Death Valley Day Trip: The Best Six Stops in One Day
Two hours from Las Vegas to Furnace Creek, and once you are there the six best stops on a first visit are all within 40 miles. Zabriskie Point wants sunrise. Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level is the lowest ground in North America. Artists Drive is a nine mile one way loop through mineral coloured hills. The Mesquite Flat dunes are best in low light. Golden Canyon is the one short hike worth doing. Dantes View, at 5,475 feet, shows you the whole valley at once. Come between November and March. Our Death Valley winter hiking itinerary covers a longer stay.
Getting there
- Las Vegas: 120 miles, 2 hours to Furnace Creek via Pahrump and Death Valley Junction. The obvious day trip.
- Beatty, Nevada: 45 minutes, and the cheapest place to sleep if you want a dawn start.
- Lone Pine, California: 2 hours 15 minutes over Towne Pass, and the way in if you are coming from the Eastern Sierra.
- Los Angeles: 4 hours 30 minutes. Too far for a day. Give it two nights.
- Ridgecrest: 2 hours, a workable base from the southwest.
Fill the tank before you enter. Fuel exists at Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells and costs a great deal more than it does in Pahrump.
The one day route
- Sunrise, Zabriskie Point. Five minutes off the highway and the best 20 minutes of the day. Golden badlands with Manly Beacon in front and the Panamints behind.
- Golden Canyon, from the trailhead below Zabriskie. Two miles round trip to the Red Cathedral, or a 4.3 mile loop up to Zabriskie and back through Gower Gulch. Do this early, not at noon.
- Badwater Basin, 17 miles south of Furnace Creek. A boardwalk onto the salt flat, and the sea level sign is painted on the cliff 282 feet above the car park.
- Artists Drive, on the way back north. Nine miles, one way, paved, no vehicles over 25 feet. Stop at Artists Palette.
- Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, 24 miles north at Stovepipe Wells. Walk 15 minutes in and the footprints stop. Best in late afternoon when the ridges throw shadows.
- Dantes View for sunset, 24 miles from Furnace Creek and 5,475 feet up, looking straight down onto Badwater. It is 20 degrees cooler up there and it is the best goodbye the park has.
That is about 110 miles of driving inside the park and a genuinely full day. Save Ubehebe Crater, Racetrack Playa and Titus Canyon for a second visit, because the Racetrack needs a high clearance vehicle and two spare tyres.
Heat, and why the calendar is not optional
Death Valley holds the highest air temperature ever reliably recorded on earth, 134F at Furnace Creek in 1913, and it clears 120F most summers. The park closes no roads for heat, which fools people into thinking a July visit is ordinary. It is not. Every summer, visitors need rescuing from short trails here.
- November to March: highs in the 60s and 70s. This is the season.
- April and October: 90s. Hike early, drive later.
- May to September: 100F to 120F. The Park Service advises against hiking below sea level after 10am, and that is the right advice. Stay on the paved viewpoints, keep the car cool, and carry four litres of water per person even if you plan to walk nowhere.
Two more heat rules that matter. Tyres fail on hot pavement, so check pressures before you go. And phone signal is absent across most of the park, so tell someone your route. More in the best time to visit Death Valley.
If you get a wet winter
Two things happen after a rare rainy season. Badwater Basin can flood into a shallow lake that reflects the Black Mountains, which is worth changing plans for, and the wildflower bloom on the alluvial fans near Jubilee Pass can be exceptional. Both are unpredictable, and both are covered in our Death Valley spring hikes guide. Flash floods also close roads with no warning in late summer, so check the park alerts page the morning you drive.
Pairing it with Las Vegas
Death Valley is the strongest of the five parks near Las Vegas for a single day, precisely because the driving is two hours rather than four and a half. If you have three or four days, pair it with Zion and Bryce or with Joshua Tree. Our Las Vegas national parks road trip compares all five.
Have us plan the day
Give us your date and where you are staying and we will order the stops around the light and the heat. Planning is free, and we earn only if you book through us.
Death Valley National Park Day Trip: The Best Six Stops FAQs
Yes, and it is the most practical national park day trip in the Southwest. Zabriskie Point, Golden Canyon, Badwater Basin, Artists Drive, the Mesquite Flat dunes and Dantes View all sit within 40 miles of Furnace Creek.
About 120 miles and two hours to Furnace Creek, via Pahrump and Death Valley Junction. That is half the driving that Zion or the Grand Canyon require from Las Vegas.
November through March, when highs sit in the 60s and 70s. April and October are manageable if you hike early. May to September regularly exceeds 110F and the Park Service advises against hiking below sea level after 10am.
Zabriskie Point at sunrise and Dantes View at sunset. They bracket the day and show the valley from opposite ends of the scale, one from the edge of the badlands and one from 5,475 feet above the salt flat.
Four litres per person for a summer day even without hiking, and two litres in winter. Fill up at Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells, because there is no water anywhere along the park roads between them.
Not for the main stops, which are all paved. Racetrack Playa, Titus Canyon and the Eureka Dunes need high clearance, and the Racetrack road is notorious for shredding tyres, so carry two spares if you go.
