National Parks Traveler

Lake Manly, created by remnants of Hurricane Hilary in August, was deep enough in September to paddle across/NPS, E. Letterman

Death Valley After The Storm: What To Expect, Where To Go, What Is Open

By Eric Toll

“I’m not disappointed. All the major sights are open,” said Nathan Wilderman of Reno, Nevada, as he packed up his family’s campsite at the Texas Springs Campground at Death Valley National Park after three days of exploring. “Based on the news, we expected a lot of closures here.”

Wilderman, his wife, and two children came for a long weekend, unsure of what was open and what was closed in the national park. Many of those questions are answered on the park's website.

Death Valley is still reeling from the impact of August’s Hurricane Hilary-driven storm that poured a year’s worth of rain for the park in one day. Larger than the state of Connecticut at more than 3.4 million acres, the park was cut off from California and Nevada on August 20 as torrents of water roared through arroyos and severed three California state highways that enter the park. Park personnel and visitors were stranded.

The national park was immediately closed to the public, reopening in mid-October nearly two months after that devastating storm dropped 2.21 inches of rain in the Badwater Basin and much more on the rimming mountain ranges.

“Having the park closed for two months, one of the things we noticed is how quickly wildlife moved back to some areas where they hadn’t been seen,” said Jennette Jurado, Death Valley's supervisory ranger. “Traffic on Highway 190 was essentially limited to rangers going out for groceries or construction. I saw my first desert tortoise along Highway 190 after the flood.”

While some in-park destinations and roads remain closed and work rapidly progresses to fully reopen Death Valley, here’s what you should expect if you're planning a visit in the coming weeks and months. Facilities and roads open regularly, and the park’s website has up-to-date information.

What To Expect

All state highways into Death Valley have reopened thanks to rapid repairs by the California Department of Transportation. Some roadwork is ongoing, so the park recommends driving carefully and adhering to posted speed limits. Park rangers are aggressively enforcing those speed limits.

“We had some delays getting in from Las Vegas,” said Jason from La Crosse, Wisconsin. “They were doing some work on the road and traffic was held for a bit. It wasn’t too bad. Hopefully, we won’t hit it on the way out. Traffic in Vegas is bad enough."

Racing down the steep slopes of the Amargosa Range, floodwaters roared across every low point on Badwater Road south of Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park.

Just about all the paved roads are open to traffic. The exception is Emigrant Canyon Road, which includes access to Wildrose Campground, the Charcoal Kilns, and two primitive campgrounds. The scenic road was washed away with floodwaters gouging a nearly nine-foot-deep cut through the pavement. The popular drive is projected to reopen in April. Scotty’s Castle Road remains closed as flood damage repair dating back to 2015 continues. It’s expected to reopen in 2025.

Nearly all backcountry roads—which are dirt and gravel—remain closed as of the publication date. Some exceptions include Racetrack Valley Road, roads to Echo Canyon and Hole-In-The-Wall, and the 20-Mule Team Canyon loop road.

The park has an active and up-to-date map of all road conditions on its website. The map also gives an idea as to when closed roads will reopen.

“We’ve seen just about everything we wanted to see coming to the park,” Jason added. He was making the trip with his son. “I wanted to see Scotty’s Castle; it's disappointing that it’s still closed.”

There have been some fascinating outcomes from the flooding and park closure beyond the extensive winter wildflower bloom that could blossom in March.

“Interestingly, it was cooler here in September and October because of (Lake Manly), but it was also more humid and we’re not used to that,” said Jurado. “Also, animals have been using places where they hadn’t spent much time when there were people there.”

The visitor center and all facilities are open at Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, and Panamint Springs. Most campgrounds are open, but only Furnace Creek Campground is taking reservations. All others are first-come, first-setup. The Emigrant Campground remains closed, as do the trio on Emigrant Canyon Road: Wildrose, Thorndike, and Mahogany Flat primitive campgrounds.

Where To Go

“There’s so much to see at Death Valley,” Wilderman said. “We stopped at the visitor center on our first day and got the map and newspaper.”

The park’s newspaper, its seasonal Visitor’s Guide, is available online or in a print version available at the park. It has a “do-not-miss” list of places to visit, organized by how much time you plan to be in the park.

Jurado had a slightly different “must-see” list than the guide.

“The top of the list is Badwater Basin because of the lake,” she said, referring to the massive pool of water left by the hurricane on the lowest point in North America. “Lake Manly has been there since August and looks like it will be there for a while.”

