Exploring Death Valley National Park: Best Tips + Activities

Exploring Death Valley National Park reveals a landscape full of surprises, from its connection to Star Wars to the mesmerizing salt flats of Badwater Basin. This park, often overlooked, exceeded our expectations with its breathtaking views and unique geological features. Whether hiking through Golden Canyon or driving along Artists Drive, Death Valley offers unforgettable experiences at every turn.

Podcast Episode Overview

We have a confession: Death Valley wasn’t even close to the top of our travel bucket list. But once we arrived, we were blown away—it exceeded every expectation!

In this episode of Exploring the National Parks, we’re sharing everything you need to know about this underrated gem. If Death Valley isn’t on your radar yet, we encourage you to bump it up because you’ll be shocked by how cool this park actually is!

In this episode, we discuss:

The special connection between Death Valley and Star Wars
The best time of year to visit for an unforgettable experience
How to see what Earth truly looks like at Death Valley
Where to find the most breathtaking views in the park
Our favorite hiking trails you can’t miss
The one spot that should be at the top of your must-see list
What you’ll find in the main hub of the park
Hidden gems on the northern side of the valley
What to know if you’re hunting for the famous “racetracks” of Death Valley
Where to find the iconic Star Wars sand dunes

We hope you enjoyed exploring this uniquely amazing park with us! We are determined to get you to visit this park because it truly is incredible.

Listen to the Full Podcast Episode:

Quick Facts about Death Valley National Park

We’ll dive into all the details in our Death Valley fun facts episode, but here are a few to get you started!

Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, at three million acres. It’s hard to grasp just how massive this desert park is—it’s larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined!

Death Valley is also the hottest place on earth and the lowest and driest place in all of North America. If you’ve never been to Death Valley, it sounds like it would just be a big hole, but it’s so much more than that! You can see what Earth truly looks like when it isn’t covered by vegetation.

We love visiting Death Valley in the winter. The peak travel season in the park is between October and April so you can avoid being there during the hottest parts of the year. Even in the winter months, it can get up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Golden Canyon – Your first Star Wars stop!

We’re starting our exploration of Death Valley today at Golden Canyon, one of the filming locations for the Star Wars films. In Star Wars: A New Hope, R2-D2 wanders away into a rocky canyon on Tatooine before being captured by Jawas. That rocky canyon in the movie is Golden Canyon in Death Valley!

Even if you don’t care about Star Wars, the Golden Canyon hike is one of the best in the park and worth a trip. The Golden Canyon hike is around two miles, but you can choose your own adventure by adding other trails. Red Cathedral is a short spur off of the Golden Canyon trail. You can add Gower Gulch to extend your hike and see all the fascinating rock formations. The Golden Canyon area feels a lot like the Badlands of South Dakota – and there’s even a Badlands section of the Golden Canyon area.

Golden Canyon is the view from Zabriskie Point—in fact, you’ll be looking up at the viewpoint as you head toward Red Cathedral. Depending on how far you’d like to hike, you can link up with Zabriskie Point from Golden Canyon.

Artists Drive to see multicolored hills

Continuing south from Golden Canyon for just a short drive, you’ll find Artists Drive, a nine-mile scenic drive that passes multicolored hills. The Artists Palette is an array of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and pink splattered across the normally yellow formations of Death Valley.

Artists Drive is a one-way road that sometimes narrows in around your car. The scenic drive is an easy way to get spectacular views without leaving your vehicle, a blessing in the summer months.

Star Wars was also filmed in this area. One shot shows R2-D2 wandering through another rocky canyon. Another is at the beginning of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when Luke walks up to Jabba the Hutt’s Palace.

Devils Golf Course to Badwater Basin – The must-see stop in Death Valley

Devils Golf Course is a short drive further south and lies along a dirt road. In the rare times when water does make an appearance in Death Valley, it reigns supreme over the landscape. Rain pouring down off the mountains creates alluvial fans across the valley. As the water evaporates, minerals like salt are left behind. Devils Golf Course is a crusty salt formation created by these forces.

