The next stop on our adventure was Death Valley National Park. When you hear the name, all you think is “it gets really hot” but that’s not the case if you visit in March. We didn’t know much about the park except there were a few different campground options and a good selection of hiking trails open. The 113-mile drive from The Mad Greek Cafe in Baker, along CA-127 N and CA-190 W, was about what we expected for the desert: pretty and a whole lot of nothing except for two small towns that were mostly closed may be impacted by COVID-19.

Once we passed Death Valley Junction we didn’t expect to see anything until we got to the park Visitor Center. We were shocked when we came around this one final mountain corner and saw a huge, absolutely beautiful hotel with tons of palm trees. This was the Inn at Death Valley, where rooms are almost $500/night and nothing like what we expected to find in Death Valley. This historical hotel, along with the Ranch at Death Valley hotel, have been around since the early 1900s but were recently renovated to the tune of $100M so they are spectacular properties, especially when contrasted to the remote location.

We continued on CA-190 W till we reached the Sunset Campground. Not very exciting: a large, gravel parking lot with no shade and only a dump station with potable water at one end. Now, this was what we were expecting to find in Death Valley!

According to the NPS website, this is the “hottest, driest, and lowest National Park.” We camped early in March (3/2-3/6) hoping it wouldn’t be too hot for hiking and the weather turned out great! High 70s during the day and low 50s at night.

This is part 1 of our Death Valley trip where we share things to do in Death Valley including hiking and rock scrambling in Desolation Canyon, walking at the lowest point in North America at Badwater Basin, and driving the scenic Artists Drive to check out the colorful hills. Don’t have time to read now? Pin it for later!

Things To Do

We had four adventure-packed days at Death Valley National Park. In part 1 of our Death Valley trip, we share things to do within 30 minutes of Furnace Creek and Sunset Campground on the Southeast section of the park. Get our tips so you don’t make the same mistake we did on Desolation Canyon, and which hike we recommend skipping.

Hike Desolation Canyon

We started our day with the Desolation Canyon hike. It was a 3.6-mile hike with an elevation change of 600 ft.

Don’t make the same mistake we did! We started hiking the wrong trail.

We started following the trail we could easily see (highlighted in red) and the one another hiker was coming back on. Luckily this hiker let us know that this was not the Desolation Canyon trail. The trail that stands out to the right of the canyon takes you along those hilltops. You want to stay left and head into the canyon on the trail that is difficult to find (highlighted in blue).

Once we got on the correct trail things went smoothly. This was a moderate hike with some rock scrambling. One of the rocks (shown in our picture below) was more technical than I expected. Be prepared for moderate (I might even say moderate +) rock scrambling if you decide to do this hike.

Most of the elevation gain was at the end but the reward was worth it. A beautiful view looking back at the valley.

Walkout on Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America. It was crazy to me how we would be driving along and parts of Death Valley National Park were at sea level and then here at Badwater Basin you are 282 feet below sea level.

So what is Badwater Basin? It is a salt flat and surprisingly for a national park, you can actually walk on it! If you feel up for it, walk out as far as you can, just over half a mile till you reach the cairns marking the end of the trail. That point gives you a great perspective of how vast this area really is when there is nothing else around including other people.

Short Hike to Natural Bridge

We left Badwater Basin and started heading back towards Sunset Campground. Natural Bridge was a short hike to a natural bridge formation on our way. Our recommendation is to skip this hike. The washboard dirt road to access it is miles long and if you have visited any of the National parks in Utah, such as Arches, the natural bridge formation wasn’t anything special and kind of a let down.

Devils Golf Course

We got back on the road and then we came across the Devils Golf Course. The name intrigued us so we decided to check it out. What is the Devils Golf Course? When we got there we were no closer to figuring that out. It was another salt formation out on the flat, but there was no indication as to why it was named this.

According to Wikipedia, “The Devil's Golf Course is a large salt pan on the floor of Death Valley. It was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guide book to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that "Only the devil could play golf" on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large halite salt crystal formations.”

Scenic Artists Drive

We finished the day with Artists Drive. A nine-mile scenic loop through hills of various colors.

There are some serious dips on this drive so vehicles greater than 25 ft in total length are prohibited. This was a great way to end the day with a nice drive checking out all the different colors.

There were two viewpoints with the last one being the Artists Palette. We saw some people hiking the hills but we were not up for that. During the whole drive, all I could think about was ice cream. The hills looked like ice cream flavors to me: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and mint.

Camping

There are multiple camping options at Death Valley National Park, but if you are an RV similar in size to us then your best options are Furnace Creek, Sunset, or Stovepipe Wells Campgrounds.

We selected Sunset Campground because the quiet hours didn’t start until 9 pm compared to 7 pm for the other campgrounds. We have a residential refrigerator which means we need to run the generator for a couple of hours in the morning and the evening again to keep our batteries charged so the extra few hours in the evening worked well for our schedule.

Sunset and Furnance Creek are almost across from each other but Sunset is a little cheaper at $14/day. Furnace Creek was $22/day and those sites include a table and fire pit and the sites at Sunset do not. At Sunset you can’t have any type of fire, not even a charcoal BBQ. Only propane BBQs and firepits. We thought it was odd how you could have fires at one Campground but not the other but we didn’t care enough to pay $8/day.

There is a dump station with potable water on site. We waited to fill up with water we when arrived. No reason to carry all the extra weight if we don’t have to. Cellular service is poor, we had a great 4G (no LTE) connection but it was unusable during the day, maybe due to the limited connection and too many people trying to use it? However, it worked okay for basic web browsing from around 11 pm to 5 am but after 6 am I couldn’t get a webpage to load.

RV Route

After reading reviews about entering Death Valley National Park from the West we decided to not take CA-190 E. Instead we headed South around the park and entered from the East. The Mad Greek in Baker, CA has free overnight RV & truck parking in the back so we parked there for the night, and then in the morning, we headed to the park. We had no issues with the CA-127 N and CA-190 W. It was actually a very pleasant drive into the park beside the road condition in some places.

Hotels

If you prefer hotels over camping, Death Valley has you covered. The Oasis at Death Valley (Formerly Furnace Creek) has two properties: the Ranch at Death Valley, right next to the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, and the Inn at Death Valley. The Ranch even has the world’s lowest elevation golf course at 214 feet below sea level. Can you believe there is an 18-hole golf course in the middle of Death Valley? We visited the General Store at The Ranch which was stocked with groceries and had a great selection of shirts and other clothing items. Both had WiFi for $10/day. Very premium hotel experience, especially given the remote location, but you’re going to pay for the experience!

Conclusion

We recommend visiting Death Valley National Park in early March. The weather is great for exploring with high 70s during the day and low 50s at night. Wondering what there is to do in Death Valley? Within 30 minutes of Furnace Creek and Sunset Campground on the Southeast section of the park, you can hike and rock scramble in Desolation Canyon, walk at the lowest point in North America at Badwater Basin and drive the scenic Artists Drive to check out the colorful hills.

Interested in other things to do in Death Valley National Park check out our Rare Pupfish & Old Keane Wonder Mine | Death Valley Part 2 and Dante’s Ridge Hiking at 5,475 feet | Death Valley Part 3 articles. Planning a trip to California? Take a look at our California articles. Where are we going next? Don’t miss an adventure, subscribe today.

Death Valley Pictures