Death Valley was always on my mind. I can't really explain why. Maybe because of some books that I've read, or maybe because of the name...I have no idea. I really wanted to go there and explore this park. If you ever asked me what National Park I want to see the most, I would say, Death Valley! I also knew that I would need more than just a couple of days, and I'd have to be prepared to do some hiking. It took us few months to finally make my dream come true. One day, realizing we have a few days off for Christmas, it hit me!...Let's go to Death Valley! Let's finally explore it!

Death Valley is the lowest, the hottest, and the driest region in North America. It's also the biggest National Park in the lower 48, so don't expect to see everything in 4 days. It's still better than nothing. This is a winter park, that means it's the best time to visit in the winter. In the summer time, temperatures can soar to 130°F, and I don't think that exploring the park in an oven-like environment would be pleasurable. It's only good to hike high peaks in the summer.

The options for lodging are limited within the park. There are a few hotels/motels, but they are usually expensive, especially, during the peak season. If you camp, you have more options. There are plenty of campgrounds there. Most of them might be closed in the summer time. I would recommend to call them to make sure that they are open. We stayed on the outskirts of the park in the small town of Pahrump, at the Holiday Inn Express. This is a new hotel with big, clean, rooms. It's a 45 minute drive east of Death Valley. I know, it's a 45 min drive, but at least you are in a town, where there are some good restaurants, casinos, and you don’t have to pay $400 a night.

Death Valley has an excellent road network system. You can reach so many abandoned and unique places within the park boundaries and beyond. Unfortunately, some of the roads (probably the one, you want to take) are off-roads. A four wheel drive car with high clearance is highly recommended. Good off-road tires are also needed, or at least tires with good tread depth. The rocks are very sharp, and can easily pierce your tire. Make sure you have a full-size spare tire, and fill up your car as often as you can. The next gas station could be hundreds of miles away! There is one more thing to consider. If you are visiting Death Valley in the winter time, and plan to drive above 5,000 feet of elevation, check with a Park Ranger about the snow depth. If there is snow up there, have a snow chains.
We rented a Ford F150 XLT pick-up truck from Budget Rent a Car. I highly recommend it. To lock in the lowest price, make sure to book it as early as possible.

Since this was our first time in this Park, we decided to start from the most popular places. Of course, sometimes we got off the beaten track. Even though the park is huge and you can spend hours hiking, and not see a single person, there are also places where there are too many people.

Anyway, let's point out the major attractions that everybody must see in this park.
On the first day, we visited Zabriskie Point – from this point there is an amazing view of the rock formations that were created 5 million years ago, when Furnace Lake dried out. You can admire the view from this point, or even better take a bottle of water and go further to explore it. If you have time...definitely take a walk. We did only a 5 minute hike, because we had plans for a bigger one, later on.

The next stop was the Devil's Golf Course – another crazy thing that nature created. The erosion (wind & water) of salt rocks can create sharp spikes that as the name says; only the devil can play golf there.

We definitely recommend walking in this field, but be very careful, it's really sharp! Going further is quite difficult, but taking a few steps to see how huge and amazing it is, is definitely worth it!

Finally, the main attraction for the first day was Badwater Basin. This is the lowest point in Death Valley, but also the lowest point in North America, -282 ft. Badwater Basin is surrounded by great Panamint Mountains, with the highest peak, Telescope Peak, 11043 ft. Being at -282 ft. and looking up at the Telescope peak, is like looking at Mt. Everest from the Base Camp. It's the same elevation difference!

Badwater Basin is the dry sea, that used to be there years ago, before the Panamint Mountains became elevated. When the mountains were formed, the sea was trapped and eventually evaporated. The only thing left was a huge field of salt. After heavy rains that happen once in a blue moon, the small lake appeared, but sooner or later it dried out anyway. You can hike the salt fields, as long and as far as you want. We decided to hike for 2h to see how far we can get. We got somewhere near the center of the basin. It was great! There was nobody there except us! Most people walk 10-15 minutes from the parking lot, take a picture, and drive to the next stop. These kind of people will never experience how huge this area is, and how small humans are. We were in the middle of nowhere, and surrounded by so many people that actually couldn't see us, because we were so small!

To check out what is on the other side of Badwater Basin, we decided to drive on the West Side Road. This part of Death Valley is less visited, so instead of many people, we saw some Coyotes. The West Side Road is off-road, and you can take it as an alternative road to get back from Badwater Basin. From that road, you can drive even further to many smaller canyons. Unfortunately we have to explore those canyons next time.

The next day, we decided to hike up Telescope Peak 11,043 ft. It's a full-day hike. It's a 14 mile round trip, and a 3000 ft. of elevation gain. The parking and trailhead is near the Mahogany Flat Campground (8133 ft). When it's the best time to visit Death Valley, it might not necessarily be the best time to hike up Telescope Peak. The best time to hike is around April – May and September – October, but this is the time when in the Valley temperatures are crazy high. The road from the bottom of Death Valley is paved and quite good. Only the last few miles were challenging (both directions). It was steep with some snow and ice. The trailhead is above 8000 feet, so snow shouldn't be a surprise.

