One of my low-key goals is to see a sunrise and a sunset in each of the parks. I say “low-key” because while I’d really like to do it I’m also not going to kill myself trying or consider the trip a failure if we sleep through the alarm. So it’s a goal but not a deal-breaker.

That said, after a fabulous but very long day previous, I was unwilling to haul us out of bed before sunrise to go track down a viewing spot. Rumor has it that there are lots of great places to see the sunrise in Death Valley, including Zabriskie Point which was on our list of places to see anyway – but we settled for the view from our balcony at The Ranch. It was still pretty impressive.

After that, it was an easy breakfast at the restaurant (buffet-style, on site) and we headed out to the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center to get the lay of the land.

I think it’s a pretty fun fact that for every 1000′ of elevation the temperature changes 5°F. So yesterday, when it was 70° at Dante’s View it was 95° down below in Badwater Basin.

After the Visitor’s Center, we headed out to see Ubehebe Crater. Ubehebe had originally been on our “maybe” list, as it’s more than an hour’s drive and we were on a time budget, but it sounded like a unique experience that would be a level above the sort of “Default Sights to See” but not as strenuous as getting to the Racetrack. We also wanted to get our hiking done early in the day before the real heat set in, and it was a good thing we did because *wow* does it get hot fast out there.

I took a lot of pictures of the drive, but they are all variations on a theme that look a LOT like this. There is a lot of nothing out there. I mean a lot of it. If you go, definitely make sure you have music downloaded to your device because there’s a lot of drive and zero cell signal.

We arrived at the crater around 10am, and it was about 80°F at that time. We planned to hike around the perimeter of the crater, which doesn’t *look* like it would be a huge distance, since you can see the whole thing from one spot, and in reality it was just under two miles. We had all of the requisite gear including water and hiking poles and good shoes and hats and sunscreen, so off we went.

If you zoom in on the pics, in the first pic of the path you can actually see the tiny people at the top of the first hill and that really should have been my first clue. Also the path was gravelly, so a little bit like hiking up thick sand. Fortunately the first hill was the biggest incline, and after that it was mostly mild, but we did stop to rest a bit halfway up and again at the top. Here’s a pic of the route from AllTrails (which if you read Shenandoah you know is my absolute hiking obsession).

One thing I’ll say about this hike is that it made it abundantly clear how easy it would be to die in Death Valley from exposure. We were well prepared, and it wasn’t a particularly strenuous or long or challenging hike, but the temperature did rise to about 95° in the hour+ we were out there. There’s zero shade and it’s very easy to overexert yourself, and we were there in barely late March. I can’t imagine it in July or August.

The views around the rest of the crater were fabulous. We kept coming across these little lizards (Google told us later that they are Zebra-tailed Lizards) that look like nothing until you get close enough that they run away. They’re very hard to spot when they are still because they blend in and lie flat. When they run, it’s surprising how long their legs are any how fast they can be! We watched one literally run/leap right off the edge of the crater and it was airborne for a bit before it landed safely 10′ down the hill and scurried off.

It was a great hike and we were extremely happy to get back to the car and turn on the A/C. I went through both of my water bottles on the hike and we were glad there was more in the car. The 1 gallon per person guideline is no joke.

After that we were glad to have an hour+ in the air conditioned car as we doubled back the way we came, headed for Stovepipe Wells and the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Stovepipe was a must because we were in need of lunch, and the Dunes were only on our maybe list (because we were tight on time) but since they were right there it seemed silly to drive by without at least taking a picture.

I can’t stress enough how hot it was on the Dunes. It was like standing in an oven (or I imagine so anyway) because it was probably around 100°F in the air, but the sun absolutely bakes the sand so you can feel additional heat literally radiating up at you from the ground. We were there after lunch in the hottest part of the day (2pm) and I estimate we spent a total of about 5 minutes out of the car – we took our pics and bolted for the A/C.

After that we headed back through Furnace Creek, past the visitor’s center, and out to Badwater Basin. It’s about a 45-minute drive from the Dunes to the Basin, and you pass several other landmarks on the way including Golden Canyon, Desolation Canyon, Artist’s Palette, and the The Devil’s Golf Course. We noted them and didn’t stop, knowing we could pick and choose after we saw Badwater depending on how tired we were and how much time we still had.

Badwater Basin is pretty impressive. I think the most amazing thing is that there is actually water in it. Not much, and I can’t imagine how salty it is, but I’m flabbergasted that it doesn’t just evaporate instantly. It’s so dry you can almost feel the water being sucked out of your body into the atmosphere.

It was 3pm, still the hottest part of the day, so we kept our visit short and sweet. You can walk very far out into the salt flats – there are no limits or restricted areas – but after a little bit it becomes obvious that it’s going to be largely the same further out as is near the parking lot. Looking back above the parking lot it was cool to know that we were looking back up at the spot we’d looked down from last night. I’m dorky like that (again with the maps in my head). If you zoom in on the last picture you can see where they have Sea Level marked partway up the cliff.

At this point we were pretty well exhausted. We skipped the Devil’s Golf Course, and we knew we didn’t have another hike in us without sleeping first. Fortunately Artist’s Drive (or Artist’s Palette Drive depending on which source you use) is a picturesque 8-9 mile drive down a one-way paved road which takes you right by the hills that look like they might have been painted. There are lots of places you can get out and look around or even hike if you care to, and we would have if we hadn’t already been toast. We did stop at the biggest parking lot nearest the hills themselves, but we didn’t venture out on a hike.

We finished with Artist’s Drive around 4:30pm, and we knew we had another 2 hour drive to get back to Las Vegas, so we opted out of further exploration and headed out. It was a very full day and I feel quite satisfied with the experience. There are things I’d still like to do, and things I’d do differently if given the chance again, but all in all it was a great visit.

On our way out, we drove by Zabriskie Point and 20 Mule Team Canyon. Zabriskie had been on our “must” list and we literally drove right past it because we were too tired to turn the car off for a 1-mile side trip and take another picture. We were TIRED. We did make a point of stopping at the Death Valley sign on the way out, since we noted it but didn’t stop on the way in.

I’m still impressed by how much the terrain and the character of the desert changes as you move through it. We had a very full day, including about 4 hours of driving covering about 200 miles.

We sunrised, we visitor centered, we drove, we viewed, we hiked, we ate, we baked in the sun, we appreciated nature, and we met a little lizard friend we’d be taking home with us in a different way later. I’m very, very satisfied and my heart is full of gratitude.