Glitz to Grit: Resort/Camping Trip to Vegas and Death Valley

[DVD]

As we started planning a couples vacation with friends Chuck and Pam, I immediately thought of remote, overland adventures. March is supposed to be a great time to explore Death Valley, so I threw that out as a destination for a 5-day trip. Hint: wildflowers can help sell a Death Valley trip to the wives. Laurie and Pam are amenable to dispersed camping, but after a couple zoom planning calls, we scaled back the camping and agreed to the following parameters for the trip: Meet up in Vegas (we're from separate states) for the first night, then 3 days, 2 nights in Death Valley doing a base camp (only set up camp once). Then return to Vegas for a night before heading our separate ways.

The meet-up in Vegas worked well, with really nice rooms, a good dinner, and a little gambling.

Vegas bling with our vehicle in the background - I should ask if they want to join us on the trails​

The next morning, we were singing "Leaving Las Vegas" while driving a couple hours to Death Valley. You always want to top-off gas in this remote area, so we stopped in Beatty, NV, just before heading into Death Valley. Laurie and Pam participated in the inaugural Rebelle Rally 5 or so years ago, and by chance, they had stopped at the same "Nut and Candy and Gas" store during one of the few unsupported gas stops on the rally. Pam recalled the luxury of running, warm water during this stop in the middle of the rally.

Rebelle Rally Vets!​

Fueled up, we planned to head into Death Valley via Titus Canyon, but made a quick decision to head into the ghost town of Rhyolite, which was on the way. I'm usually somewhat of a snob about avoiding places accessible via pavement, but Rhyolite was an interesting and historical stop.

"Bottle house" built in 1906 and literally constructed of bottles.

This was the 3-story bank building

Dilapidated buildings​

Then the real fun began as we hit the dirt and headed into Death Valley on Titus Canyon trail.

Titus Canyon starts in the mountains

It's always cool to see the trail winding below

Lunch stop as we enter the lower, canyon part​

Titus Canyon trail isn't very difficult, but it has plenty of spectacular scenery and "wow" factor as you wind through the narrow canyon walls. This was our second trip to DV, and we traversed Titus Canyon on the previous trip, but that was over New Year's, with rainy, overcast, and cold conditions. It was great to see the vistas this time and enjoy pleasant weather. On the other hand, along with the much nicer weather in March, there was more traffic on the trail. It always boggles my mind when you catch up with somebody on the trail and they don't comprehend that since you caught up to them you must be travelling faster, and they don't pull over to let you past. Anyhow during lunch a couple small platoons of vehicles went past, and then we had the trail to ourselves for the latter part.

Titus Canyon is one-way into DV due to the narrow sections

Beautiful colors on the walls

And it's an incredible contrast to wind down through narrow canyon walls and finally emerge at the expansive Death Valley basin​

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[DVD]

(Continuation)​

Death Valley is approximately the same size as the state of Connecticut, and we were reminded of the scale as we continued toward our camp destination at Eureka Dunes in the northern part of the park.

Long, wash-boardy trail heading north to the dunes

Death Valley humor: makeshift decorations at "Crankshaft Junction"
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As mentioned, we set up a base camp at Eureka Dunes, and the extended time there provided a good opportunity to get a good feel for the place.

Camp is set; it's a good place

Pam and Chuck are good friends, even though they drive a Jeep

Nice view from the tent

Sunrise on the dunes​

A note on the SUV tent. We've worn out a few tents, and this is a recent purchase. We're pretty happy with it, and it worked well on this trip. It was pretty windy the entire trip, so I affixed some guy lines and everything stayed intact. The first evening, we set up the stove and camp table inside to prepare dinner and eat out of the wind. (Great tacos! Thanks Pam and Chuck). Both evenings, we set up some party lights inside and escaped the wind and played cards. It was a warmish wind, but still, it was nice to have a shelter.

As it turned out, the wind died down overnight, and we even got a little splattering of rain. Everybody turned in early, but I carried my camp chair a little ways into the dunes and enjoyed the solitude.

The next day, I plotted a big loop to explore the northern portions of Death Valley. This trip was somewhat of a continuation of the previous trip, where our travels kept us mainly in the southern part of the park. We all loaded into the LR3 for a day trip that took us down Steel Pass (one of the more challenging offroad trails in DV), up and down elevations from under 1000 ft to over 7000 ft, to remote hot springs and deserted cabins, and more.

We started by taking Steel Pass south toward Saline Valley.

Dry Falls at Dedecka Canyon

There are 3 ledges to traverse

Once through the tough canyon, we stopped to look for petroglyphs​

The trail went through the Saline Valley warm springs. When researching this trip, I read that the soaking pools were closed due to Covid. The Park Service literally pulled the plugs. What a nice surprise to find that the pools were filled. We talked to a couple guys who said the pools were filled just 2 days earlier, so we had lunch and a nice uncrowded soak!