Badwater Basin

Ephemeral Lake Manly is a rare occurrence at Death Valley. While water can appear after a storm in Badwater Basin, typically for a few days at most, Lake Manly filled the basin and was four miles long and two miles wide at its fullest level. Although the lake made an appearance after a wet winter in 2005, according to NASA, it did not have the staying power 19 years ago as it displays today.

Badwater is about 20 minutes south of Furnace Creek on Badwater Road. The salty lake is only a few inches deep. Jurado said that a ranger waded to the Badwater low point and found the water to be about a cubit—fingertip to elbow—deep. She stressed that the measure is “unofficial.”

“I found the Artists Palette to be the most incredible landscape feature I’ve ever seen,” Jason said. “What you have here in the West is so different than anything we have back in Wisconsin. So many colors in the earth in just one location.”

From the overlook off the ten-mile Artists Drive, Artists Palette stands out as an extraordinary display of volcano-caused mineralization at Death Valley National Park/Eric Jay Toll

Nestled into the yellow and brown hills of the Amargosa Range, the nearly ten-mile one-way drive is like a gentle roller coaster across the terrain with pullouts and overlooks of colorful mineral inlays shimmering in the landscape. Red, orange, yellow, blue, pink and green colors are dabbed into the earth, painted by volcanic deposits.

Stopping at the palette to walk down into the arroyos between the colorful hills unveils many surprises, with mineralized boulders in the middle of paths and other-worldly shapes and colors to be seen and touched.

The park's Visitors Guide says Zabriskie Point ranks third on the list; however, Jurado says the unexpected stark beauty of Devil’s Golf Course and its ability to sing in the sun puts it third on her list.

Singing salt occurs when the sun warms the packed crystals, and they expand and break apart, making distinctive snap, crackle, and pop sounds and occasional chords. To experience this effect, it’s best to visit during the warmer parts of the day—except in summer when it occurs throughout daylight hours.

The pinnacles of salt make a landscape so barren and sharp that the 1934 Park Service manual said that “only the devil could play golf here,” which led to the landscape’s moniker. Gray-brown salt pinnacles standing two to three feet rise above smooth white salt trails. Portions of the golf course were still under shallow water from Lake Manly in early January, but the pool is rapidly evaporating.

The road to the golf course parking area is dirt and gravel, recently graded, and still very bumpy.

The iconic Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes between Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells Village is fourth on both Jurado’s list of recommendations. The smooth cream-color dunes rise and stretch for miles across the basin below the Panamint Range to the west.

The dunes are named for the mesquite trees that poke and prod their way through them. The twisted and windswept trees are in multitudes of different shapes. A two-mile trek across the sand reaches the tallest dune in the field, about 100 feet tall.

“This is definitely different than beach sand,” said Patty Taylor from Long Beach, California. She and her companion sat atop a low dune gazing across the landscape towards Tucki Mountain south of Stovepipe Wells. “It’s the first time I’ve done a hike barefoot.”

Walking the dunes without shoes during the cooler months of the year (a relative description at Death Valley) is the easiest. It’s also an incredible sight for a family diversion. Children particularly like the dunes; many are seen trying to run in the deep sand.

For photographers, sunrise and sunset golden hours are particularly interesting because the crowds are fewer, and the low light and shadows highlight the texture and shape of the dunes.

Despite the long 25-mile drive from Furnace Creek, it’s worth visiting the Ubehebe Crater to see what was wrought by the hurricane.

“Right now, there is a decent amount of Desert Gold wildflowers in the Ubehebe Crater area,” said Jurado. “(The Racetrack and those flowers) make a good two-for-one trip. We’ve sent a lot of folks up there because it’s really neat (to see). Seeing those in the fall and winter is highly unusual.”

Saddling up with camera gear to hike to the flowers, Gerard from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in the next parking space, was stripping off his hiking shoes and readying to ride his motorcycle.

“I’ve just loved Death Valley,” he said, pulling on his jumpsuit. “I’ve been traveling the Western U.S. for seven months. After this, it’s back to Los Angeles and home to Australia.”

Gerard said he’d been to most of the parks along the National Park Highway—Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Zion, Bryce Canyon and more—before spending two days in Death Valley. His next stop was the Racetrack, and then he was heading out the California side of the park to ride south to Los Angeles.

“Just follow the trail up the first rise,” he said when asked whether he saw the Desert Gold flower field. “Before you hit the next rise to the top, you’ll see the flowers on your right just below the rim. Be sure to check out those red flowers in little clusters along the way.”

