1 Amazing Day in Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is one of our top favorite national parks! It is a NP that is completely doable in just one full day. Come early and be ready to drive – all viewpoints are at least 30 min – 1 hour away from each other.
Where to Stay? Death Valley is in a remote location with no true city nearby. We stayed in Ridgecrest and drove to Death Valley in the morning. However, Las Vegas is another more popular option.
Arriving in Death Valley: Interestingly, there is no ranger station here. Honor Code follows – please pay at the pay station to support and keep the Death Valley NP maintained. We have the America the Beautiful pass, which we highly recommend if you’re going to visit more than 3 national parks in a year, so kept driving into the park.
FUN FACTS: This is the hottest, driest, and lowest national park!
THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE VISITING:
- Fill up your gas tank before entering Death Valley. This park is much more of a driving rather than hiking park due to sheer size. You will be driving a significant portion of the day.
- There is no cell phone service inside the park. Before your trip – Save the Death Valley NP map to your Google Maps to view offline. Also save a podcast or two to kill time while you’re driving.
- As a rule, we always bring our own lunches into National Parks. There’s not much food inside this park.
- Have a good camera. We’re taking you to the most photogenic spots on our itinerary below
FOLLOW OUR ITINERARY BELOW TO HIT ALL OF THE BEST STOPS WITHIN DEATH VALLEY
View a map of Death Valley here or follow along on the google map included in our post below.
- Stops along our 1 Day Itinerary:
STOP 1: MESQUITE FLAT SAND DUNES
This was our first stop on our Death Valley adventure. Bring your camera and climb as far as your heart desires. There were some families attempting sledding here. Although it was early November, it was already getting hot by mid-morning by the time we finished up photos here.
STOP 2: ZABRISKIE POINT
There is a large parking lot and paved trail up to this viewpoint. On our way down, we walked off the beaten trail and onto the rock formations.
STOP 3: DANTE’S VIEW
Next up, we drove to the highest viewpoint in the park. The drive is up a long, winding road that steadily gains elevation up to Dante’s view. There are fun trails to hike on either side of the parking lot. We hiked up the one on the right side and gained a few hundred feet of even more elevation for some photos. Make sure to admire Badwater Basin down below – you’ll be heading there soon.
LUNCH AT THE FURNACE CREEK VISITOR CENTER
The best place we found to eat was picnic tables set up near the Furnace Creek Visitors Center. It was very well shaded there. We always bring our own food for lunch when we visit National Parks and highly recommend doing that for all visitors.
STOP 4: ARTIST’S DRIVE/PALETTE
This is a 9 mile drive through a rocky landscape that takes you through colored rock formations. Located about halfway on the drive, is “Artists Palette.” It is best visited during sunset when the colors pop more. However, even during mid-day when we visited the greens, reds, and blues on the different rock formations were evident.
NOTE: We had planned to visit the Devil’s Golf Course and the Natural Arch. However, both of these involved driving down a gravel path. We decided it wasn’t worth the drive in a rental car and kept driving.
STOP 5: BADWATER BASIN
This is the highlight of Death Valley, definitely an insta worthy photo op, and where we saw the most people gathered in one location.
Badwater Basin is the lowest point in the United States and is a giant salt flat. Very cool place!
STOP 6: UBEHEBE CRATER
This one is a little further from all of the other stops you’ll see following our itinerary, but it was well worth it. It took us about an hour to drive here from Badwater Basin.
The Ubehebe crater is an old volcanic crater that erupted many years ago. You’re able to walk around the rim or into the crater itself from the parking lot. We chose to climb up the trail to see little Hebe instead, which is very similar to Ubehebe (only smaller as the name suggets). The hike up to this crater was very steep and tough after a long day, but it was well-worth it.
RHYOLITE GHOST TOWN
From here we headed east via Beatty back to Las Vegas making a quick stop to take a photo at the Death Valley National Park sign. The Rhyolyte Ghost Town is on the way out from here and features some cool artwork.
View our other National Park Itineraries, 8 DAYS IN CALIFORNIA AND UTAH: Joshua Tree + Death Valley + Vegas + Zion + Bryce Canyon