Nothing like a natural hot tub to rinse off the trail dust

The warm springs campground has the nicest outhouse in the world!​

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[billiebob]

I'm a fan of shoulder season travel and Death Valley is a bucket list item, sounds like March is a great month.

 

[DVD]

(Continuation)​

Refreshed after our hot-springs sojourn, we headed north on Saline Valley trail, over North Pass. It was cool to see patches of snow on the trail and pines at higher elevations. One of the guys at the hot springs suggested a little out-and-back detour down a side trail to check out mining ruins and one of the volunteer-maintained remote cabins throughout DV available for free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Nicely maintained cabin a couple miles down a side trail

What a nice memorial

There is even a functioning propane refrigerator. When we saw the beer, we initially thought leaving cold beers was a thing, then we peeked inside the cabin and saw sleeping bags and duffels and figured out that it was occupied and the people must have been out on a hike. Oops.​

We completed the loop and returned to our dunes base-camp by mid-late afternoon, with plenty of time for a big hike up the dunes.

Steep drop-offs

Laurie referred to this as getting a sand facial

Huge dunes!

Plenty of room to get off by yourself

Artsy shot 1

Artsy shot 2​

For dinner, we enjoyed camp classic hot dogs roasted over a fire, then another round of cards, then stargazing around the fire. Another great day in DV!

Pack-up day is always kind of sad, but the Vegas plan mitigated that. No rush breaking camp because we had a nice resort suite and hot showers and good food waiting for us just a few hours away. So far, our DV exploration focused on remote, non-touristy areas, but today we would head onto pavement to see some of the DV highlights in more accessible areas.

We also needed gas. I packed an extra 4-gal tank, and I dumped that in to hopefully get us to Stovepipe Wells store within the park. We barely made it!

Devil's Golf Course, where the salt forms big clumps

Badwater Basin, the lowest place in North America at 282 feet below sea level; you can zoom the photo to see the "Sea Level" sign halfway up the mountains behind​

We made it back to Vegas by late afternoon and enjoyed the trappings of civilization--quite a contrast and quite a trip!

All in all, it was a great trip hard to imagine it could have gone better. But we did have a few unfortunate incidents.

Beer debacle. I picked up a case of beer for our Utah friends because it's much cheaper in AZ, When we got to Death Valley, we realized that we left the beer in the room fridge in Vegas. We always say we don't need beer to have fun, this trip we got to prove it.

Stolen propane canister. As a recent purchase, we bought a propane fire pit. National parks prohibit campfires in dispersed areas, and the past few years, most of the west has had burn bans. I devised a nice way to affix the cute little 5-lb propane tank to the rear ladder. Packing is always a bit of a rush, and I considered scrounging in the garage for a cable and lock, but figured there's little use for such a tank. Lesson learned. Fortunately, the base-camp at the dunes had firepits and wood fires were allowed, so we didn't need it on this trip anyhow.

No wildflowers. We researched the best areas and ranged high and low in elevation, but no wildflowers to be seen on this trip.

No "booming" at Eureka Dunes. These dunes have a unique characteristic of making a low booming or moaning noise when conditions are right (hot and dry). I've heard it on youtube and was hoping to hear it in person, but like the wildflowers, conditions must not have been quite right.

We'll just have to take another trip to Death Valley and get those things right. There's so much more to explore!

 

[Ace Brown]

I always enjoy your trip reports. It helps when I’ve done recent trips there too as your photos and locations are familiar.


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[BLand Cruiser]

Excellent. Thanks for the writeup!

 

[DVD]

I'm a fan of shoulder season travel and Death Valley is a bucket list item, sounds like March is a great month.

I'm not a DV expert, but while March might be "shoulder season" for the entire population, I think it's prime time for DV. That said, the remote sections were still very remote, but when we got onto paved areas, such as Stovepipe Wells / Mesquite Dunes and Badwater Basin, it was relatively crowded. I'm sure it would be even more so if the wildflowers were blooming.

 

[billiebob]

(Continuation)​

Huge dunes!



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We'll just have to take another trip to Death Valley and get those things right. There's so much more to explore!

I love it when people find barefoot in the sand inspirational.

 

[greg.potter]

Thanks for the great trip report and inspirational photos. We had a Death Valley trip planned for the spring of 2020 but Covid scuttled that plan. We've been there twice and only scratched the surface - maybe spring 2022 the border will be open again and things will be mostly back to "normal", whatever that is.

 

[krick3tt]

I have traveled North through the Imperial Valley in a vehicle with no AC and it was 104 in the cab. Might have been warmer in DV but I did not have the will to go that far East to find out. I have gone through DV in the winter and it was very pleasant, no one else there. I wanted to go for a walk but did not want to leave the vehicle so I put it in drive and let the slow pace of the idling vehicle keep up with me as I walked along side on a very straight trail. Interesting experience.