Death Valley National Park | California
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since Jon and I went camping in Death Valley National Park with 2 of our friends! Death Valley was never high on my list to visit, I mean the name itself has death in it so I was a little intimidated, but after visiting I love it! Time of year definitely makes an impact on how enjoyable the park will be - and February was the perfect time of year to visit.
Jon and I drove up on a Thursday afternoon right after work. We arrived in the park after dark and stayed at The Ranch at Death Valley for that first night. It was a cute place to stay and we conveniently had dinner and breakfast right on the property! We never stay in hotels while visiting National Parks, so this was a bit of a treat for us! Our friends were planning to arrive on Friday, so that morning before they arrived, we scoped out our spot for camping. Our plan was to try and stay in any of the first come first serve campgrounds, with our first choice being Texas Springs Campground. This was my first time doing camping this way vs making reservations and let me just say, I’m not a fan. It’s way too stressful and anxiety inducing for me! I love the idea of it but hate the fear in the back of my mind of not getting a site. Luckily we were able to, but not without stress! Our friends arrived not long after and we set up camp early that afternoon before heading out for the rest of the day.
After setting up camp, we drove to Dantes View. At 5,575 feet above Badwater Basin, it’s a great spot to be to overlook the park. We didn’t do any hikes from here, but instead just enjoyed the views!
From here we drove to Twenty Mule Team Canyon, a one way dirt road in the park through some gorgeous scenery. It was getting to be golden hour and it was a pretty and secluded area, so after doing a short hike we decided to take pictures in pretty dresses! My friend and I decided to each bring some long flowy dresses - I just can’t resist the contrast of desert + beautiful dresses - and luckily my friend let me snap some photos. For more photos of pretty dresses in the desert, you can find them here.
We decided to continue our photoshoot in Badwater Basin at sunset. It was so gorgeous! This place was so unique and I loved getting to play here and take some photos of my friends.
After staying at Badwater for way too long, we headed back to our campsites for dinner and an early night!
On Saturday we drove a little further into the park and headed to Ubehebe and Little Hebe Crater Trail. It’s about a 2 mile loop on the rim of the Ubehebe Crater. Little Hebe Crater is also viewable from the trail. Since we were up in this area, we wanted to head over to the Racetrack, where the famous moving rocks are. Unfortunately the road to get to the Racetrack looked a little rough for the car that we were in, so we didn’t feel comfortable making the trek. It also would have taken almost all day if we did try to do it. On a future trip we will have a jeep and make it though! It looks so awesome to see.
After hiking at the crater, we drove over to Mosaic Canyon Trail and did the about 3 mile out and back. This was a pretty easy trail through the canyon, ending at what used to be a 25ft waterfall.
As we were on this hike, it started to get sooooo windy in the park. Driving back after the hike was absolutely insane. The visibility was so low because of how windy it was, with literal tumbleweeds blowing in front of the car. Before heading back to the campsite, we stopped at Zabriskie Point for sunset photos in fancy dresses. We didn’t take into account how windy it would be there and it was insaaane. Definitely not the best conditions for pictures, so we didn’t stay long. It was beautiful, just unbearably windy!
When we got back to our campsite, our tents were definitely not where they were before. The stakes were near impossible to use when we originally set up our tents, so we ended up relying on some heavy rocks to hold our tent down. It did the job pretty well (in that our tent didn’t completely blow away) but it definitely shifted from where it was and we found it flapping in the wind when we returned. Our new camping set up included hiding our tents behind our cars to block the wind a bit - thank goodness for car camping in this case! After we got settled again and things finally calmed down a bit, we decided to wander over to a big hill within our campsite for stargazing. There were sooo many stars! We picked the time of month for our trip solely based on when the new moon would be, so we’d have perfect conditions for stargazing, and it did not disappoint.
The next morning we were up early for a full day, with our first stop Badwater Basin. The lowest point in North America, at 282 feet below sea level! I loved getting to see this area in a different light, since we previously visited for photos at sunset. It is soo neat, def one of my fav areas in the park just for how different it is. After playing for a little here, we drove over to Devils Golf Course for more diverse landscape. Another super cool and unique spot! Realizing that there’s lots of those in Death Valley. ;)
Our next stop was Gower Gulch Loop to Golden Canyon trail for a nice hike. We ended up doing what I think was a ~5 mile hike. We started on Gower Gulch trail, and then circled back to make it a loop and meet up with the Golden Canyon trail, with a pit stop to Red Cathedral. This was definitely another favorite of mine in Death Valley. The landscape was just so neat! I was in a photographers heaven. So many things to capture! Another fun part of this hike, the 4 of us ran into 2 other friends! We had no clue we’d all be in Death Valley at the same time, and we just happened to see each other on the trail - I love when things like that happen.
After our hike we enjoyed some roadside quesadillas! We were all pretty hungry and decided to just bust out our camping stove and start cooking at the cars on the side of the road. It was great, and so tasty.
Since it was getting to be late afternoon and almost golden hour, we decided to finish our day on Artists Drive, with our end destination Artists Palette. The drive there was really scenic, and I thought Artists Palette was cool to see, but it was so crowded. I also wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be, or didn’t get as neat of photos as I thought… I’m thinking it may have been the time of day, and we didn’t really explore much since it was so busy. Next time! It was still worth the visit!
That evening after dinner at our campsite, we decided to venture back out for more stargazing. This time we went to Harmony Borax Works and then Zabriskie Point and had some amazing stargazing! I get soo energized by night time photography so it was all right up my alley. It’s really the only thing I’ll stay up past 10pm for. ;) I still have a lot to learn about it to get some perfect pictures, but it was so fun to get to play. My husband is a trooper for putting up with me, he had quite the different experience in the cold wind. Not quite as energized as me.
Monday morning we woke up, had breakfast and packed up camp. Our last day! We had to make the drive back to San Diego that day, but first we stopped at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. I’ve been on sand dues before (in the Outer Banks, NC) but these are just entirely different. It was really fun to explore these sand dues in the middle of the desert. But sooo hard to walk, especially loaded down with camera gear. Because yes, we decided to bust out the long flowy dresses once more! It wasn’t perfect lighting since we weren’t up super early so we were not quite in golden hour anymore and nearing the middle of the day, but I loved it.
Death Valley was amazing, and I’d 100% go back in a heart beat! There’s so much to explore that we didn’t get to, and so many places I’d like to revisit. I think I’ll still avoid going in the summer though… :)
