A Winter Getaway to Death Valley National Park (in a Tesla)

Ever been interested in vast stretches of nothingness all around? Want to feel like you are in the middle of nowhere by yourself but not really alone and instead surrounded by incredible wilderness?

Death Valley – the hottest, driest and lowest National Park is truly a place to be for those who want to disconnect from their busy lives and soak in all that nature has to offer. The Timbisha Shoshone tribe has thrived and taken care of their land for over a millennium and for them this place is anything but a valley of death. The name Death Valley is said to have been coined by a group of pioneers who got lost here in the winter of 1849-1850.

Best Time to Visit Death Valley

• October – April – Camping season begins in October and the park can get very crowded during holidays. Winters and Spring are some of the pleasant times to visit Death Valley and the spring wildflowers are a big attraction.
• May – September – Death Valley can get extremely hot during this time and these are not the best months for hiking.

We visited in January during Martin Luther King weekend and the crowd was not too bad and the temperatures were pleasant for hiking and exploring the park.

Accommodation in Death Valley

If you want to stay right inside the park, closest to all the attractions and hiking trails, there are only a few options. The food isn’t great for vegetarians/ vegans so we carried a lot of snacks and ready to eat items. There is a general store inside Ranch at Death Valley which has everything that you need but the prices were hiked up too much.

Right inside the National Park

• The Inn at Death Valley
• The Ranch at Death Valley

Thirty minutes away from Furnace creek area

• Stovepipe Wells Village

One hour away from Furnace creek area

• Panamint Springs Resort

Campgrounds

Furnace Creek and Texas Springs campgrounds are the most popular ones. Reservations are open for Furnace Creek Campground between October 15th – April 15th. All campgrounds are on a first-come, first-served basis at all other times. You can find more details on camping at Death Valley here.

EV charging in Furnace Creek

At the time of publishing this article, there are

• Two slow EV chargers in The Inn at Death Valley
• Four slow EV chargers in The Ranch at Death Valley

Places to visit/ hike in Death Valley

• Mosaic Canyon
• Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
• Harmony Borax Works
• Golden Canyon
• Zabriskie Point
• Artists Palette
• Natural Bridge
• Badwater Basin

The above listed places can be explored in 2 to 3 days. 3 days is a reasonable time to spend in the park without exhausting yourself especially if you want to get in a few good hikes.

3 day itinerary in Death Valley

We travelled to Death Valley from San Jose which takes around 9 hours not counting the charging stops for Tesla. So we decided to stay a night in Bakersfield before heading to Death Valley the next day. This was a mid way stop and there are some good hotels in the area to stay.

Day #1 Drive to Death Valley, Mosaic Canyon, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and Stargazing

We drove from Bakersfield to Furnace Creek while stopping at Inyokern Tesla Supercharger for a quick charge before heading to the park.

On the way to Furnace Creek, you can visit the Mosaic Canyon Trail which is about a 2 mile out and back hike. If you are comfortable bouldering, you can go further in this hike as it requires some level of scrambling. The narrow canyon slots offer a unique hike in the area.

You can also visit Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes on the way. If you hike to the East side of the dunes, you can find a lot of untouched dunes that are great for photography. We decided to visit this place during sunrise on the day that we returned home from Death Valley and we got a lot of area to ourselves to run around.

We reached our hotel around 3pm and the EV chargers (needs J1772 charging adapter) at Ranch at Death Valley were all available. So we put our car for charge and checked into our room. These are slow chargers so we decided to relax on day 1 instead of heading out. The place is decent, nothing too fancy but feels good to have a nice room in the middle of a desert.

If the evening gets clear skies, do head out to Harmony Borax Works for stargazing. There is a ranger guided stargazing event that starts around 7pm on certain days of the week which is also a great option.

Day #2 Golden Canyon Trail and Badwater Basin

There are several hiking trails in the Golden Canyon, Gower Gulch and Badlands loop area. We decided to do the 6.4 mile Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop via Zabriskie Point trail which was a gorgeous hike. The trail goes gradually uphill with some steep portions. Keep looking for small signs with arrow marks to guide you through the canyons. This can take up to three hours so bring enough water, snacks, sunscreen, hats etc.

Once you are done, head to the Badwater Basin Salt Flats. This is the lowest point in North America at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level stretching upto 200 square miles. Along with sodium chloride, there are also small amounts of calcite, gypsum, and borax. You will have to walk a mile at least from the parking area to get to the salt flats with big beautiful ridges on them.

Day #3 Zabriskie Point, Natural Bridge, Artists Palette and Stargazing

Leave early in the morning to Zabriskie Point to watch the sunrise. It wasn’t as dramatic as many blog posts had mentioned but nevertheless the sun hitting the tops of golden canyon hills looked beautiful. The view from this point is amazing regardless of the sun since even when there is shade, it brings out the depth of color variations on these hills. Make sure to be there early for sunrise as the place can quickly fill up with people.

We were back at the hotel to freshen up and got lucky with getting to charge our car again. It looks like many people were out to see the sunrise just like us.

Our legs were sore from the hike the day before so we decided to keep things light for day 3. Natural Bridge Trail is a short 1 mile walk through large canyons to a bridge shaped rock formation. The road to the parking lot is rough, so drive carefully. We didn’t have any issues with our Sedan since we drove slowly.

Next head to Artists Palette from here. This was one of my favorite places in Death Valley because there are a lot of colored hills to walk and run on and it’s joyful seeing all the kids who are visiting have so much fun. The area is big so it wasn’t too crowded when we went.

This was our last day in Death Valley before heading out the next day so we did some stargazing again. Death Valley is one of the best places for Stargazing!

There are of course an endless list of other places to visit in Death Valley and hikes for adventure seekers but the above itinerary made for a fulfilling trip and covers some of the best and unique places in Death Valley.

We were able to manage perfectly with a Tesla but I do think the number of visitors coming to the park in a Tesla has gone up a lot and we saw a lot of people waiting for a long time to charge their cars since these were not super chargers. We got lucky in terms of being strategic with our timings. I am really hoping that Tesla installs super chargers, preferably solar powered, in the area because it would make for a climate friendly visit to this national park that gets a lot of sun!

Hope you get to plan your travel soon and have loads of fun! Please share your experience if you took this trip or have any thoughts or questions!