My sister, Lynda, and I recently spent 4 days in Death Valley, and WOW! Were we able to do a lot in those 4 days! This is the third part of that trip, showing what we did, some information about each place, and of course, lots of photos.
One of the great places in the park for sunrise or sunset is Zabriskie Point. It’s right next to the parking lot, so access is really easy, with a short climb up to the lookout area. It's a popular spot, but still worth the visit since the view is why you’re there. You can get away from the viewing platform for different angles and perspectives if you want.
The point overlooks the “Badlands” and "Golden Canyon" which would be part of our hike the next day, so we were getting a preview of what to expect. Unfortunately, the evening we were there the sunset was a bit of a dud as far as color in the sky went. It pretty much stayed blue until it was dark. However, the warmth of the low sun on the rocks and the shadows in the canyons, still made for beautiful photos.
The next day we had a long (long for us) 7 mile hike planned. This would be our last activity in Death Valley, but I think we saved the best for last. Our route consisted of a loop that started on Gower Gulch Trail, then joined up with the Badlands Loop Trail, then back down the Golden Canyon Trail, with a side trip to Red Cathedral. We did not hike up to Zabriskie Point, but you can park a car there if you want to just do a one way trip. If you look at the map, you can see that you can make your hike as long or as hard as you’re comfortable with.
We wanted to finish our hike around sunset so we set out a little later than usual. We know stop a lot for photos and just general oohing and aahing, so we accounted for that. It wouldn’t take most people as long as it took us to do this hike, but I do recommend taking the time to stop occasionally and really soak in the beautiful views.
We started out on Gower Gulch Trail so we could end the hike going back down through Golden Canyon near sunset. We hiked along the outside of the hills a while, until we reached the gulch itself. You can really imagine the violence of the water that tore through there to create such a large wash. Here again we were seeing the colorful greens and purples that show up in this part of Death Valley.
At the junction where we joined up with the Badlands Loop, we could see the overlook of Zabriskie Point above us. We were walking through the area that we had been looking down into just the night before.
As much as I liked Gower Gulch Trail, I liked the other loops even better. The next section was the Badlands Loop Trail, and it really lived up to its name. There is virtually no vegetation here and the landscape is really dramatic. We began the loop down at the gulch, but soon we were hiking upward to incredible vistas. Honestly, at one point I had to almost force myself to stop taking pictures or we were never going to get out of there! Even choosing just a few photos to use here was so hard.
After Badlands, we hit the Golden Canyon Loop. We decided to take the 1.1 mile side trail up to Red Cathedral, and were glad we did. The sun was getting low in the sky and the golden hour for photography was hitting at just the right time. We hiked right up to the red cliffs, giving us another beautiful view of the area. Then back down through Golden Canyon and out just after the sun set behind the mountains. Perfectly timed!
The next morning we hit the road early as a wind advisory was in the weather forecast. We ended up having to drive through that wind anyway, and it was CRAZY! To read about that and our visit to Joshua Tree National Park, look out for my next post!
To read about and see photos of the other sites we visited inside Death Valley National Park, follow these links:
Furnace Creek
Texas Springs Campground
Harmony Borax Works
Salt Creek Interpretive Trail
Jeep Tour
Artist's Drive and Artist's Palette
Dante's Peak
20 Mule Team Drive
Furnace Creek Campground
Mosaic Canyon
Mesquite Dunes
Badwater Basin
Devil's Golf Course
Furnace Creek Golf Course
Devil's Hole (a part of Death Valley NP)
Comments