So, after spending a cold night and waking up to a -1 °C, we were ready to set out for our next unique destination: the hottest, driest, and lowest place in the U.S., Death Valley! The 2nd largest national park in the United States (the largest is in Alaska), Death Valley has a lot to offer, but as we were just passing through, we had to carefully plan our way around (and through) the park to make the most of it. Grab a visitor guide and follow along!
Make sure you grab food and water (and fill the tank!) before heading in. We visited in early September and it was over 40°... so check your tires too, you don't want to be changing one in this heat! There were signs everywhere on the road warning against excessive use of air conditioning, as the engine can overheat. 😨
The roads were really fun to drive on! Perfectly maintained, paved, and winding: a winning combination. We also passed a huge motorcycle tour group, pretty sure they were having the ride of their lives. 🤘 We came into the park from the west, so our first viewpoint was Father Crowley Vista Point, and believe me, my cowboy hat came in really handy with this glaring hot sun.
After driving on some salt flats for a while, I kind of insisted we visit the Charcoal Kilns, as they're quite a unique sight. Unfortunately, I had not noticed that the hour and a half drive was one-way... So yeah, it was quite the drive, and the last 3 km are gravel, which made us worry about our tires, BUT we did see an old mine, an oasis and burros on the way! Burros are wild donkeys and an invasive species in the Death Valley, so you should never feed them. They were also quite intimidating...
The beehive-shaped kilns were pretty awesome (although we didn't stay long due to the intense presence of wasps... the irony), and they were in such good shape! Can you believe these were build in 1876? A faint scent of soot still lingered inside from all the wood burnt in there. It made for quite impressive pictures, don't you think?
So, after driving back to the main road and passing Stovetop Wells Village (stop here for gas and water!) and the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes, we decided to stop at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to learn a bit more about the park and decide on our next course of action. Well, we learned how to deal with rattlesnakes if we came close to one (which we didn't) and that today wasn't an especially hot day. 😐 The three must-do activities at the top of the guide finally won us over, so we hopped back into the car and drove to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in America, 85 meters below sea level! As you can guess from the pictures, it was hot as hell, and then some.
There were some really small puddles of water/mud, which was a big surprise, and you could walk on a designated portion of the salt flats to get a closer look. We got there in the afternoon, so we only stayed out for a few minutes before heading back to the comfort of our air-conditioned seats.
Next up was Artists Drive, a beautiful, 15 km one-way loop that takes you around wonderfully coloured hills! Reds, greens, blues, oranges, yellows... all kinds of hues could be seen on the faces of these hills, and I'm guessing this would be a wonderful spot for sunset pictures. I was so hungry, don't you see the chocolate mint ice cream hill in the first picture? Sure looked that way to me!
And that was pretty much it for our visit of the park. In the second picture below you can see The Oasis at Death Valley, which is a luxury hotel with a ridiculous amount of palm trees around it. You're sure to spot it without any difficulty! If you have money for that kind of stuff, I'm sure it's a uniquely American experience.
We kept driving east until we got a good internet connection and booked our next night in a hotel for a change. Las Vegas, here we come! 🎰💸🏜️ Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL;DR: Death Valley is a must-do while visiting the U.S., as it is a unique way of experiencing pure loneliness in the desert while enjoying well-maintained paved roads. Our favourite places were Father Crowley Vista Point, Badwater Basin, Artists Drive, and just driving on the 190. If you have more time (and a sturdy vehicle), try to spot some burros on the way to Wildrose camp and the Charcoal kilns!
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