Crunching up the loose cinders over the first rise, the flowers are not immediately apparent. It was less than a quarter-mile easy hike on the packed stones across a slight dip when the black debris field was suddenly interspersed with tall, gold flowers.

After the 13-mile drive up from California Highway 190 to Dantes View, the vast expanse of Badwater and the ephemeral Lake Manly become a stunning vista in Death Valley National Park/Eric Jay Toll

Zabriskie Point And Dantes View

The Visitor’s Guide ranks these spots third and fifth, but with the impacts of the August storm, Jurado dropped Zabriskie Point and Dantes View into a tie for sixth on her recommended list.

Jurado said that Zabriskie Point is especially popular at sunset. The badlands overlook sits on a shallow hill requiring a quarter-mile walk up a six-story elevation gain. With the paved walkway, it’s an easy walk for nearly everyone. Even with wheelchairs, visitors can make it to this extraordinary landscape overlook.

Dantes View is a 13-mile drive up to a 5,475-foot high overlook positioned for a straight view of the 283-foot-below sea level depths of Badwater Basin. It’s a 12-mile drive on Highway 190 from Furnace Creek to the Dantes View intersection.

Fewer visitors make this drive than the number trekking up to Zabriskie Point, but experiencing Death Valley is incomplete without this side trip.

What Else Is Open

Many “must-see” sights at Death Valley are accessible. While most roads to the abandoned mines peppering the landscape are closed, the Harmony Borax Works, where 20-mule team wagon trains brought ore for processing into the detergent that won the West, is open with good access.

The Racetrack is an extraordinary sight, and the usually washboard-heavy Racetrack Valley Road is open to Saline Valley Road. The basin, a tawny-hued playa ringed by black and umber mountains, has numerous dark rocks that tumbled down the slopes of the Last Chance Range onto the sometimes muddy flats of the playa between the road and the rock formation known as “the Grandstand.”

Over the years, the lake temporarily fills with a coating of water. In the winter, when it freezes, the severe winds moaning into the basin from Grapevine Canyon will push the rocks, leaving “skid mark” trails behind them on the flat playa surface.

“I hear that that road, which was recently graded, is in the best condition you could ask for,” said Jurado.

Mysteriously, rocks on the playa at The Racetrack in Death Valley National Park move across the landscape leaving mud “skid marks” in the tawny surface/Eric Jay Toll

She added that newly overturned rocks can create hazards for tires if drivers are not careful. These rocks can puncture a tire if driving with street tires instead of off-road or heavy-duty tires. Travel slowly and avoid driving over larger rocks.

That warning was repeated by the ranger working the information counter in the visitor center. She said she had seen people changing tires along the route. The park information cautions that many rental cars do not have spare tires. If there’s a spare in your vehicle, ensure it is inflated and ready to go.

Golden Canyon, off Badwater Road, was the setting for the planet Tatooine in the first Star Wars movie. It was the last time the National Park Service allowed a movie to be filmed in a Death Valley wilderness area.

Making the 6.8-mile hike from the Golden Canyon entrance to Zabriskie Point and back is possible. It’s rated moderate and takes about two hours inbound to navigate slots, moguls, and canyons before hitting the Zabriskie Badlands. Roundtrip is a “carry four liters of water” hike.

At the end of Echo Canyon, the road to the abandoned Inyo Gold Mine is open and newly graded but still rough. Nearby Hole-In-The-Wall is a 400-foot cut through a Funeral Mountains ridge leading to the Red Amphitheater Loop Trail.

One-way 20-Mule Team Canyon is a newly graded former railroad trackbed open through the creamy and black badlands on the east side of the Amargosa Range. It’s a quick and photogenic side trip when leaving via Highway 190 and heading toward Death Valley Junction and Nevada.

Some days you can witness Air Force "dog fights" in the skies over Death Valley. With its proximity to Nellis Air Force Base and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, it’s possible to see the spectacle of military flight training. The powerful supersonic jets come roaring over the national park. While in central areas of the park flights are limited to 3,000 feet and above, in other regions fighters may roar in as low as 200 feet above the basin and between much taller mountains.

Gerard and I watched two F-35 fighters practice a dog fight, including straight vertical climbs and dives. The sound and sun-glittered aircraft were most impressive. The dives were so steep that jets' markings were visible from our positions on the ground when the aircraft pulled out to shoot across the sky.

Death Valley is a diversely unique setting, and spending less than a day exploring its landscape and history misses so much. This park is worthy of at least an overnight trip, with an early arrival the first day and a late departure the next. Three to four days is a spectacular adventure.

