I'm thinking of hitting Death Valley this Winter in February for a week (Car Camping). Can anyone give me insight on places to see, trails to hike or an overall guide to enjoying the best it has to offer if you only have 1 week? Thanks Everyone!
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I'm thinking of hitting Death Valley this Winter in February for a week (Car Camping). Can anyone give me insight on places to see, trails to hike or an overall guide to enjoying the best it has to offer if you only have 1 week? Thanks Everyone!
I can learn from this. let er fly.
Look into the Cottonwood Canyon/Marble Canyon loop. Another very cool place is Cerro Gordo as is Darwin Falls both of which are on the Lowest to Highest Route. Another cool sight on Lowest to Highest was Burgess Mine. This is the photo of the High Sierra from near that point. Attachment 46065
This gives you a peak at Lowest to Highest.
https://www.thehikinglife.com/2018/0...highest-route/
Shameless promotion of Cam's site. A good thing. ;)
Oh wait shameless self promotion as you were on the L2H Route with Cam and Dirtmonger and Bobcat. Shame on you Malto LOL :D:);) No maltodextrin intended Mr Malto. ;)
Wow, death valley....
I love the place in winter, having been there three times now, the latest just this last December. I happened to catch Badwater Basin after a fairly heavy rainfall, so there was a rather large, but very temporary lake there (see attached pic).
Camping: One trip we stayed at the Furnace Creek CG, which does completely fill up often, but does take reservations this time of year. I recommend you see if there are any open sites for your visit.
The latest trip, I camped at Texas Springs, which I actually liked better than Furnace Ck, and is first-come-first-served. There is also nearby Sunset CG, also FCFS.
There are so many cool little hikes on the main roads in the park, I recommend all of them. If you have a week, or even 3-4 days, this should not be a problem. I cannot remember the names, one is Artist -something, Devils Golf Course (or something like that), etc, etc. Do a nice long stroll out into badwater basin. Dante's View, Natural Bridge, the list goes on. Those falls are awesome. these are all short, easy hikes. Lots of air to breathe!
If you want a good workout, climb Telescope peak! It's 11,100 feet high (approx). though I cannot brag about having done the Lowest to the Highest, I can brag about having climbed Telescope Peak from Shorty's Well, which is at -250 feet, meaning a 11, 350' vertical climb. A rather unique aspect of this climb was hiking UP to treeline, meaning you start way below where trees can grow and hike up to where they can.
Here's the summitpost page on Telescope peak. I posted a trip report on the page about our climb from shorty's Well.
https://www.summitpost.org/telescope-peak/150584
You can much more easily climb this peak from Mahogany Flats. Bring microspikes! there will probably be snow along the way.
We got buzzed by a pair of F18's, probably out of China Lakes Naval air station, see another attached pic. We saw these guys dive into a canyon that we had just hiked out of (Rainbow Canyon), and caught this pic as they were returning. It was exciting watching them dive into the narrow canyon. Probably illegal, but the aviators probably do it all the time.
If you have a whole week, there are a bunch of places outside the park worthy to visit, like Red Rocks state park near Las Vegas, or even Bryce/Zion NP's not too many hours away.
Sorry to ramble, I just love this area.
Here is my experience from Feb 2018. There are a few blog posts about my time there and what I did, they are all in order:
https://nomadicpawprints.wordpress.c...national-park/
Who else googled flights to Vegas after reading this thread? :)
There is a funny malto story out of that hike. Let’s just say my fellow hikers experience with Malto didn’t quite go as planned. I only did a portion of that hike with them. I caught up with them after I ran across Zion NP the day they hiked Telescope peak.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogwood
If you haven’t seen any of the video out of “Star Wars Canyon” then check this out. I have had jets buzz me a low level in Panamint Valley but this is a whole different level.
https://youtu.be/a-HsDA_cPqY
Death Valley is one of the greatest outdoor secrets of N. America. If you are willing to air down your tires and drive the washboard road a couple hours north north to Eureka Valley (it's in the park) you will enjoy the sweet sound of utter silence. Great car camping next to the dunes w/ no people.