had this whole canyon to ourselves.

Can you tell how much fun we're having by our big grins. 😁

There were cool arches in one of the slots.

We were finished exploring and started running back down the main canyon. I could tell there was going to be a good sunset, so I wanted to make it out of the canyon in time to see it. We got to the mouth of the canyon just in time to catch the tail end of it.

We drove out of the park in the dark, and stopped one last time to see the Badwater Lake.

Day 2:

We stopped for a sign picture, since it was dark the morning before.

Harmony Borax Works & Mustard Canyon:

We walked around the area where they used to mine borax. The Mustard Canyon Road was still closed, so we ran that. Nothing too exciting, but it was fun to see why it was called Mustard Canyon; very yellow hills.

Starting toward Mustard Canyon. Again, not snow, but salt on the ground!

The sun coming up made everything hazy, but the hills the road went through were mustard yellow.

Devil's Cornfield:

We took a short walk out into the Devil's Cornfield. It's a spot in the park that just has these random bushes growing in an otherwise desolate area with no vegetation.

Devil's Cornfield

Mesquite Sand Dunes:

I loved the sand dunes. I wish we would have brought a sled with us! There were miles and miles of dunes, with the biggest sand hills . We kept saying that Nora would have so much fun playing there. The variety of landscapes in the park is crazy.

We climbed to the top of all the biggest sand hills.

I'm so tiny on the sand hill!

Mosaic Canyon:

Mosaic Canyon is really pretty. There is a lot of white marble walls. This one was fun to run back down.

Father Crowley Vista:

We took a long drive to a viewpoint that wasn't that exciting. They filmed some Star Wars scenes from here, but I'm not familiar enough with those movies that I could recognize anything.

A view from the vista.

Ubehebe Crater:

This was fun! There is a big crater left from a volcano, and off to the side is a smaller crater. We hiked around both of them, and then dropped down into the big one.

Ubehebe Crater

Going around the rim.

This is Little Hebe. We hiked around that one too.

Running into the crater was fun. Coming out, not so much. 😅

Almost to the bottom.

We made it all the way down.

Fall Canyon & Titus Canyon Narrows:

This was our last adventure in the park, and it was a good one! We hiked up Fall Canyon, and then ran back down. The rock walls were huge! This canyon definitely has a way of making you feel very small. This was so fun to run down. Mark was having a total blast, and I had to keep my legs moving at a pretty good pace just to keep him in my sights. The plan was to hike up Fall Canyon pretty fast, run down, and get back just in time to head a mile and a half up the Narrows in Titus Canyon before it got dark. That way we'd get to see everything, and then we could put our headlamps on for the run back out. We ended up going so fast down Fall Canyon, that we made it the whole way without even needing our headlamps. We made it back to the truck right at dark.

Going up Fall Canyon.

The Narrows
This is normally the most popular driving canyon in the park. The flooding closed it, and when we hiked up, we could understand why. There was no longer a road. There was a part where the canyon walls just fell and blocked access at all. So crazy!

We kept getting glimpses of the sunset as we were running out of the canyon. We finished right at dark. It was the perfect ending to our trip.

We loved Death Valley, and definitely want to go again! We want to do some of the things that were still closed, and we decided we want to climb the highest peak in the park. The area to get to it is currently still closed.