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How Much Time Should I Spend in Death Valley?

June 25, 2019 Bob Howells

This post is part of Just Ahead’s Death Valley Trip Planner—our guide to everything you need to know to plan your trip to Death Valley National Park. Click here to see the complete series, and be sure to download our Just Ahead smartphone audio tour of Death Valley before you head to the park.

Before you decide how much time to spend in Death Valley National Park, it’s good to be aware of two things: First, Death Valley is the largest national park in the lower 48 American states (yes, bigger than Yellowstone). Second, Death Valley is remote. That’s a huge part of its appeal. It’s at least 2-1/2 hours from Las Vegas, five hours from Los Angeles, eight hours from San Francisco.

It would be a shame to drive such a distance and spend less than a day in such a huge, magnificent park. But we understand that everyone has their own way and their own schedule, so here’s our rundown of what you can do and see in Death Valley in the amount of time you might have. Remember, no matter how much time you have or what approach you take to the park, Just Ahead will guide you every step of the way.

Death Valley in Less Than a Day

We understand that you’ll see some of the park as you approach, and that there are several different approaches, so take these as general guidelines. And remember that the order in which you see things isn’t important.

If you’re simply doing a drive-through, you’ll want to beeline to Furnace Creek in the heart of the park—the hub of Death Valley’s road spokes. Spend 45 minutes in the visitor center to get oriented, see the exhibits, perhaps see the park’s film. Drive down to Badwater and experience the lowest place in North America. Turn around at Badwater and take the scenic Artist Drive on the way back up. Then head east on Highway 190 and take in the awesome views from Zabriskie Point and Dante’s View.

No matter how much time you have in the park, be sure to check out the salt-pan floor of Death Valley at Badwater.

How Do I Prepare for a Trip to Death Valley?

June 24, 2019 Bob Howells

Death Valley National Park is a remote desert and mountain park, and the largest park in the lower 48 American states. It’s smart to be prepared for a trip to Death Valley—that is, to come with your vehicle in excellent working order and with food and water on board. The park does have excellent services, including three gas stations and stores. But you’ll be far from those services much of the time. Here are some issues you should prepare for:

Dehydration

Death Valley is the driest place in North America. Even when the temperature is pleasant, even when you’re standing still, the air constantly saps moisture from your body. So dehydration is a year-round concern. The solution is simple, of course—carry and drink plenty of water. Drink regularly, even if you’re not thirsty. You’ll need at least a gallon per person per day—twice that if you’re hiking or biking. Carry water with you whenever you leave the car—I like to use a Camelbak or similar hydration system so that my source of water is just inches away.

Weather

The main weather concern you should prepare for in Death Valley is, of course, heat. But much of the year it can be cool to chilly in the park at night. Wind is likely anytime. Winter rains and occasional summer thunderstorms can wash out roads. So keep an eye on the weather by way of a website like weather.com, and check the park’s homepage—or if you’re in the park, the visitor center—for weather alerts and road closures. Remember too that Death Valley has mountains where it can be 40 degrees cooler than the desert floor, and where you might encounter snow in winter and spring. By the way, we share some great stories about the weather in the Just Ahead tour of Death Valley. And we’re not averse to a summer visit, even though it’s a bit warm then. Click here for 10 reasons to visit Death Valley in summer.

Why it’s important to be well prepared for a trip to Death Valley.

How Do I Get to Death Valley?

June 23, 2019 Bob Howells

You need a car in Death Valley. The park does not run shuttle buses. And besides, to enjoy Just Ahead’s narrated audio tour of the park, you need to be in a moving vehicle. Here are approximate driving times from major destinations:

Las Vegas (closest airport): 2-1/2 hours
Los Angeles: 5 hours
San Francisco: 8 hours when Highway 120 is open
Yosemite National Park: 6 hours when Highway 120 is open

Driving Advice

The main park roads in Death Valley are excellent paved roads, so standard two-wheel-drive serves you just fine for seeing its major sights. Many of those sights require short drives on graded dirt roads that are also just fine for passenger cars. Just Ahead always tells you what to expect before you turn off a paved road.

As we say in this post, you’ll want to be sure your car is in excellent working order, particularly its cooling system and tires. Be realistic about your car’s ability to travel dirt roads. In addition to the graded dirt roads that are part of the Just Ahead tour of Death Valley, the park has a huge network (785 miles) of remote dirt roads that require a high-clearance vehicle, if not four-wheel drive. Only set off on those roads if you’re experienced, informed, and fully prepared for backcountry travel. The Just Ahead tour doesn’t extend to those remote roads.

