Death Valley National Park has a reputation for being the hottest place on earth. Many of the most popular sights to see are close to sea level, so those are best visited in the cooler months, December through March. By April it can start to get uncomfortably hot at the lowest elevations, but up in the 2000 – 6000 foot elevations, wildflowers can be starting to bloom, and spring is downright comfortable. So for many years I’ve been taking scouting the coolest sites at higher elevations, so I can strong them together in a higher elevation Spring Death Valley tour.
Most California residents have no idea that they have 700 foot tall dunes available to them in the state. Even when you’re standing there looking at them, it’s really hard to get a sense of scale an realize just how massive they are, until a person walks up on them or a vehicle gets between you and the dunes.
Eureka Dunes are in Death Valley National Park, but for most park visitors, and the vehicles they drive, I don’t recommend driving to them from a visit to the center of the park. I spoke to a ranger who was patrolling the road up from the Scotty’s Castle area, and he had seen 5 flat tires on the road that day. I’ve received three flat tires on that road, including two at once. I’ve warned some friends about that last month, and they drove it anyway… and got two flat tires. It’s better to approach from the town of Big Pine. Obviously, bring plenty of food and water in case your vehicle doesn’t survive the minimum 20 miles of gravel road required to reach the site!
If you’re super self sufficient with a particularly durable off-road vehicle, or if you travel in a group for better access to assistance if you have tire or mechanical issues, the route from the Darwin area over South Pass and Hunter Mountain, through Hidden Valley to Teakettle Junction and the Racetrack. It’s not a fast route, but a lot of it is at 5000-6000 feet in elevation, great for cooler travel once the snow and mud clears in April.
So it’s an interesting contrast to the lower elevations of the park that most visitors see. Having the trip be camping-based provides some flexibility if we need it on where we might choose to shoot sunset, Milky Way and sunrise, based on the weather forecast. We can even pop down to lower elevation if desired, if the weather is cool enough.
Google+: Reshared 111 times
This was one of those "stop the car" moments. Snowy Telescope Peak had nice side…
The Geminids are the most active meteor shower of the year, and in recent years…
I was asked this question earlier today, and the more I thought of it, the…
So called "super bloom" years make it easy to find wildflowers in Death Valley, but…
We've reached a major milestone on our workshop program: we celebrated completing ten years of…
Spring 2022 is shaping up to be a very busy year in Death Valley, like…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
You can see how massive the desert is using Google Earth. Quite a sight.
What a nice surprise.
The vehicle really puts the size of the dunes in perspective. Thanks Jeff. Great picture.
We used to tear up Glamis (east of San Diego) on dunes like this in dune buggies, before environmental wisdom set in. Amazing how a sunset ignites color on sand down there. Been through Big Pine didn't know this was out there.
Wow...I didn't know! Thanks for the info.
+Jeff Sullivan Good advice. Your description reminds me of the south road for Racetrack Playa. I'm lucky I didn't blew a tire or two on that road...
Perfect light angle to accent all those beautiful forms.
I made the tire flattening trek out to the racetrack w/o incident...I guess this is the next challenge ;-)
Don't worry, Glamis (Imperial) sand dunes is still covered with hundreds, if not thousands, of motorized vehicles on a typical weekend in the cooler months +Lillian Rose Stewart. Of the 1000 square miles in the sand dune complex, it appears that roughly 5X more if it is open to motor vehicle use than is closed for wilderness:
Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area
http://www.duneguide.com/sand_dune_guide_isdra.htm
"The Imperial Sand Dunes are the largest sand dunes open to off-highway vehicle use in the United States. The dunes begin 10 miles southeast of Niland and stretch all the way into Mexico, over 40 miles away. The Dunes vary in width from about a quarter mile at the top end of the Mammoth Wash area, to about 5 miles in width below Highway 78. The Algodones Sand Dune system covers 1,000 square miles, making it one of the largest dune complexes in North America. There is over 150,000 acres designated as open or having limited use and about 32,000 acres are designated Wilderness (North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area) and closed to OHVs (mostly north of Hwy. 78)."
In the Death Valley area, Dumont Dunes provides a massive dune complex for motor vehicles, and Little Dumont Dunes and Big Dune are also open.
Gorgeous image, Jeff... Love the shadow play and tonal contrast in this...
Beautiful shot +Jeff Sullivan Glamis can have over a hundred thousand people on a big weekend. Plenty of sand for those that want to play with off-road toys and those that want to go into the protected areas. California has a lot of sand dunes.