The beginning of the trail had few patches of snow, but around 9000 ft. there was more snow. It was still OK to go without any spikes or crampons, but if you hike in December-March we definitely recommend to have some in your backpack. The trail is not technical, and the views are amazing. The only challenge is the high elevation, and for us the wind. When we hiked the wind was very strong. So the already very low temperature felt even lower. The windchill was definitely below 0°F. At the elevation of around 10,800 ft. the wind was so strong, that it was hard to walk, breath, and I felt frostbite on my nose and cheeks. We decided to turn back even though we were so close to the summit. It would still take 45 minutes to go up and down in this wind. I don't believe that my nose would survive it. When you are hiking in a harsh environment, you must know your limit. You can't rely on others. There was nobody but us. There wasn't any cell phone service, or rescue. If anything happened to any of us, by the time your partner arrived with some help, you would freeze to death. Remember, you can always come back and hike again, the peak will be there.

After 8hrs of hiking we got back safely to our car, and then hotel. We were ready for our 3rd day in this amazing park.

Day three was all about moving rocks. The Racetrack, is a dry sand field, where you can see the tracks of moving rocks. Why are they moving? It's still a mystery, but the most recent theory is that when the field (playa) gets wet, it's so slippery, that wind can move rocks even up to 100 pounds! As far as I know, nobody was able to record it, but there is definitely enough tracks to prove it, and takes photos of it.

To get to the Racetrack, you have to drive about 1h off road from Ubehebe Crater, another amazing place. Make sure you hike down to the center of the crater, so you can see how huge it is from the bottom.

Off-road that goes to the Racetrack always surprises you with some attractions. There is a huge field (almost like a forest) of cactuses. They appear from out of nowhere, and totally unexpected! In total, I saw there were six types of cactuses, but only one grew so high.

And last, but definitely not the least point to mark on your list should be the Teakettle junction. People leave different teakettles there, so make sure to have one with you. The legend says that years ago, it was a sign that water is close...now it's just for fun and luck.

You can spend hours on the Racetrack, so you probably don't want to rush. Especially because you need more than an hour to get there. The Racetrack is an amazing place for photographers. First of all, the whole playa is a huge piece of dry land with some stuff (rocks, tree branches etc.) thrown randomly. If you are lucky you can even find some animals' skulls there. The tracks and stones give you the opportunity to snap some pretty cool pictures. So if you like taking pictures definitely plan to spend more than an hour there. Don't think that there is nothing to do in the Death Valley after dusk. It's even better, that you can admire such a great sky seeing the stars and Milky Way. Death Valley has a certificate of a dark sky, so it makes a perfect place to see stars and the Milky Way. Make sure you stop for few minutes, or hours at night, just to appreciate the sky. Step outside of your car, dim all the lights, wait 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, and you will see the sky like you never saw before. If you have a tripod and a good camera, start shooting!

Day four was the last day of our trip. We still had almost a full day, so of course we spent it in this beautiful park. First, we drove to Beatty town to take the road to Titus Canyon. You can drove through this canyon – so amazing, right!? Make sure that you have a 4x4 and a really high clearance car, a Jeep or Pick-up is the best option. Titus Canyon is quite narrow, so there is a one way road through it. The only entry is from Beatty town. Before off-road you can visit Ryolite, the ghost town with an interesting history. During the Gold Rush, around 5 thousand people used to live there. In the town, they had everything: a casino, saloons, a school etc. After few years, the Gold Rush was over. In 1920, there were only 14 people left and in 1924 the last person died. Closer to the canyon there is one more ghost town, Leadfield, but a lot smaller. Both towns got abounded when the gold was gone.

To get to the Titus Canyon you have to drive through the Red Pass. It has amazing views, and a scary road. After 20 minutes or so, we finally were entering the narrow part of the Titus Canyon. It was such an amazing experience, because for the first time we were actually driving through such a narrow canyon. In the Canyon, you can stop at many places to get out of the car to take a picture or hike and explore more.

In Death Valley, there are many canyons. The next that we chose was a walk-in one, called Mosaic Canyon. It's quite narrow with amazing rocks that resemble mosaic. It's quite popular because it's easily accessible, but still worth seeing it. You can hike there for as long as you want. The further you go, the more challenging it is!

Mesquite Flat, the Sand Dunes are near the Mosaic Canyon. In Death Valley, dunes are in a few places and the biggest ones are Eureka Dunes. They are not as easily accessible as Mesquite Flat. Not only they are bigger, but there is also less people. If you have time and a full tank of gas, definitely go to Eureka Dunes. We didn't have a chance to go there, and that's another reason why we want to go back to Death Valley.

The last but not the least point on our map was Dante's Point. Even though two days ago we were on Telescope peak, and saw an amazing view of the Valley, on Dante's Point we still thought WOW! It's a different view, and perspective. You can see the whole Badwater Basin from 5476 ft high.

It was an amazing trip and you can definitely spend days and weeks in Death Valley exploring the new areas! So, just go there and get lost....and get found! Now, I understand why some people are going back to Death Valley almost every year. In this park, you will always find something new, exciting, and beautiful.