You can also visit Natural Bridge nearby. Be warned: though many of Death Valley’s dirt roads are passable in standard cars, Natural Bridge is on a dirt road that made us nervous for the minivans and sedans we saw attempting the drive.

Beyond Natural Bridge, you’ll finally hit the main attraction of Death Valley – Badwater Basin, the lowest spot in North America at -282 feet below sea level. You get a sense of how low the lowest point is because the National Park Service has a plaque showing where sea level is.

You can hike out into Badwater Basin across the salt flats. We recommend heading here early in the morning or evening to beat the crowds to the parking lot. While hiking across the valley floor, look up toward Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park at 11,049 feet.

The main road stretches farther south, but beyond Badwater Basin, there isn’t much to see.

Furnace Creek Area and the best place to watch sunset

Heading back up the road you just drove down, you’ll come back to the main junction and hub of the park. Here, you’ll find a few hotels, restaurants, one of the only gas stations in the area, and a place to rent Jeeps so you have a high clearance vehicle to explore the dirt roads.

We love staying at the Texas Springs Campground in the Furnace Creek area. Unlike other national parks, Death Valley’s campgrounds have little seclusion because there are no trees. We always hear coyotes howling at night at Texas Springs, which we love in this vast, open landscape.

The Furnace Creek Visitor Center is located here and has a giant thermometer that tells you exactly how hot it is.

Harmony Borax Works is a short interpretive trail in the Furnace Creek area that teaches you about the past of Death Valley as a mining community.

Driving back toward Pahrump and Las Vegas, Zabriskie Point is the best place to watch the sunset in Death Valley. The way the sunlight hits the land and creates a splash of colors is unlike anything else we’ve seen.

Heading a little further, Dante’s View is also worth stopping. You can’t take a vehicle longer than 25 feet on the road to Dante’s View because the road is narrow, and the parking lot is shockingly tiny. At Dante’s View, you’re on top of the mountains, looking down into Badwater Basin and toward Telescope Peak. It’s an incredible viewpoint that shows this land of extremes at its best.

North Death Valley and the best backcountry road

There have been a few washouts north of Furnace Creek, so trails are being rebuilt. Once they reopen, though, we highly recommend hiking the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail. There is a creek with fish along this trail!

You can visit a mining ghost town at Rhyolite on the Nevada side of the park. Keane Wonder Mine is also in this area and worth a stop if you want to see more of the mining history of Death Valley.

Titus Canyon Road is one of our favorite drives in any national park we’ve visited. Flash flooding in recent years has closed the road periodically, so check if it’s open before you make your way to Death Valley for this one-of-a-kind backcountry road. The National Park Service recommends a high-clearance vehicle for Titus Canyon. You can also hike to the narrow section of Titus Canyon.

Scotty’s Castle has been closed for nearly a decade, but add it to your Death Valley itinerary once it reopens. The Ubehebe Crater is also in this area, though we don’t feel it’s worth the drive just to see the crater. It’s a volcanic relic of Death Valley.

The Racetrack, where rocks move on their own, is along a long dirt road with bad washboarding and ruts. This road is not for the faint of heart or the unprepared. It was worth the hard drive to see the rocks. We just didn’t know what it would take to get to the Racetrack. Our truck’s suspension broke!

Stovepipe Wells

Turning back toward Furnace Creek, you’ll want to turn onto SR-190 to Stovepipe Wells. You’ll find the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, which you can hike through, play on, and roll down. It’s also another Star Wars filming location.

Mosaic Canyon is an incredible hike into the mountains to explore slot canyons and rocks that look pasted together. You can hike far in, but it turns into more of a scramble after a while.

There’s a ton to see in Death Valley, the biggest national park in the contiguous United States! We really hope you make the trip to see how incredible Death Valley is because we love it so, so much.

Don’t forget your task for this week! Head over to the Dirt in My Shoes Facebook or Instagram page and check out the Star Wars locations at Death Valley and tell us which you are most excited to see!

Links mentioned in this podcast episode:

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