Death Valley National Park Must See
We recently went on a road trip where we visited Death Valley National Park.
It was our first time visiting this park and we were excited to explore.
One important thing to know about Death Valley is it is huge! This park, located in California, has 3 million acres of designated wilderness and hundreds of miles of backcountry roads.
So it’s important to know where you want to visit before you go so that you can map out your route. We found there was a two hour drive between two different areas we wanted to visit.
I love how diverse the terrain is in this park. There were times when I felt like we were transported to a whole different park because Death Valley has so many different unique areas.
But don’t worry. There’s no need to be overwhelmed. I’ll share with you some of my favorite areas to explore to give you an idea of where to go and what to do.
Before I dive into the details, I would suggest if you’re driving to Death Valley, fill up on gas and snacks at the last major city you drive through. There were not a lot of options for either inside the park. For us, since we were coming from Colorado, that meant stopping in Las Vegas.
Here are our favorite spots in Death Valley National Park.
1. Zabriskie Point
This was one of my favorite spots in the entire park. It’s the first area we stopped at. Conveniently, there’s a parking lot, and you can walk up the hill to the view point. There’s also a trail that leads to several hiking trails, and in my opinion, the best views.
How gorgeous is this!!?
If you decide to hike the badlands, you can pick up longer trails from this point including Gower Gulch, Golden Canyon, and Red Cathedral.
2. Mesquite Flat Dunes
This is was what the kids enjoyed the most! And what’s not to love? There’s loads and loads of sand to play with, in, and on. Sand sledding and sand boarding are both allowed, but you have to bring your own gear.
The Sand Dunes is a really large area. The parking lot of packed with barely any available parking spaces, but once we walked over to the dunes, it didn’t seem like a lot of people were there at all. It’s easy to find a spot and hang there with just your group.
The dunes also have beautiful Mountain View’s in the distance so it’s perfect for taking gorgeous photos.
3. Dantes View
We got to this area right before sunset and enjoyed watching the sunset. We stayed to do some sky and star gazing. The views are beautiful, and after dark, we had the area to ourselves. The star-filled sky was unbelievably beautiful.
Overall we loved exploring the park! We even saw a fox running in a field near a parking lot we were in. Other than that, the only other wildlife we saw were lizards and a coyote.
We also encountered some pretty crazy winds as the evening came. Since we went at the end of winter, the weather was pretty mild. It wasn’t too hot or too cold. During the day, we had short sleeves, but needed our jackets at night.
We are excited to go back again and explore some more.
To see video of our trip, check out this reel: Death Valley National Park Reel.
Have you been to Death Valley NP? What’s your favorite area of the park?
