Zabriskie Point, Death Valley NP

Steve and I have been working hard on our new camper, and were ready to give it a try, so we started looking for somewhere that would be warm enough for camping in early March.  The winner of our search was Death Valley National Park on the border of Nevada and California.  The elevation within the park varies from 200 feet below sea level in Badwater Basin to over 11,000 feet on the top of Telescope Peak, so the temperatures within the park also vary greatly.

We had an eight hour drive to get to the park, so when we finally arrived it was early afternoon.  Our first stop was the Furnace Creek Visitors Center where we picked up our park pass and got all of our questions answered.  Our biggest question was about disbursed camping.  All of the busy sections of the park are restricted, but there are several areas where disbursed camping is allowed and readily available.  You have to be at least a mile off of a paved road, in an already disturbed site and outside of the restricted areas.  And of course, leave your spot better than you found it.  That’s it.

After leaving the visitors center, we wanted to see something fun before finding our first campsite, so we headed back to Zabriskie Point that we had passed on our way in.  It is an overlook of some of the incredible badlands in the park.

A hiking trail leaves from Zabrinski Point with several options of different lengths.  We didn’t have time for any hiking on our first night, but returned the following day to check out the trail which you can see below.

After watching the sun almost set from the overlook, we headed for a spot that the ranger had recommended, on the road to Dante’s View.  There were three cars at our first camp sight, but as you can see, everyone had plenty of room to spread out.  The skies were incredibly dark at night and the park was so silent.

 

As we were cooking dinner, we had the cutest little visitor at our camp.  Luckily the Jeep is far enough off the ground that he could only visit from the outside.

When we chose our campsite we didn’t pay attention to the elevation.  First mistake.  We were at 2500 feet, and it was 24 F when we got up in the morning.  Burr!  By the time we left camp it had made it up to 28 F.

We made a few stops in the morning, and then headed back to Zabriskie Point to try out the hiking trail.  This is the view of the path from the parking lot to the overlook.  Just off to the right of this picture is the trailhead.

The start of the trail into the badlands.

Walking through the badlands is a crazy feeling.  The trail is narrow and the hills rise up around you so steeply.

We had so many things that we wanted to see in the park, so after exploring the Zabriskie trail for awhile, we continued to our next stop, crossing through the dry valley, stopping along the way to make some lunch, and then up into the mountains on the west side of the park.