If you do find yourself intrigued by the park’s backcountry roads (Titus Canyon or the Racetrack, for example) visit Farabee’s Jeep Rentals across the street from Furnace Creek Inn. They rent sturdy 4x4s and offer guided off-road tours.

Every approach to Death Valley is wild and beautiful.

Where Should I Camp in Death Valley?

June 22, 2019 Bob Howells

Death Valley has 12 campgrounds—nine operated by the park service as well as three private campgrounds. With the exception of Furnace Creek Campground in the heart of Death Valley, all park service campgrounds are first-come, first-served. Furnace Creek accepts reservations through recreation.gov. For holiday periods in winter and spring, be sure to make reservations or arrive early to get a site.

Don’t expect shady campsites strewn with pine needles. You might get a scrap of shade from a mesquite tree, but for the most part, Death Valley campsites are open and exposed. The exceptions are the two high-country campgrounds in the Panamint Mountains—Thorndike and Mahogany Flat. But those campground require high clearance and sometime four-wheel drive to reach.

When to camp is also an important consideration. Click here for our advice about when to visit Death Valley. And if you’d like to spend some nights in the comfort of a lodge room, click here for our advice about where to stay in Death Valley.

Here’s our rundown of campgrounds in Death Valley National Park. All are open year-round unless otherwise noted. For more details, see the camping page on the park’s website.

Where to Camp in Death Valley: Texas Spring

A secluded site in Texas Spring Campground, Death Valley National Park.

Where Should I Stay in Death Valley?

June 21, 2019 Bob Howells

Hospitality has a long history in Death Valley. Even before it became a national park, Death Valley was luring visitors by offering them comfortable accommodations amid the exotic desert splendor of the region.

As the heyday of borax mining was fading in the 1920s, the Pacific Coast Borax Mining Company set its sights on tourism, and opened Furnace Creek Inn in 1927. Furnace Creek Ranch followed in 1933. Around the same time, an entrepreneur named Bob Eichbaum built a toll road over Towne Pass and opened a lodge at Stovepipe Wells. Panamint Springs, also on the toll road, opened in 1937.

All of these historic lodges remain open today, and each offers food service and a general store. All are privately operated.

A quick orientation: The two Furnace Creek properties are in the heart of the park near the park visitor center and general store. Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs lie to the west on Highway 190. These lodges have a more rural and isloated flavor, but still offer full services.

Furnace Creek Inn

The four-diamond, 66-room Inn at Furnace Creek has the most luxurious lodging and dining in Death Valley National Park. The hillside oasis has a spring-fed swimming pool and features beautiful stonework executed by European craftsmen. The inn is fully operational from October 10 to May 10, but is also open from mid-July to late August as an overflow option—Furnace Creek Ranch tends to fill up during that period. (Yes, Death Valley is very popular in the summer. Click here to learn all about it.) Food service is limited to a nightly buffet during the summer opening.

Where to Stay in Death Valley: Inn at Furnace Creek

The Inn at Furnace Creek is Death Valley’s oldest and finest lodging.

10 Reasons to Visit Death Valley in Summer

June 20, 2019 Bob Howells

Warning: I’m about to make a case for visiting Death Valley in the summer. But it’s clearly not for everyone. Extreme heat poses serious challenges. It requires constant hydration and maintining elecrolyte levels—i.e., drinking a lot of fluids and eating salty snacks. Ideally, one should only venture outdoors early in the morning and late in the day. Don’t drive or hike into the backcountry. Stay close to your car and to paved roads. If you’re not particularly curious about experiencing temperatures north of 120, I won’t blame you for moving on. There’s plenty more to read on this-here blog. But if you’re wondering why on earth the summer months in Death Valley draw many more visitors than the seemingly sane fall and winter months, read on.

Find Out How Hot HOT Is

I love weather: storm cells, huge snow dumps, massively wet tropical downpours. I’m a native of the Mojave Desert, but I’d never been hotter than a tepid 113 or so. I wanted to know what hot really felt like. So I did what curious writers have been doing for more than a century: I got National Geographic to pay my way on an apparently bizarre adventure. On assignment for National Geographic Adventure magazine, I took on Death Valley in August, and I hit pay dirt: It was really hot. It hit 126 the day I hiked across the salt pan at Badwater, at which time I knew that I had to be the hottest fool on the face of the earth.