What To Plan

With the storm damage repairs, planning extra travel time into and through Death Valley National Park is advisable. Driving behind lumbering construction vehicles and equipment on the road to another repair is not uncommon.

Travel In The Park

All roads to the Visitor Center are open from California and Nevada. It’s highly recommended this be a first stop to get the latest site and road conditions. Some repairs were emergency and temporary so that winter storms could reopen the wounds between the last online information and arrival times.

Driving between in-park destinations can be lengthy. Allow plenty of time. Speeding may result in expensive fines.

Park in designated areas and do not drive off the paved or native dirt and gravel roads, no matter how inviting a playa or basin may appear. The torn-up desert landscape takes dozens of years to heal back to pristine condition. It’s also illegal.

Lodging And Camping

Staying in a national park always comes at a premium. It’s a matter of balancing the time it takes to travel from outside the park vs. the cost of staying inside. The closest adjoining community with lodging is Beatty, Nevada, about 45 minutes from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. The nearest California-situated lodging is Lone Pine, nearly two hours from the visitor center. Pahrump is 90 minutes away in Nevada, and Las Vegas is 2.5 hours from Furnace Creek.

Inside the park are four lodges: two resorts in Furnace Creek, the Oasis and the Ranch, and accommodations at Stovepipe Wells Village and the Panamint Springs Resort.

The campground at Furnace Creek accepts reservations through Recreation.gov. All other park campgrounds are first-in, first-setup. It’s recommended to try to get to a first-choice campground around 11 a.m. when prior campers have left or are packing up.

Emigrant and Wildrose campgrounds were still closed in mid-January, as were the Thorndike and Mahogany Flat primitive campgrounds.

Backcountry camping—with required permits—is permitted at designated locations in the park, except the still-closed Titus Canyon sites.

Dining And Supplies

Restaurants and food are available in multiple locations at Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells Village, and Panamint Springs Resort. The Ranch at Furnace Creek has a small grocery store, and there are convenience stores at Stovepipe Wells Village and Panamint Springs. The Ranch Store also has firewood and a limited selection of “Oh, no! I forgot…” gear.

Death Valley Safety Concerns

The park has a complete webpage about the serious safety concerns that should be known, even for short trips into the park.

The season doesn’t matter; Death Valley is one of the driest places on earth. Even in cool weather, the sun is brutal. Carrying water in vehicles and drinking at least one gallon of water per person daily is highly recommended. Soda, beer and caffeinated drinks do not count towards the gallon.

The leading cause of death in the park are single-vehicle accidents. Speed limits are set for safety reasons. Roads rise and fall and have steep downgrades and blind curves. Slow down and save lives, perhaps your own.

Carry a spare tire. A flat on an unpaved road, miles from one of the villages, can result in hours-long waits and expensive repairs or towing. Remember that AAA and other towing programs typically do not cover tows from unpaved roads.

Never drive through cross-road flowing water. A current as little as five mph and six inches deep can float an SUV or pickup downstream into perilous situations. Keep an eye on the weather and escape canyons before rain hits to avoid being trapped in a flash flood.

Most mines are gated, but with so many abandoned mines in the park, some are open invitations to explore. Don’t. Mines are pitch black inside, potentially unstable, have shafts that are invisible in the darkness, and might contain pockets of poisonous gas that can kill you.

Cell phones and GPS may not be reliable in this expansive park. Low-power cell service is available around the villages but rarely elsewhere in the park. Commercial phone maps, like Google or Apple, are notoriously unreliable for backcountry areas like Death Valley. They will often plot “direct” routes to roads that do not exist or are unsafe for passenger vehicle travel.

Be sure to acquire a well-documented hiking, off-roading, or camping map. The Traveler's National Parks RVing Guide is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig and provides a parks newsfeed from the news organization. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

Remember to download base maps for the apps before starting trips.

This desert area and tall mountain ranges on each side of a flat basin create a natural wind tunnel. Especially when camping, prepare for late afternoon and nightly winds from all directions. The winds can damage tents, fabric shelters, rock trailers, and RVs.

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Eric Jay Toll is a freelance travel writer and photographer in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been writing about and snapping photos in national parks and monuments, tribal parks and the American West for more than 14 years. His work appears in National Parks Traveler, USA Today, SheBuysTravel.com, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Roadtrippers and other publications. His “On The Toll Road” social media pages are called “EricJayToll.”