One Day Trip to Death Valley, CA

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Atul Sharma

An extrovert by nature, Atul has been sharing his opinions and views on various social network platforms. He always had been thinking about having his own platform and here it is. Creative and tech-savvy Atul has a good sense of humor and when he is not programming or writing blogs or traveling, you can find him cooking, Netflixing or sleeping.

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Once Shakespeare had said about Las Vegas – What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas. Ooops.. It was not Shakespeare, not sure who it was, maybe someone else, but isn’t it true?

But in this travel story, I am going to write and show you my best experience that happened in Las Vegas. Yes, I had the best driving experience of my life, so far, on my Death Valley trip. You may or may NOT have been there. Either way, this travelog is for you, You can suggest me to make my next trip better or you can plan your first trip.

In all videos, some romantic Hindi song/music will be playing, you may enjoy that too.

Without further ado, I will cover my experience in two parts, Advance Planning, and trip

Planning

1. Points to visit – Make a proper plan based on the time you have. You can have 2 or more days’ plans as well with stay there. I had just one day so I started from Las Vegas in the morning and returned back to the hotel the same night. I followed this route and based on research this was the best we could have had in 1 day.
2. Download Offline google map of the region as no cellular coverage in the region. For this, I used my mobile for navigation purposes only (as I didn’t want to take any chance with technology and unexpected technology glitch) and my friend’s mobile for photography.
3. Drive preferably SUV and 4×4 is a better vehicle to take. I saw many people with sedan and hatchback too.
4. Get a full tank as you are not going to get gas station for long and they are very costly, but definitely no need to carry extra gas.
5. Get plenty of water bottles, eatables, energy drinks in your car.
6. Also, try to have weather updates about the region.

Precautions

1. Do not feed animals or birds.
2. Never drive off the established road. That may incur as Ticket and towing charges of $2000.
3. In the case of Car break down, 911 may not be accessible as No Mobile Service so try to flag down any available motorist to alert Park staff.
4. While waiting for help, stay in the car, don’t come out until it arrives.

Traveling

We started our journey around 8 AM from Las Vegas with all that set up mentioned above.

Next Service 72 Miles

After 2 hours, we reached Shoshone California, yes, by now we had crossed Nevada. You can full your tank here, if it is not, though gas prices are a bit higher here. Right after Shoshone, CA and take the left turn on 178, we saw this sign of Next service 72 miles (116 Kms) and it literally means No means N☹ …

But this is not the only thing. I have captured a few videos too

Ashford Mills Ruins

Since we were all set, we cruised through Salsberry Pass and stopped at Ashford Mills Ruins.

Time was approximately 12 and it was too windy and hot. Having no one around us, we felt like we are on some another planet. These pictures complete the story and history.

Here is a slideshow of pictures from a different planet..

Badwater Basin –

After driving 27 miles in the next 32 minutes, we reached the Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the North America continent. Time for quick general knowledge update.

And after seeing people here, we realized that we are still at our beautiful earth and people around us are not aliens. More pictures are in this slideshow.

Artist Drive –

We have seen Leonardo Da Vinci and many other artists with their magnificent work but when mother nature takes that charge, it becomes beyond imagination and mesmerizing. We witnessed that here in 9 miles drive. Even after seeing for the first time, I had realized that my words and pictures won’t do justice to this beauty so I did videography for you to have a real feel of it.

Please note that it is one way and you can enter from the south only. So, if you are traveling from the north, you will have to drive a few miles more but this is totally worth it.

Furnace Creek –

This is the place where we could get Visitor Information center, Wi-Fi (paid), Lodging and camping facilities, restaurants, gas stations and of course, shower @ $10 per person and I didn’t use any of them.

We watched 20 minutes film about the park and native Indians of the region (Timbisha Tribe) and that is available for the whole day.

Zabriskie Point

After Furnace Creek, after 15 minutes our next stop was Zabriskie Point. This is good for spectacular sunset and sunrise view and we could not see either of these but still, the view of golden-colored badlands was amazing and being on the top point under windy condition was a really unique experience.

Dante’s View

This point was our last attraction of the trip. It has a beautiful sunset viewing point at 5476 ft height. It also gives a spectacular view of the Badwater basin, yes that lowest point, which we visited 3 hours ago.

Here are a few more pictures from Dante’s View and some Infography

and this is when I was driving down from the summit.

What I shouldn’t have missed?

1. Stay overnight at Furnace Creek
2. Watching the beauty of the sky in the night
3. Hiking into Golden Canyon
4. Ubehebe Crater – Underground spring and old volcanic explosion
5. Sailing Rocks

I hope it helps you with planning your next trip or please give feedback to make my next trip better.