So what does 126 feel like? Something like a hot blow dryer aimed at your face. Or like when you open the oven to baste a turkey and get that initial searing blast that makes your eyes squint. Only in Death Valley, the sensation lasts. But I just kept hydrated by drawing constantly on my Camelbak lifeline, walked slowly, never ventured too far from the car, and I mean this: I really enjoyed the experience.

It’s not actually quite as hot as it appears here. The thermometer was improperly calibrated, and it’s “only” 129! NPS Photo

Just Ahead’s Joshua Tree Trip Planner

June 1, 2019 Bob Howells

Welcome to Just Ahead’s Joshua Tree Trip Planner—our guide to everything you need to know to plan your trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Click here to see the complete series, and be sure to download our Just Ahead smartphone audio tour of Joshua Tree before you head to the park.

What do you need to know to plan a trip to Joshua Tree National Park? We happen to be experts on this topic, as we’ve been visiting the park regularly for decades. And we’ve been venturing out there a lot lately to research, write, test, and double-check our Just Ahead tour of Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree is easy to get to, easy to drive through, and always a pleasure to visit, especially with Just Ahead’s narrated audio tour playing on your smartphone.

But it is also a remote desert area. That’s what makes it a compelling place to visit. But at the same time, a visit to Joshua Tree requires smart planning. So it helps to have an insider’s take on trip preparation, where to stay, where to camp, and so on.

A visit to rugged, wild Joshua Tree National Park requires some simple advance planning. NPS photo/Robb Hannawacker

When Should I Visit Joshua Tree?

May 31, 2019 Bob Howells

This post is part of Just Ahead’s Joshua Tree Trip Planner—our guide to everything you need to know to plan your trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Click here to see the complete series, and be sure to download our Just Ahead smartphone audio tour of Joshua Tree before you head to the park

When to visit Joshua Tree National Park? Anytime! Joshua Tree National Park is a year-round destination with four distinct seasons. Always come prepared for the unexpected. Weather in the desert can be fickle.

Spring wildflowers in Joshua Tree National Park? Actually, this is September. A summer of occasionally heavy thunderstorms laid a carpet of chinchweed on the desert floor.

Spring—March through mid-May—brings delightful weather, with warm sunny days and cool nights, as well as carpets of wildflowers. It’s the most popular time of year in the park. If you’re visiting the park on a weekend be sure to arrive early on Friday—or even Thursday—to get one of the first-come, first-served campsites. Or you can reserve ahead at www.recreation.gov.

How Much Time Should I Spend in Joshua Tree?

May 30, 2019 Bob Howells

How much time do you need to spend in Joshua Tree National Park? If you only want to see it from your car window, you can cover the park’s major roads in three or four hours. You’ll certainly get a sense of the park, especially if you have Just Ahead along for the ride. Remember, Just Ahead is our smartphone app that provides a narrated audio tour of the park. But if you can, allow time to get out and explore a bit.

South Astrodome, Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree is great for a drive, but allow time to explore on foot, too. NPS photo/Robb Hannawacker

One Full Day

If you have a full day to visit the park, arrive early in the morning and stay at least till dusk. That way you can either . . .

How Do I Prepare for a Trip to Joshua Tree?

May 29, 2019 Bob Howells

Joshua Tree is a remote desert park. You’ll be far from any services most of your time in the park, even though its northern fringe is near small towns. So to prepare for a trip to Joshua Tree, it’s wise to plan for these issues:

Dehydration

You lose moisture from your body in the dry desert air no matter what the temperature is or how active you are, which is why dehydration is a year-round concern. The solution is simple, of course—carry and drink plenty of water. Drink regularly, even if you’re not thirsty. You’ll need at least a gallon per person per day—twice that if you plan to bike, hike, or climb. Carry water with you whenever you leave the car. Remember, water is available only at Black Rock, Cottonwood, and at the Indian Cove ranger station, so stock up before you venture into the heart of the park.

Lost Horse Valley, Joshua Tree National Park

A daypack filled with water and food, plus a sunhat and sunscreen, are must-haves on even a short walk in Joshua Tree. NPS photo/Robb Hannawacker

What's Ahead? The Just Ahead Blog

Death Valley in Less Than a Day

Dehydration

Weather

Driving Advice

Furnace Creek Inn

Find Out How Hot HOT Is

Dehydration