Unique geology, beautiful canyons and a desolate desert, Death Valley National Park has a ton of hiking opportunities.
Third times a charm. When life gives you a chance to visit Death Valley National Park, you have to take it and when you have a friend that lives there. You must take advantage of it. This was my third visit to Death Valley, and I decided to do a bit of hiking.
The first trail I accomplished was the Natural Bridge Trail. Honestly, it was harder to drive the road to the trail than to hike it. The trail is easy, short and ends at a lovely natural arch.
The trail goes through a beautiful canyon.
And ends at this lovely sandstone natural bridge.
Beautiful and somehow cloudy Badwater Basin, the lowest spot in North America at 282 ft (86m) below sea level.
The Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes off in the distance.
Back to hiking. Now off to Fall Canyon, located on Titus Canyon Road, a passable by sedan dirt road (only if you know how to drive on dirt roads though and only from the Death Valley side). The Fall Canyon Trail takes you up through the wash of Fall Canyon. It can be a bit tricky to hike in a few places because the stone bed of the canyon is made of loose pebbles. I gave up maybe halfway up, but it was an easy hike back.
The Titus Canyon Narrows, which can be driven from the Beatty, Nevada side of the mountains.
From the parking at Titus Canyon, it takes about a mile to get to the entrance of Fall Canyon.
Fall Canyon is a fairly wide canyon, with beautiful dark brown canyon walls.
Some plant life can be found here, fed by the little rainwater that collects in the canyon.
Canyon walls here are just being dramatic.
Fall Canyon goes on for a while. I can’t remember the exact length, but I gave up not long after this spot, right after the sun came out.
Next up is one of Death Valley’s most famous sights, Ubehebe Crater. I came up here on my first visit on my way to the Racetrack. Ubehebe is the result of a volcano that erupted between 2,000 and 7,000 years ago. This time, even though it was really cold and windy, I decided to hike all the way around it.
The only difficult portion of this hike was going up the rise on the right. It was like walking up a sand dune.
The backside of the crater. Yes, that is actually a trail that goes to the bottom and no, I didn’t attempt that one. I don’t have a death wish.
Next to Ubehebe Crater is Little Hebe Crater, a smaller and more adorable volcanic crater. I hiked around that one too. The landscape out there makes it feel like you are on the Moon or something.
Back to a little more worldly landscape, somewhat. The Devil’s Cornfield.
The final hike of my visit to Death Valley was in Mosaic Canyon, although I found it much more marbley. The trail starts out in a wide wash that eventually narrows down to a small canyon with slick marble-like sides. It widens out again and then comes to areas that requires some scrambling. I made it up the first scramble but got stuck at the second. (I was too short, and the rock was too slippery.)
Where the Mosaic Canyon Trail starts to get really cool.
This section was very slippery even with proper hiking shoes.
I ended up sliding down a bit on my butt on the way back.
A friend of mine recommend this trail. I’m so glad that she did.
Although this section of the trail was rather short, it sure was enjoyable.
I love that little plant just growing on that slippery marble.
The trail opens up for a while right after the marble area, which explains why water was able to carve the marble so smooth.
Before I left, I had one more viewpoint to stop at, Zabriskie Point.
Another cool landscape. Death Valley is full of so many unique and wonderful landscapes.
It’s like waves of golden sand.
I’ve been to Death Valley National Park three times now and it still amazes me. The park is full of such diverse landscapes and vegetation. Last time I visited I found a waterfall. This time I hiked canyons. So many different places to explore in this giant national park.
Check out my next update where I explore boomtown gone bust!
or
Check out my first visit to Death Valley National Park!
