Itinerary:
Day 1 -…read moreVisitor Center, Zabriskie Point, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Ubehebe Crater
Day 2 - Badwater Basin, Devil's Golf Course, Artists Drive, The Ranch, Dantes View
Day 3 - Mesquite Sand Dunes, Mosaic Canyon
Day 4 - Salt Creek
We found out real quick that we need to pay attention to elevation levels in the park. Lower elevations in the early morning and late evening and higher elevations in the afternoon to handle to heat. I also recommend hats and sunbrellas.
After running our plan by a ranger, then headed to Zabriskie Point. Short hike up to an amazing viewpoint. The variety in the landscape is stunning.
After, we drove through the unpaved 20 Mule Team Canyon and saw a lot of rock formations there too. I have a hatchback and made it through nicely.
Ubehebe Crater was a bit of a drive, but the crater was also over 10F cooler and super windy. Also huge and awesome to see. We hiked a bit to the Little Hebe Crater, and hiked into the crater itself. So cool! There were some wildflowers around the area that were really pretty.
We went to Badwater Basin early in the morning and saw the salt up close - looks very different than seeing it from the higher viewpoints. Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America at 282ft below sea level. The white salt was vast and stretched as far as some adjacent mountain ranges. There's a small natural pool that had snails!
Artists Drive was really colorful - so many hues of red, blue, gray, brown, white... it was really beautiful. Definitely one of the most picturesque views I saw in the park.
There are restaurants, stores, and gas stations in the park. We had lunch at Wild Rose Tavern at The Ranch, then enjoyed some ice cream at the parlor.
We enjoyed the cooler temperatures at Dantes View, which was stunning. There's such a great panoramic view from up there, and seeing Badwater Basin both up close and from so high up in the same day was surreal. There were a lot of bugs though, but also a lot of wildflowers! Not as many as a few weeks prior, but still very pretty to see in the desert.
The Mesquite Sand Dunes I would definitely recommend visiting in the early morning. There's barely any shade, and it can get hot. What a unique part of the park!
Same with Salt Creek, though it's much shorter and more manageable. We so many pupfish! At times, it looked like they were jumping out of the water.
I want to come back to do some stargazing and astrophotography another time!