With temperatures topping 57°C, is it wise to drive solo into Death Valley?
The name alone conjures images of the Grim Reaper just waiting for me to expire.
So why do thousands of tourists venture to this tourist hotspot? Because, despite it being the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley is one of the coolest destinations to explore.
It’s a place of extremes for North America – the hottest air temperatures, the lowest annual rainfall (just 55mm), and the lowest place, with Badwater Basin sitting 86m below sea level.
My introduction to Death Valley is at Dante’s View on a ‘mild’ spring day by local standards – just 42°C. But the blistering sun makes it feel like my skin is peeling off my bones.
I’m standing on the spine of the Black Mountains.
The landscape is immense – vast, desolate and dramatic. It takes your breath away. Though that could also be the heat.
A path stretches along the spine. Reach one high point and you can see the next irresistible lookout, so the scramble continues.
Telescope Peak is easily visible in the distance. In this heat it’s hard to believe it’s capped in snow – another extreme, as are surprising bursts of colourful desert wildflowers which have learnt to lay dormant during droughts and sprout with just enough rain.The valley has been pushed and pulled apart by tectonic plate movement and volcanic activity for thousands of years.
Badwater Basin saltpans.
Water once filled Badwater Basin below. Now it’s parched.
Glistening white salt pans stretch for as far as I can see in both directions. You can also drive down the mountain to see the Basin up close.
For the keen or foolhardy – depending on how much you want to feel like a crisp potato roasting in an air-fryer – there are also hiking trails.
Strangely beautiful folds of tan and black volcanic rock make up the Badlands at Zabriskie Point.
The colours come from lava and ash flung into ancient lakes long ago. Eruptions also brought hot water rich in minerals like calcite, borax and gypsum.
Fast forward thousands of years, the lakes dried up and the desert became a thriving borax mine.
Glistening white salt pans stretch for as far as I can see in both directions. You can also drive down the mountain to see the Basin up close.
For the keen or foolhardy – depending on how much you want to feel like a crisp potato roasting in an air-fryer – there are also hiking trails.
Strangely beautiful folds of tan and black volcanic rock make up the Badlands at Zabriskie Point.
The colours come from lava and ash flung into ancient lakes long ago. Eruptions also brought hot water rich in minerals like calcite, borax and gypsum.
Fast forward thousands of years, the lakes dried up and the desert became a thriving borax mine.
The focus then moved to tourism and in 1994, Death Valley became a national park.
Other parts of the desert, like Artists Palette, are painted in psychedelic swirls of red, orange, yellow, blue, pink and green from volcanic deposits rich in iron oxides and chlorite.
The Goldfield International Car Forest. Photo Carolyne Jasinski.
Silver lining
The drive north from Death Valley reveals more extremes – those of boom and bust – with tiny towns like Beatty, hanging on from gold and silver mining days.
Rhyolite, once home to 5,000 fortune seekers, wasn’t so lucky. It was abandoned more than 100 years ago, but its buildings still offer a glimpse of the boomtown era.
Right next door is Goldwell Open Air Museum, where you can wander among spooky life-sized sculptures of the Last Supper and the recycler’s dream – the Tom Kelly Bottle House.
There are no prizes for guessing how Goldfield got its name. By 1907 it was the richest city in Nevada boasting 20,000 residents. Today it has 250 locals, historic buildings and more oddball art like the vertical vehicles buried around the International Car Forest.
Tonapah is a beautifully preserved silver mining town. Its proud history is on show at the Tonopah Historic Mining Park located on the site of the original strike that launched the 1900 silver rush.
From wild to wacky
State Route 375 leads back towards Las Vegas from Warm Springs.
This is the Extraterrestrial Highway and things start to get extremely wacky.
I’m channelling movies like ET and Paul in my quest to find friendly aliens.
There are lots of mesas and peaks, canyons and valleys along this stretch of road – perfect places to hide a spaceship. But no aliens appear. Yet. There’s just a creepy feeling that someone’s watching me.
Rachel is the closest settlement to America’s notorious Area 51. We all know that’s where they keep the aliens, right?
An Extraterrestrial Highway road sign near Rachel.
Rachel is also home to the Little A-le-Inn, a much-hyped diner with a UFO out front and a wall of alien paraphernalia inside.
Sadly, that’s where the interest in anything other worldly ends; no one here gives two hoots about space odysseys.
I do discover that the Area 51 turn-off is the second dirt road on the right
when you leave Rachel. Supposedly.But I’m also warned not to go there.
“It’s just a military base and there are lots of trucks going in and out today,” I’m told.
Hmmmm. Now I really want to go there.
But back on the road, I can’t find the turn-off. And when I search for it on my GPS, it shuts down for 20km.
Spooky. Someone really is watching me.
I stop at the final ET Highway highlight – the Alien Research Centre in Hiko.
A giant alien guards every extraterrestrial souvenir imaginable. But the only research going on here is into the buying habits of UFO fans.
The Little A'Le'Inn welcome sign. Photo Carolyne Jasinski.
I’m not sold on the extraterrestrial angle for this road trip, but I would drive it again purely for the scenery.
For now, it’s time for this ET to go home.
Beam me up, Scotty
Getting there
Follow Highway 95 out of Las Vegas for this 856km drive. If you take a wrong exit (like I did), find your way back on to H95 and all will end well. It takes about 2.5 hours to get to Death Valley.
Stop first at the Visitor Centre, appropriately named Furnace Creek. It’s a stark reminder of the potential extremes.
Here you can pay the $30, seven-day entrance fee, speak with rangers, watch a documentary, tour the museum and check weather and road warnings.
Where to stay
- Motel 6 (motel6.com) at Beatty is a no-fuss motel right next to Death Valley Nut & Candy store. There’s also a large RV park.
- The Mizpah Hotel (www.themizpahhotel.com) at Tonapah still oozes Wild West charm.
- Try the Fontainebleau (www.fontainebleaulasvegas.com) in Las Vegas. You won’t need to go anywhere to soak up the glitz and glamour of this party town.