Death Valley National Park

3/31/2019

I've got to make blogging way easier on myself - I'm going to do it like I do work emails and work blogs...in BULLET POINTS!! So, we went to Death Valley for about 5 days. We flew in from SFO to LAS and did brunch there. Mostly for the freshly fried donuts at the Four Seasons - Verandah. It was so easy since we didn't have to worry about parking since they validate for the restaurant! Ok, onto the bullet points and photos:

Day 1

Brunch at Verandah @ Four Seasons Vegas
Few hours into Pahrump where we were staying for the trip; the park is huge, so I'm not sure I'd do it this way again, but it was cheaper than staying right in Furnace Creek (it was about 60-90 minutes in the car each morning to get to the central part of the park where most things were)
The good thing about Pahrump was that there are a few grocery stores and a 24 hour walmart; made it super easy to get things we needed and lots of choices for a later evening dinner
Grotto Canyon Hike: this one's really tough, I'd say you'd have to be bouldering a v2 at the gym to feel comfortable doing the hike (and with a buddy just in case!); so we actually didn't make it very far because we were racing the clock to get to Badwater Basin for sunset; there's a dirt road to get into the canyon area, and if it's not too wet and mushy, you can drive nearly up to the canyon (high clearance is a must, 4wd ideal); the road into the canyon is really easy to miss, so track that gps (download your maps ahead of time since the reception is horrible in the park)
Badwater Basin: the park's so big, we cut Grotto short to meet up with my cousins at Badwater for sunset and stars; we though it was amazing during the day, but it was awe inspiring at night - we were lucky without clouds and there were so many stars out you could take a photo with it with your phone, it honestly felt like a fake planetarium!

rainy year, we got to see the reflection at the salt flats

this is in the golden canyon stretch of the loop, my cousin thinks it looks like melty chocolate and vanilla ice cream xD

toward the end of gower gulch portion of the trail you started to see more colors in the rocks - foreshadow of the artist's drive

Day 3

Artist's Drive: one way loop to see the colorful colors of the earth
Hike 1: unnamed hike that is super not popular, but we loved it! It's on the right side of the road at the 2nd dip (it's pretty obvious, but watch out for the signs and the dips), just pull over to explore the pink and green canyons, it's a not as hard hike up and over into the canyon (as compared to grotto)
Artist's Palette: hike in!! Lots of people stop at the parking lot and don't head in, but the best views are to be had up close, and for those that like a bit of scrambling, it's like a playground - saw lots of little ones in there, too; it's hard to get lost since you can see the whole place from the higher elevation lot; apparently the spot is best right around sunset, so that's what we did to get the photos we got
Dante's Ridge: it's definitely colder up there! So bring a sweater if it's winter or early spring; we didn't do a huge hike here since it would've mostly been rim, so we walked both directions from the parking lot and the views are really different from both ends, so I'd suggest doing that if you're intrigued by the vastness of the salt flats (this view was apparently featured in one of the star wars movies); also, if you're a frequent bathroom user, there's one at the lower lot but not at the one up top

dante's view heading left from the lot (facing the flats) you get a better view of the far off mt range

dante's view heading to the right side of the lot (facing the flats)

view looking back and down the trail we came from, from above the dry falls

this is heading into the narrows above the dry falls, if you look carefully you can see the water trickling between my feet (I thought it was funny bc it looked like I was peeing!)

photo taken from the viewing area

Day 5

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes: we went in the morning so I could go without shoes, but a few hours in, the sand was burning up and heading in I had to put them back on! So keep those flops with you; the earlier you go, the less foot prints you'll have; we were just in Morocco this time last year, so this was fun, but nothing like the Sahara xD Worth checking out to see how the vegetation grows alonside the sands here (very different from Morocco)
Ubehebe Crater (you-bee-hee-bee): I honestly wasn't excited about this when we decided to drop by since I've seen similar things in the Big Island...but I was glad we did it. The way the floor of the old volcano was cracked and dried was almost as if a graphic artist had put it there, and slushing through the fine, black, volcanic sand was just a different type of hike than I'm used to!
Rhyolite Ghost Town: this was actually really fun to walk through and super picturesque; the ghost figures were kinda creepy to me, but otherwise, it was interesting to see what was there before it became a park and how man made buildings and vehicles crumble under the desert sun and time

at the ubehebe crater floor

first bouldering problem at grotto - pretty vertical

salty at badwater basin

Day 2

Golden Canyon - Gower Gulch Loop trail (we detoured to red cathedrdal, too): this was amazing, with all the different rock formations coming one after another, sometime right next to one another - red next to striped next to golden. Easily one of my favorite spots in the park and I'd do this trail again if I came back! We took a ton of detours with "short cuts" and a need to touch certain color rocks, so between acclimating and just wanting to sleep in, this is the only hike we did this day
Timbasha's Tacos - this is right in the park! And reasonably priced! It's a Native American establishment, so run by locals which feels good; the service was meh, but hey, it's so convenient. The shave ice was refreshing after the hike and the fried dough was tasty

red cathedral detour was super fun - we hiked through the golden hills and touched the red rock!

into artist's palette!

in the middle of the palette

Day 4

We got to experience the reflective, wet salt flats because of the rains - but that also meant that things were closed, so that actually botched up our original plans; but we had lots of back up things to do
Zabriskie Point: everyone does this and it's a super easy drive to a short walk in (there are longer hikes to explore the area, but since we did golden canyon, we decided not to do that this trip; golden canyon can connect to zabriskie)...definitely walk down from the viewing area, the extra few steps made you feel closer to the crazy stripes
Falls Canyon Hike: one of the rangers said this was his favorite hike in the whole park; so, we trusted him and I was cursing him until about 30 minutes before the end of the hike...why? Well, the vistas didn't change as much as the other hikes (though beautiful) and we were trudging through mushy stones/gravel...meh. It reminded me a lot of utah with the red rocks, and it's honestly stunning in photos throughout the hike! The end is a tiny dry falls that I was honestly just super underwhelmed with - but in photos, it's pretty darn beautiful (or perhaps I was tired and bored??) The start is outside of the canyon, I feel like it's about a third of the hike you're just trying to get there. About 5 minutes BEFORE the dry falls you'll find some pretty vertical scrambling (read: must use hands) that will lead you to the top of the dry falls where the BEST part is! The views of the winding road behind you and canyon narrows in front of you, the last 10 minutes of the hike really make the whole thing; so be warned and have the right expectations going into this one
That said, the photos from this spot are without a doubt the ones with the most likes and comments on instagram ;)

this is what the trail looks like heading up above the dry falls to the narrows, there are lots of cairns, but it's hard to spot on the way in, so watch out for it (it's on the right side on the way to the dry falls)