Unknown Dunes of California, Death Valley “High Route”

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.

Man by Dunes, 2006

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 have an SUV or truck with tires with the extra plies and rubber to be rated “AT,” All Terrain, you can take the road up from Scotty’s Castle, but do carry a tire repair kit, Fix-a Flat, and I carry a tire inflation pump that attaches to my car battery as well. The air pumps that run off your car accessory plug can blow the fuse, or they can overheat and fail trying to inflate an SUV tire, or multiple passenger car tires. I’ve been through all of that. I often need all of the resources I have to self-rescue, or to help rescue someone else that I come across with a flat tire.

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 after years of enjoying having the backcountry roads, passes and high valleys to myself in April, this year (2018) as I update this post, I’ll be leading a caravan of high clearance vehicles. on the “High Route” from Panamint Springs to Darwin to South Pass, over Hunter Mountain, through Hidden Valley through the mini slot canyon of Lost Burro Gap to The Racetrack, then on past Ubehebe Crater, over the Last Chance Range to Eureka Dunes, exiting past Big Pine. We’ll pass through 3-4 Joshua tree forests, a number of ecosystems, enjoy uncommonly beheld vistas, and not have to sweat the spring heat doing it.

One of the goals is to do some Milky Way photography over The Racetrack, sand dunes and Joshua trees.  But there are many abandoned mines along the way, see numerous species of cacti, and even in a non-super bloom year a wide variety of wildflowers can be blooming in places up at that altitude, where snow deposits moisture into the soil late enough into the growing season that plants can thrive year after year, less dependent upon specific timing of the regions scarce rain.

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.

I’ve driven this route and itinerary before and really enjoyed it.  It’ll be interesting to see whether others appreciate its unique beauty and photographic opportunities as much as I do!

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Jeff Sullivan

Jeff Sullivan leads landscape photography workshops in national parks and public lands throughout California and the American West.

View Comments

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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